Trickle Charger Permanent Install?

[Seamoss]

Long time lurker, newer member and first time poster.

I'm looking to install a trickle charger or similar on my 2003 V8 T4R. I have a dual Odyssey PC1500 AGM battery system, Dometic CD30 Fridge, Goal Zero Boulder 400 with 100W panel installed. I typically keep the goal zero out of the truck plugged in, and then open the hood and attach alligator clips to the house battery with your standard trickle charger to precool the fridge. I'm looking for something a bit more like a shore power connection on an RV so I can just keep everything in the truck and on all the time.

I can go about this and probably get it done, but was curious if there were any good examples out there of similar setups or potential "Gotchas" in this plan.

Cheers, and thanks in advance.

 

[Boostpowered]

Id be concerned about parasitic draw from the charger when not plugged in. Im not real sure what charger your looking at nor have i tried to hardwire a trickle charger in a vehicle. If there is a draw when unplugged you could alway put a diode inline to stop the charge from being drawn.
I would just get some quick connects for the battery and the charger and leave the 2 disconnected till i needed a charge.

Im sure someone here has probably tried it or atleast thought about it.

Good luck

 

[smritte]

I kept a Norco Genius on my TJ for years. Mounted it under the hood and kept it plugged in when the vehicle sat for long periods. When I sold the Jeep, I took it off and it charges my trailer battery when that sits.
At work we have several of the the Genius and several of the one snap on makes. The snap on one is junk.
Even though their not "battery chargers" the Norco has done a great job bringing back a completely discharged battery where the snap on requires you to charge it most of the way up before it will work. Both units I have at work are rated the same.
The Norco I have at home is rated for Lithium, AGM and Lead Acid. It will either auto detect or you can manually choose the battery type. Make sure if you buy one, it will do at least AGM/lead Acid.
I didn't add one onto my Cruiser. I added a small solar panel and mppt controller.

EDIT: NOCO Genius G15000
This is the one I have at home, the ones at work are the smaller ones.

 

[Downs]

I've got a 4 port Battery Tender hard mounted on the ceiling of my garage. I've got a SAE pigtail that exits my grille on the passenger side and I hook into that when I'm home parked in the garage.

 

[Road]

Another vote for the NOCO Genius (not the Jump Starters), which you can leave hooked up all the time, has an AC in and two DC out, and does a great job at charging and maintaining two batteries independently. It also has a "built-in battery desulfator to recover worn out batteries."

I have the NOCO Genius Gen Mini 2 in my trailer, hooked up permanently to two Odyssey AGM deep cycles. The deep cycles are also hooked up full-time to a solar charge controller. Typically, I just have my solar feeding the batteries and keeping them topped off. If parked for a long time under a canopy and not using the trailer, or solar is put away for some reason, I'll run a cord from shore power and plug the NOCO Genius Gen Mini 2 to smart charge and maintain the batteries.

I recently experimented with no solar and no DC to the batteries for a few months. Let the deep cycles deplete further than they should go, at least on a regular basis. The charge controller said they were down around 9v. I plugged in the Gen Mini 2--which is already hooked up to both batteries--and let it smart charge overnight. They were finest kind after several hours. Since then, almost a month ago, all that has been keeping them topped off are the solar panels.

My Gen Mini 2 (4A to each battery) is wired up to a weatherproof outlet on the exterior of the nose box on my trailer. All I have to do then, is plug the female end of an extension cord onto the male end in the outlet and I'm powered up.

I'm not sure I would leave a regular plug-in trickle charger, like the one linked below, mounted permanently.

Potek Smart Battery Charger and Maintainer (I'm actually not selling it now, and keeping it for around the house for my kid while I'm gone):

Let me know if you need images of how my NOCO Gen Mini2 is mounted. Pretty simple really, though perhaps more difficult under the hood than in the nose box of my trailer.


Stay safe, stay clean, stay positive!



.

Roaddude - On the Road In North America - ROADDUDE

Roaddude - Traveling Photographer/Writer/Artist On the Road In North America. Gear, reviews, people, places, and culture.

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[diabetiktaco]

What about solar? That's essentially what solar does. When my truck is off and there's light outside my battery is charging.

 

[smritte]

What about solar? That's essentially what solar does. When my truck is off and there's light outside my battery is charging.

For me, i have solar permanently mounted on my Cruiser. The problem with solar is, no sun-no charge. It's been cloudy here for a while. I have a significant draw on my battery when its off but the solar keeps it up when I do have light. If I had the fridge on, I doubt it would keep it up with all the overcast.

 

[Downs]

What about solar? That's essentially what solar does. When my truck is off and there's light outside my battery is charging.

If you park in a garage that won't work.

 

[diabetiktaco]

If you park in a garage that won't work.

If you park in a garage you can just plug in a trickle charger.

 

[Seamoss]

Looks like the NOCO Mini Gen2 is exactly what I'm after. Thanks gents.

Secondarily, I do have a 100W solar panel, but it's typically stowed and only busted out at camp to keep the GZ Boulder400 charged. I'd love to do a permanent panel install, but my roof rack is pretty damn full when fully loaded and there isn't a lot of room under a Prinsu rack to squeeze anything. One of these days Ill get around to a solution and have a unified power system..

 

[mep1811]

I've used a marine dual bank charger/maintainer on my FJ60. Since the box was waterproof, I mounted it on the bumper. I just kept the truck plugged in when I was not using it.

 

[Seamoss]

Finally arrived. Damn Amazon delays! Theyre acting like theres a global catastrophy occuring or something!

But with all of that said, we have shore power!


Thanks again for the advice gents,
CM

 

[smritte]

can you link that plug. Thats exactly what im looking for. I didn't like the other designs i found.

 

[Seamoss]

Link isnt behaving but its the NOCO GCP1

Edit:
OEM

Amazon (maybe)