Welcome to the eighth entry in August’s Medium Mod Contest. One Medium Mod will be published in every Email Alert in August. At the end of the month, we’ll hold a reader vote to determine August’s winner. Click here for information about the 2023 Mod Contest, including how to enter.
Jay Kamys, St. Augustine, Florida
Easy Extra Battery and Box
2020 GMC 3500
2015 Lance 855S
If you want to expand your battery capacity and have limited space (as we do in our Lance 855S), here’s a workable solution.
Nearly all slide-in truck campers have space at the front of the truck bed on either side of the camper. A suitable battery box with your choice of batteries can be placed in that location and appropriate connections made to your truck camper walls on the outside for safe connections to your camper battery system.
I have placed one additional deep-cycle battery in a battery box on the driver side. I also added a battery selector (pictured above) to the battery storage area under the step. With that selector, I can engage the additional capacity, when needed. The battery can also be used for a trolling motor or if desired, an additional solar connection.
The loaded camper secures the battery box in place. Therefore, the battery in the battery box can be removed and the truck bed fully used when the camper is unloaded. A wood shim under the battery levels out the larger box, and I have long enough cables to attach them to the camper when loading.
Most automotive parts stores have the appropriate-sized battery cable and terminal fittings to connect the external batteries to terminals on the outside wall of your camper.
It took me two hours to complete this modification and cost me $30. In my opinion, the skill level of this modification is medium.
Disclaimer: The modifications above are submitted by Truck Camper Magazine readers. It is your responsibility to make sure that any do-it-yourself modification project you undertake is safe, effective, and legal for your situation.
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If you’d like to enter a modification you’ve done on your truck camper, click here. You can enter as many mods as you want, at any time. Good luck mod makers!
