If I install Orion XS 12/12-50A DC-DC Battery Charger will I get better charging from my tow vehicle to my RV lithium battery? Currently I’m only getting 7A due to resistance voltage drop.
The 7pin connector is specified for 10a, forget the xs.
The 7pin plugs rating varies depending on manufacturer, same with the wiring up to it on the vehicle side
The 12/12 chargers are the solution for charging a trailer battery more effectively, but the product line does have some gaps. I personally wouldn’t trust the smaller 12/12-18amp charger to run through a factory 7pin plug and wiring. I can foresee that causing some heat issues with the factory wiring if used for any length of time as it would be drawing over 20amps while in bulk mode
Unfortunately none of the chargers in the product line offer adjustable current limiting other than the most expensive one of them all, the 50a XS. That one will at least be able to be fine tuned to prevent any issues with the wiring, but isn’t economically feasible for the task in my eyes. But that’s completely up to you if you want to spend that much money and just use it as a 10-15a charger.
I personally would(and have) run a set of dedicated 6ga wires to power the charger. I would use a 2pin plug at the hitch to run the power back to the trailer such as this:
I use 12/12-30a chargers on the recommended 6ga wiring and although it does warm up the cables after bulking for an hour or so, I would feel safe running a little more current through them. Depending what you have for trailer batteries you may not want to slam them with a high current charge anyways
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@YkDave In Australia we sometimes use an Anderson Plug for high current transfer from tow vehicle to trailer.
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Nice!
We use them here too, just not what I would consider a “clean” installation for this type of use. If the vehicle is used in any kind of corrosive environment (salt from ocean or road salt/calcium chloride) it would be wise to use a sealed connector
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Don’t bother trying to charge from the tow vehicle with the 7pin. It was meant to keep the small lead-acid battery traditionally included on towables charged up enough for the break away system to work. At 12v, the voltage drop is so high that you need to use large cross section cables and Anderson connectors to make it work, and then it just looks janky in the end.
We’ve started putting inverters in tow vehicles to send 120V (or 230V for the rest of the world) to a receptacle in the back of the tow vehicle (i.e. pickup truck) and an AC inlet we fabricate to the front of the A-frame on a travel trailer or king pin of a 5th wheel. From that AC inlet you can either feed the AC input of the inverter(s) via the shore power inlet (moderately janky) and charge while you’re driving. The better solution is to have one or more battery chargers (depending on the size of the inverter in the tow vehicle) installed in the towable. The customer then just uses a short extension cord between the truck and trailer.
On my F- 350 I have an outlet installed neatly in the bumper beside the license plate. On my travel trailer I have an inlet mounted neatly near the hitch. Then I just use a short extension cable that is long enough for the trailer tongue to turn and the cable is attached to the 7-pin cable. So it looks neat and no one even notices it.
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