Batteries

[Firewalker]

Has anyone have issues with running their residential refrigerator for more than four hours while on the road with two lead acid batteries? The new batteries that came with my Jayco seismic only last maybe four hours and I’m unable to lower my front jacks to get off the hitch without plugging into shore power.

I will be upgrading to larger lithium batteries which will likely solve this problem, but I’m told my 2024 2500 HD seven pin connector is not actually providing 12 V of power to the trailer as older trucks do. Trying to find out if there is a way of fixing this issue if it is actually factual to keep my batteries charged while going down the road longer.

 

[Kevin Cooper]

Welcome to the forum.
If you are not getting 14.4 volts from your truck to the RV to charge the batteries, then 4 hours sounds about right. Another person just comment he is getting two hours.
You do not have an onboard generator or enough solar on the roof?
Maybe you have a blown fuse in the truck. It should provide that power.

 

[Learjet]

your lead acid batteries are shot if they have been that low several times. Good time to upgrade. I really like these batteries ...Vatrer 12V 300AH Bluetooth LiFePO4 Self Heating Lithium Battery

 

[JFlightRisk]

I would guess your fridge is using battery power faster than the battery is getting charged through the small gauge wire from your truck.

 

[Nevr2late]

Check to make sure you're getting 12v power through the 7 way. We've had that fuze go before and the only indication is the batteries die while you are driving and running the fridge.

 

[woodc12603]

Has anyone have issues with running their residential refrigerator for more than four hours while on the road with two lead acid batteries? The new batteries that came with my Jayco seismic only last maybe four hours and I’m unable to lower my front jacks to get off the hitch without plugging into shore power.

I will be upgrading to larger lithium batteries which will likely solve this problem, but I’m told my 2024 2500 HD seven pin connector is not actually providing 12 V of power to the trailer as older trucks do. Trying to find out if there is a way of fixing this issue if it is actually factual to keep my batteries charged while going down the road longer.

I don’t know about your 2024, but on a couple of older Chevy trucks that I have owned I had to connect a wire from the harness to the under hood fuse block and add the proper fuse to get the 12 volts at the 7 pin trailer connector. There were instructions in the owners manual for one of them. You may be able to find a YouTube video that shows how to do it.

 

[AZDIESELPIG]

I have gone 8-10 hours with no issues, I do have the basic solar package, so maybe between that and truck I am good...

 

[ronnieb-JAY]

I have a 2024 gmc 2500. There is a converter cord you can buy online that will fix the issue. I ran into that because my camera on the back of my 5th wheel would not come on. The pin was only supplying 3 volts. Lippert has the cable.
Also my fridge will run for several hours on the batteries. Like more than 6 hours. I’m using standard lead batteries from Walmart.

 

[ClarkeNorman]

The typical battery positive wire in the 7-pin connector on most new (2019-25) GM trucks is at least 6 gauge. That wire can safely carry 30 amps of power off the alternator so there should be no lack of power being provided to your house batteries during travel. My 2019 2500 HD charged our 317RLOK just fine and we ran a Whirlpool residential fridge all day during travel, without incident. My current 2025 3500HD does the same. I'm not familiar with the problem others have described about low voltage on Pin 3 (black) in the connector. If you don't have full battery voltage on Pin 3 (you can measure the voltage at the battery and then between Pin 3 and Pin 6 (white) on your truck's connector) then you have a problem between your fuse panel and the connector. Here's a picture of the connector for reference.

Safe Travels!

 

[Jayhawk 29]

What is being experienced as it relates to input from the truck to the rv while towing is something that I have been dealing with at the beginning of our lengthy trip. I went thru the entire wiring setup on the TT with experienced folks at the small Jayco dealer and have followed up on my own beginning at the truck's alternator output, thru the wiring to the plug in, then to the pin hook up connecting my brake wiring.

I have lost my brakes , which comes and goes and have actually connected some dots that has gotten overlooked in my past TT setups. With this current one that is different from my past TT with propane fridge, which was on during travel, I converted my 12 volt fridge to the residential 110 fridge, carry a min fridge in my truck and run it off the truck power generator while on the road.

Well while running my inverter during travel and the required recharging of my batteries for the inverter, my output of my alternator is such that it appears is not quite enough to replenish my 2 GC2 6 volt batteries and keep the truck battery up too to run the electronics and the in truck inverter either to run the constant need for the in bed generator.

So this is causing my brakes to loose the required power to operate constantly and properly since the wiring location at the axles is at the end of the run and a bit too small to properly carry the needed current to operate the brakes.

I actually doubled up on an additional number 12 wire along side to confirm this, and I can get enough to operate the brakes. So we are in the process of checking the availability of an upgrade that fits the truck and will give more output. I may change out the wiring size. But I would need to deal with the well secured underbelly material, which is no longer secured with removable screw fasteners.

Hope this gives you some food for thought and possibly look at your own arrangement and needs whether traveling our sitting off the grid. Even after traveling for six hours on the road, stop and starting of course, in this heat I am finding that I am also not keeping my batteries up to snuff enough without giving my batteries a boost before sundown to get me thru the night with proper battery voltage.

 

[newsleet]

I run mine for 6-8 hours but I have 3 group 31 lead acid batteries(97 amps each) and the overlander 2 solar package.