Removing and Rewiring Breakaway Battery

[mitch]

So at risk of beating this horse just a little deader, I have something that I just cannot make sense of.  My breakaway battery is perfect fine.  There it is, I've said it and I can't take it back.  It's the original battery so somewhere near 3 years old and it doesn't come in for the winter, I just checked it and it reads 12.62 volts. Figuring that was just surface charge I put it on my superduper desulfating monitoring charging kaleidoscopic psychotropic battery minder and after a few minutes that thing said it was fully charged too.  That really doesn't make much sense unless....it is being charged while towing?  

[daplumbr]

Sure enough, one way or another, that battery is being charged. There is no possibility of that little battery being 12.62V after 3 years with no charge. Put a meter on that little gem while hooked up to the tow rig sometime and you'll see charging. Wonder how they wired that one?

[peislander]

Mitch -- I suppose it might also be possible that it gets charged whenever it is on shore power by the converter/charger built into the trailer. It seems that & the TV charge are the way the system is supposed to work.

[charliem]

[font size="3"]It does seem like the battery is getting charged. Most likely, without getting really exotic, the two batteries are tied together. That would charge the BB from both TV and converter. Essentially a waste since you connecting a 4AH battery in parallel with the house battery that is [/font][font size="3"]80-220AH depending. Without exotic circuitry the two batteries will charge AND discharge together. The BB will not stay charged when the house battery is discharged.
[/font]

[diversteve]

In my case the dealer supplied the house battery,
I believe the tiny breakaway battery is just to get it to the dealer and satisfy any legal issues.
After reading this thread I checked my TT and discovered the breakaway battery was as dead as a hammer.
I made the swap to remove the small battery and wire it to the TT battery.
This forum probably saved me from a dangerous situation.
JMHO.

[smoky]

I looked at my 2017 Camplite 21RBS today to see what kind of breakaway system was being used. We took delivery of the trailer about a week ago. The 2 black wires from the breakaway switch disappeared into a junction box. I couldn't find a breakaway battery anywhere under the trailer. The picture below shows the junction box after opening it. The small black wires from the breakaway switch enter the box at the lower right. One of these black wires is attached to the 7th terminal from the left and the other black wire is attached to the 2nd terminal from the left. I'm not sure what these connections are, but the Dexter Axle book indicates blue wires are for the electric brakes and a black wire is the battery charge from the tow vehicle. Unless I'm wrong, it looks like my trailer's breakaway system is being powered from the trailer battery. 

[charliem]

[quote source="/post/22706/thread" timestamp="1467336565" author="@smoky"]I looked at my 2017 Camplite 21RBS today to see what kind of breakaway system was being used. We took delivery of the trailer about a week ago. The 2 black wires from the breakaway switch disappeared into a junction box. I couldn't find a breakaway battery anywhere under the trailer. The picture below shows the junction box after opening it. The small black wires from the breakaway switch enter the box at the lower right. One of these black wires is attached to the 7th terminal from the left and the other black wire is attached to the 2nd terminal from the left. I'm not sure what these connections are, but the Dexter Axle book indicates blue wires are for the electric brakes and a black wire is the battery charge from the tow vehicle. Unless I'm wrong, it looks like my trailer's breakaway system is being powered from the trailer battery. 

[mdp]

This is one mod I am going to do.