Recommended Battery Charging Solution for 4 Snowmobiles In Trailer

Updated 02/18/2021 | Published 02/15/2021

Products Featured in This Question

NOCO Genius Multi-Bank Smart Battery Charger - AC to DC - 4 Bank - 6V/12V - 8 Amp

(19)

$199.95

Redarc In-Vehicle BCDC Battery Charger - Dual Input - DC to DC - 12V/24V - 40 Amp

(87)

$620.00

Go Power Retreat Solar Charging System with Digital Solar Controller - 100 Watt Solar Panel

(16)

$471.99

Go Power Industrial Pure Sine Wave Inverter - GFCI - 1,000 Watt - 12V

(171)

$415.99

Question:

I have a snowmobile trailer that I installed led lighting in as well as a deep cycle battery to the wiring harness so the lights will work regardless it being hooked up to a vehicle or not. I have 2 questions. 1. The vehicle should charge the battery as long as it is hooked up and running correct? 2. If I run 110 in the trailer and want to charge all 4 sleds as well as the deep cycle battery, can I run leads from each sled to the deep cycle and then a charger on the deep cycle or do I need a 5 bank trickle charger with each battery having its own bank? And can you recommend the correct product for either application? Best regards, Jeff kelly

asked by: Jeff K

Expert Reply:

To answer your first question, not exactly; your 7 way trailer plug will have a 12v feed but it is only suitable for maintaining the trailer's battery and not actually providing a full charge.

When it comes to charging the sleds, you're not going to want to directly charge them from the trailer battery and you will want to use a battery charger that is powered by the trailer battery. However there are two issues with this that will need to be taken into consideration. First, in order to power a battery charger you would need an AC power source in the trailer-which would require adding an inverter. And second, without knowing the power draw required for each sled battery, it's tough to ballpark but I would think you're going to need at least 2 deep cycle batteries to provide sufficient trickle charging power for 4 snowmobiles.

A battery charger that would work for this application is the NOCO Genius Multi-Bank Smart Battery Charger - AC to DC - 4 Bank - 6V/12V - 8 Amp # NOC57FR, which is a 4 bank charger that plugs into an AC power source. Since your battery provides DC power, you'll need to add an inverter like the Power Inverter 1000 Watts with Three AC Receptacles # WC3720 to turn the DC battery power into AC power for the charger.

I do recommend looking into adding an external plug to the trailer, like the Epicord 30 Amp Twist Lock Power Inlet - Black # 277-000138, so that you could power the charger via an external plug when you're at home. This is going to reduce the strain on the battery in storage and allow you to keep the sleds plugged in and trickle charging without having to remove them from the trailer.

The other thing you might consider is adding the RedArc BCDC Battery Charger - Dual Input - DC to DC - 12V/24V - 40 Amp # 331-BCDC1240D, which will assist in keeping your trailer batteries charged; this will be especially helpful with a 2 battery house bank on the trailer. You can add a solar panel similar to the Go Power Retreat Solar Charging System with Digital Solar Controller - 100 Watt Solar Panel # 34272635 to help keep those house batteries charged and it would eliminate needing to run a 30amp shore power setup for everything while it's in storage.

I've linked some review videos of these parts for you to check out, but these would be the parts you'd need for this type of setup.