i have just bought a new ezytrail camper trailer , and want to wire in an anderson plug on a 80 series landcruiser to charge my second battery on the trailer can someone please tell me if i really need to run it through a relay from the main battery back to the trailer.
jimchris4
Welcome to Myswag.
The Anderson Plug on the back of my Patrol is wired just as you are suggesting, with a wire direct from the starter battery straight back to the Anderson plug, and then (when plugged into the camper), direct to the batteries in the camper. I do however have an auto reset circuit breaker/fuse ($10.00) at either end (directly before each battery). Some sort of fuse or breaker is required at both ends in case the wire shorts out somewhere along the line.
I've only run 6mm auto cable for this setup, as well as 30 amp breaker/fuse on the ends. This set up has been doing the job of keeping the batteries in the camper charged for about 2 year now.
As has been said, if you intend setting yours up in a similar way, be aware of the possibility of flattening the start battery if the Anderson plug is not disconnected whilst camped. Your 50 amp switch would be ideal if you want to leave the Anderson plug hooked up.
I'm not a believer in all the hype about expensive dual battery isolators/managers being essential for this sort of thing, and would rather keep it all simple and less expensive.