Casita Towing Electrical Requirements - Fiberglass RV
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Old 08-26-2019, 08:23 PM   #1
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Casita Towing Electrical Requirements

I plan on towing a late model Casita Deluxe with a 2014 Acura MDX AWD with an OEM towing package. My question applies to the Casita factory wiring requirement for the Battery Charge Circuit to be 10 AWG wire with a 30 amp fuse. From what I can see, my MDX harness has only 12 or 14 AWG wire and a 20 amp fuse on that circuit. How big a problem is this and what are my options? I hate to junk the OEM harness.
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Old 08-26-2019, 10:56 PM   #2
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I plan on towing a late model Casita Deluxe with a 2014 Acura MDX AWD with an OEM towing package. My question applies to the Casita factory wiring requirement for the Battery Charge Circuit to be 10 AWG wire with a 30 amp fuse. From what I can see, my MDX harness has only 12 or 14 AWG wire and a 20 amp fuse on that circuit. How big a problem is this and what are my options? I hate to junk the OEM harness.
Not a problem unless you wish to run the fridge on 12V while driving; in that case you would want to run bigger gauge power and ground wires back to the trailer. Many OEM trailer packages don't even even include a charge wire!
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Old 08-26-2019, 11:06 PM   #3
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just run your fridge on propane when traveling, you should be fine.
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Old 08-26-2019, 11:23 PM   #4
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just run your fridge on propane when traveling, you should be fine.

Yup. And the charge from your tow vehicle will top up the trailer batteries.
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Old 08-26-2019, 11:24 PM   #5
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From what I can see, my MDX harness has only 12 or 14 AWG wire and a 20 amp fuse on that circuit. How big a problem is this and what are my options?
Travel with your fridge on propane, as John said. A 20 amp circuit to the trailer will be very nice. Get hooked up, with the fridge on propane, TV engine running, and watch your battery gradually come up to about 14.1 volts.

This proves you have a good ground (12 volt - ) and a good charging circuit.
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Old 08-27-2019, 05:16 AM   #6
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Thanks for the quick response guys. Reducing/managing the electrical load in the trailer by taking the refrigerator out of the equation makes more sense than trying to beef up the circuit and perhaps putting a continuous, high electrical load on the rest of the (relatively light) TV charging system that it was not designed to handle.
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Old 08-27-2019, 01:29 PM   #7
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It is likely that with the length of that wire the trailer might not charge that well anyway as the voltage drop will still exist, especially if the grounds are not good as well.
Some use special conditioners that increase the voltage to charge the trailer batteries by stepping up the voltage from the TV to the trailer to the correct point.
This could easily not be a problem for you or it might.
Time will tell.
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Old 08-31-2019, 02:47 AM   #8
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Too small of a wire is more of an annoyance than a serious issue. Voltage drop will limit the amount of current that flows to charge the trailer battery from the alternator, which means you'll be relying more on being plugged in at the campsite and at home rather than charging while driving, but it also means that you don't really have to worry about overloading it or blowing the fuse or anything unless you add some sort of boost/step-up charger to the trailer.
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Old 08-31-2019, 03:09 AM   #9
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Too small of a wire is more of an annoyance than a serious issue. Voltage drop will limit the amount of current that flows to charge the trailer battery from the alternator, which means you'll be relying more on being plugged in at the campsite and at home rather than charging while driving, but it also means that you don't really have to worry about overloading it or blowing the fuse or anything unless you add some sort of boost/step-up charger to the trailer.
depends. too much current through too small of a wire makes heat, and if its too much, it turns into fire.

FIRE!

https://livestream.com/burningman/bmwebcast

(very transitory, if you see this after tomorrow night, its probably too late.
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Old 08-31-2019, 03:19 AM   #10
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depends. too much current through too small of a wire makes heat, and if its too much, it turns into fire.

FIRE!

https://livestream.com/burningman/bmwebcast

(very transitory, if you see this after tomorrow night, its probably too late.
In general, sure, but in this case the voltage drop from that long of a 14AWG wire plus multiple connectors plus the wire within the trailer itself is going to limit actual current flow to under 20A.
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Old 08-31-2019, 08:29 AM   #11
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One solution is to add a DC to DC converter in the trailer to raise the voltage at the battery end.
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