sundancev Report post Posted June 30, 2018 Hello all. I developed a problem today and due to a passerby caught it before it became serious. I had purchased a toad charger apparatus several years ago as we traveled from coast to coast and often dry camped while doing so. The toad charging apparatus allowed us to maintain a charge from our 350HP Fleetwood Providence to our Ford Explorer for some time without problems and without running the Genny. Recently the apparatus failed to do the job and we would often have to use jumper cables to start the Explorer after a day's drive. I sanded connectors and terminals as much as feasible thinking that might be the problem. In any event, sporadically some days it seemed to work and some days not. If I thought about it in time I would run the Genny for a half hour before we stopped and the additional voltage almost insured the Explorer (Toad) would crank ok. Today, I stopped at a rest stop to make a phone call and a passerby beat on our door telling me he thought we had a fire. Sure enough, we did have a fire on our battery in toad that melted through the top of the battery. I was able to put out with a fire extinguisher and cut the charging wiring from the toad battery post and disconnected the motor home side of the charging cable. I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a new battery. Tonight all is well except I no longer have a toad charging system I still have #10 gauge wire from motor home to a toad connection that is also #10 wire and I am now thinking of just getting rid of the toad battery charging apparatus completely and just keeping the #10 wire and putting in 20amp fuses at each end of the positive circuit and leave it with a simple plug that can be unplugged each time we disconnect the toad from the motor home. The plug that we use is a trolling motor connect/disconnect that is really heavy duty. The apparatus previously installed included a diode(?) that purportedly kept the Toad from back feeding to the motor home if both were running. Not sure how important that is, but it was the selling point when I bought. I did go heavier in the wiring department when I installed initially by using #10 wire connecting to my house batteries which are in turn connected to the chassis batteries through a relay of some sort I think. Does anyone have thoughts as to safety of such a hookup if I install 20amp fuses on each positive wire (one for motor home end and one for toad end.) Thanks in advance for any advise you may have. Paul Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
desertdeals69 Report post Posted June 30, 2018 That should work. I would also have a ground wire same size as the positive using your trolling motor plug. Have your fuses on the positive wire as close to the termination point at both ends. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dickandlois Report post Posted June 30, 2018 11 minutes ago, desertdeals69 said: That should work. I would also have a ground wire same size as the positive using your trolling motor plug. Have your fuses on the positive wire as close to the termination point at both ends. This is a new term to me. could you enlighten me. Trolling motor plug? Thanks. Rich. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
desertdeals69 Report post Posted June 30, 2018 55 minutes ago, DickandLois said: This is a new term to me. could you enlighten me. Trolling motor plug? Thanks. Rich. Its a plug disconnect that is water resistant, used on the battery circuit of trolling motors. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sstgermain Report post Posted June 30, 2018 You can also purchase a LSL ProductsToad-Charge which will regulate the charging to the toad. It is fused at 10 amps. We've been using one for years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kaypsmith Report post Posted June 30, 2018 What you have described 10 gauge with the fuses at each end will work just fine. Only thing that I would different would be to use 10 amp fuse instead of 20, and as an added precaution I would add a 10 amp diode at the toad end just after the fuse, and make sure that the current does pass to the toad, if backwards, no current will pass in that direction. I am also wondering about the age of the battery that you had to replace, a bad cell will cause things like the fire to happen. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted June 30, 2018 1 hour ago, kaypsmith said: What you have described 10 gauge with the fuses at each end will work just fine. Only thing that I would different would be to use 10 amp fuse instead of 20, and as an added precaution I would add a 10 amp diode at the toad end just after the fuse, and make sure that the current does pass to the toad, if backwards, no current will pass in that direction. I would ONLY recommend that if you use a diode with zero voltage drop (hard to find and expensive). You will already have some voltage drop over the wire length and multiple connections. If concerned about the toad battery trying to support the coach battery when engine not running, I would strongly recommend using a RELAY. Use an "ignition hot" source to close the relay. That way the only time the batteries are connected is with the coach ignition on/engine running. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sundancev Report post Posted June 30, 2018 sstgermain, I actually had that one installed and used for several years. It worked sporadically. That was the part that actually started the fire on top of the battery so I decided to try it without the lsl toad charger now. I had thought of using 10 gauge wire initially but decided the lsl toad charger had the diodes and went with that. I want to try it now without a diode, hence the question to you kind folks. I also think the 10 amp fuse is a good one. My reason for 20amp was in case the battery was really down, perhaps a 10amp fuse would not allow the downstrread charge in enough amperage without blowing. In any event I thank you all. Paul Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
