Does the tow package charge a camping trailer battery?

360 watts

 

Solar doesn't have the amps to power anything, but it does great charging up the trailer batteries while you drink bevys and eat marshmallows..

Mine is a 90w so in direct sun and perfect conditions it puts out around 16v 90/16 = ~5.5 amps into the trailer batteries.

 

Haha... yes... 360... I meant more like how many amps you could actually pull back there after all the line loss.

 

@wsutaco - What @vicali said above is right. Solar won't really run anything, but it will, over time, charge your batteries. I'd start with a quality portable 100 watt solar panel. Being portable you can place it in the sun and move it throughout the day to keep it at the best angle (makes a huge difference). After that, i'd suggest looking at 100 or 200 more watts of panels permanently mounted on top of the Rpod. I'm sure the RPOD forums have a LOT of suggestions.

 

I don't understand what is meant by slide. But you can not plug an RV motor home into this trailer hitch wiring socket and start any engine ever. Not that connection ever. If the RV ends up with a dead battery because things ran too long and the RV won't start you will need real battery to battery jumper cable to start any engine from the Tacoma . Most any starter motors take 350 to 365 AMPS to crank the starter and the engine on whatever. The 30 amp fuse should blow if you try, but if it doesn't it will be a disaster. I have seen fuses get toasted and fail in such a way they still make a connection. Granted these were the old glass tube styles. I have seen fuses simply refuse to blow, and the one I recall best was hooked into the door lights on a chevy pick up. That fried the wire harness, and caught the cloth headliner on fire too ! Why the fuse didn't blow I can't say. It should have .

 

He doesn't mean an RV like a bus, he's talking about an RPOD trailer with a slideout, probably like this guy.

 

My buddy got one of these (w/ controller) and really likes it. It's double the price of the HF you mentioned, but I know these ones are rated pretty highly.

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-100-watt-eclipse-solar-suitcase-w-o-controller/



I have a flexopower that folds up more like a canvas binder, but I honestly don't know if you can even find those anymore. It's been great for us.

 

I also have an R-Pod and can attest to the fact that my truck does charge the battery while the truck is on.

 

Your setup looks great. We looked into the RPODs but we like having our ATVs with us too. Not enough truck to tow it all, so we had to go another route.

 

Thanks! The R-Pod was as big as I was willing to go without having to buy a new truck.

 

Don't expect much of anything to charge through the charge port on that trailer connection.

And if your going to add solar I told recommend looking on Amazon rather than HF, I think you get better deals. Also would recommend minimum 2x 100w panels for a trailer.

I am on the run today but if you want more info later on I'd be happy to share. Have a home built travel trailer project I'm working on finishing so have done quite a bit of research already.

 

THXS..... I have no idea how these slide out trailers work. I expect a motor does the work . What AMPS / Watts that takes is beyond my knowing.

 

Yeah, they must have some kinda linear actuator. No clue how many amps they draw, either.

@wsutaco , which model RPOD do you have? I see online that they should have a backup/manual way to bring in the Slide in case battery is dead, or in case something else fails. Sounds like at least one RPOD it's pretty easy to do, but impossible if you don't have a manual or previous experience.

 

The R-pod might be solar ready with a built in solar charge controller. If so, all you'd need to do is plug in a

WindyNation 100 Watt 100W Solar Panel for 12 Volt Battery Charging RV, Boat, Off Grid

panel using an

$28 ACOPOWER 20 Feet 14AWG Solar Extension Cable with Female and Male connectors for 50W 70W 80W 105W 120W Portable Solar Panel (HY-EXT-20FT)

extension and a

$11 OUOU Solar to SAE Adapter 10 AWG Cable Connector with 1pcs SAE to SAE Polarity Reverse Connectors for RV Panel Solar (Black+Red)

connector to recharge the battery.

Edit: Not the case. For this particular scenario, solar on the side requires a charge controller. See post 37.

 

Yeah I have this on the side of the rpod. There’s nothing in the rpod manual about solar so I’m not sure where to even look for info. My rpod bought brand new didn’t even come with a paper manual, had to download an app.

 

It’s a 2019.5 190. It does have a way to bring it manually that I should look at and be familiar with before I have To use it for real. The rpod bought new didn’t even come with a paper manual. It has an app and doesn’t say much.

 

Solar on the side looks like it requires a kit with a charge controller. Website is here. So, essentially, the plug on the side is a direct wire to the battery.

HQST 100W 12V Polycrystalline Solar Panel

Here is a kit on Amazon that should do the trick, but you'll need the SAE

$11 OUOU Solar to SAE Adapter 10 AWG Cable Connector with 1pcs SAE to SAE Polarity Reverse Connectors for RV Panel Solar (Black+Red)

connector and

$28 ACOPOWER 20 Feet 14AWG Solar Extension Cable with Female and Male connectors for 50W 70W 80W 105W 120W Portable Solar Panel (HY-EXT-20FT)

extension. A qualified individual should help with the installation if you're not familiar with panels or not sure of the polarity.

 

I’ve been towing my RPOD-179 for a couple of months. I have a solar cell, I think of it as a trickle charger.

What I’ve quickly learned is that a single 12v deep cycle won’t do for extended trips...I started constantly worrying about my battery. So, I recently purchased two deep cycle 6V batteries and hooked them up in a series (neg of one battery to positive of the other) to give me 12V and 4x the amp hours of a regular deep cycle 12v battery.

 

Stick voltmeter in the plug

 

That reminds me, you might be able to plug-and-play one of these 10w panel as a trickle charger without the need for a charge controller.