dump trailer wiring

[THess]

I've got a dump trailer that has an electric over hydraulic pump. The onboard battery is a real pain to keep charged and it is really frustrating to have a load of trash at the dump with no way to dump. I want to run a wire to the back of my truck to power it with my battery but I don't know what gauge to use. The pump that powers the truck dump is a BIG wire like a welding cable. Would I need something that big and would I have to run one from the + and the - or just ground the - somehow? Any ideas anybody?

 

[kshimizu]

Most dumps will get at least 3 good dumps per day if they are power up and down. Power up /gravity down should get 5+ good dumps on a good charge. Your truck should have a hot lead to help trickle charge while you drive around. I have seen guys wire up a long set of jumper cable to the rear of a truck if they are doing multiple dumps per day. It is also a good idea to throw a battery charger on it each night if possible. The only other option that we see on bigger dumps is to have a gas powered generator mounted to the dump.

 

[THess]

Thanks. The jumper cable thing is sort of what I'm thinking. Would it be a big cable from both battery posts or just from the positive and then ground the negative side?

 

[jelag]

I own one of these trailers... . I too have the problem... .

We purchased a set of connections like what a electric forklift uses to connect the battery to the fork lift... The Granger Collection is one location for these parts...

We than ran "OO" welding cable from the batteries to the back of the truck to this connector... . and grounded the other lead...

On the trailer we have the other half of this connector, and ran one lead to the + terminal of the batter and grounded the other lead... .

When we connect the trailer to the truck we plug in this connector as well... When we are at -20* the one battery is never enough to run the dump bed anyway and the power from the truck batteries keep the dump battery charged and add the additional energy to assist in very cold weather... .

Hope this helps. . BTW - we have a 5er we use for hunting... we did the same thing to it... . with 8 gauge wire as I remember... . we connect it to the truck... . and it will supply power at night and charge the batteries at fast idle in about 1/2 the time as the regular connection through the trailer plug... . less voltage drop in the connections.

 

[THess]

Thanks for the help. That is exactly what I had in mind. Just wanted to know if it was possible. By the way what kind of bed are you putting on that new 5500?

 

[Hoefler]

If you use a group 29 deep cycle trolling battery, you should be able to use it all day with a the hot lead hooked up from the trailer plug. The killer on these systems is a poor ground. I have hook up a battery charger with a trailer plug to charge mine after using it for the day.