My must-do upgrade before Spring is to get power into the truck bed for charging a camping battery while driving to run a refrigerator and other miscellaneous things (but the fridge is the main thing). (Up until now we've just put the fridge in the back seat of the cab, but we'll have an additional passenger on our Spring trip (Canyonlands Maze - yay) so we need the rear seat space.
My requirements/desiderata are:
1. To have capacity for 50A continuous supply (famous last words, but I think this should be plenty with lots of headroom for future uses). Main purpose is for camping battery charging while driving (but could also use it for, e.g., compressor for airing up when the camping stuff is not installed).
2. To be able to manually disconnect the system
3. To be switched on and off with the ignition (I go back and forth on this, vs switches in the cab or letting a DC/DC charger control the connection, but for now this seems like a good option).
To provide this, I would implement via:
a) 6 gauge wire (10 feet might be enough, 15 would certainly be more than enough). (1) (A probably dumb question I have - should I bring the ground wire all the way back to the battery, or is connecting it to the frame or similar sufficient?)
b) Inline 60A circuit breaker near the battery, also gives me a manual disconnect. (2)
c) 60A relay and socket (3), switched with an add a fuse to a switched circuit in the engine bay (3)
d) Terminated in an Anderson powerpole adapter (SB50 with environmental cover)
For checkout I will use this system with my existing Goal Zero (400Wh) camping battery, i.e. just make a Powerpole to cigarette lighter pigtail (I now charge the battery in the truck using the trucks cigarette power point), but the next step in the project will be to build up a better (higher capacity) battery solution with a dcdc charger and MPPT input (I already have a portable solar panel).
Besides general comments about the suitability of the plan, any comments about good workmanship practices would be welcome. (Although at one time I had a decent theoretical knowledge of electronics, all my actual experience has been hobbyist level in a benign environment).
My requirements/desiderata are:
1. To have capacity for 50A continuous supply (famous last words, but I think this should be plenty with lots of headroom for future uses). Main purpose is for camping battery charging while driving (but could also use it for, e.g., compressor for airing up when the camping stuff is not installed).
2. To be able to manually disconnect the system
3. To be switched on and off with the ignition (I go back and forth on this, vs switches in the cab or letting a DC/DC charger control the connection, but for now this seems like a good option).
To provide this, I would implement via:
a) 6 gauge wire (10 feet might be enough, 15 would certainly be more than enough). (1) (A probably dumb question I have - should I bring the ground wire all the way back to the battery, or is connecting it to the frame or similar sufficient?)
b) Inline 60A circuit breaker near the battery, also gives me a manual disconnect. (2)
c) 60A relay and socket (3), switched with an add a fuse to a switched circuit in the engine bay (3)
d) Terminated in an Anderson powerpole adapter (SB50 with environmental cover)
For checkout I will use this system with my existing Goal Zero (400Wh) camping battery, i.e. just make a Powerpole to cigarette lighter pigtail (I now charge the battery in the truck using the trucks cigarette power point), but the next step in the project will be to build up a better (higher capacity) battery solution with a dcdc charger and MPPT input (I already have a portable solar panel).
Besides general comments about the suitability of the plan, any comments about good workmanship practices would be welcome. (Although at one time I had a decent theoretical knowledge of electronics, all my actual experience has been hobbyist level in a benign environment).