Generator in tow vehicle to charge battery while travelling

[TaftCoach]

More theoretical than practical but my new TV has a 2,000 watt generator (not just an inverter) on board in the bed. I’ve plugged in a battery charger and ran it to the battery as a test and it charged fine. I’ve also used an adapter and plugged in the TT and everything except the AC ran just fine. But, I love to tinker and think of worse case scenarios.

It seems like I could run the charger cables to the TT battery from the charger while traveling and do a full charge. It would deliver more charge than the seven pin would supply on its own. I’m thinking it’s not much different than a class A running the genny while moving.

Thoughts?

[billcf7]

What TV

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by billcf7

What TV

+1

That's pretty neat!

I don't see any problem with it. So long as you don't have wires obstructing anything, dragging the ground, etc. Actually sounds like a pretty good plan IMO.

If I were working it, I might try to see if I could find a way to plug it into the shore power while under way. That way your on-board converter/charger could handle the battery bank, and you could potentially run something else inside the rig, like the fridge, or whatever else...

[TaftCoach]

2021 F150 ProPower On Board

https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content...er_SP_C113.pdf

[TaftCoach]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

+1

That's pretty neat!

I don't see any problem with it. So long as you don't have wires obstructing anything, dragging the ground, etc. Actually sounds like a pretty good plan IMO.

If I were working it, I might try to see if I could find a way to plug it into the shore power while under way. That way your on-board converter/charger could handle the battery bank, and you could potentially run something else inside the rig, like the fridge, or whatever else...

I considered it. Routing the power cable securely was the issue.

[JimD]

Do you really need all that extra charging while travelling? If the battery is fully charged before you leave and is getting a charge though the connector while driving, it should not be drained unless you have a lot of current draw in the rig.

Why not just fire up the generator for a short period when you arrive to top off the battery?

[TaftCoach]

In your scenario you mentioned we would not need to charge.

We usually boondock and recharge during the day with solar. So we may have been without hookups for a couple days or longer and leaving in the morning at 60 or 70% charge and will not be on hookups the following night. My solar will generally bring me up while driving along with the trickle. But as we know there are limits with solar.

Admittedly the chances of truly needing this are slim. And it's possible to run the vehicle's generator at the end of the drive. But if I could achieve the charging while the truck is already running it avoids having to idle the truck another hour or two after finishing the drive. It's all about being prepared and that little bit of Macgyver in all of us lol