Removing the reset switch from the low voltage disconnect on my truck was a stupid mistake.

I removed it when I had previously wired up the second assessory battery – to reduce the tangle of wires – and figuring I would never need to reset things as low voltage conditions are relatively rare now with the extra capacity.

That was all fine until two hours of reading with the 15 watt LED bulb and other lights in the campsite – drawing over 30 watts caused the voltage at the low voltage relay to sag below the cut off of 12.1 volts for more than 30 seconds. After three days of camping with only partial sun due to shading and clouds on the panel, the batteries also lacked a full charge going into the evening.

It’s good it cut the load to protect the batteries but I did not enjoy having to open up the low voltage disconnect to reset it. I could have started the truck up and used the alternator to feed it voltage to reset it or waited until the sun rose tomorrow but I didn’t feel like doing that – especially knowing that as soon as I reset the relay and cut the load I’d be fine – and not wanting to lug the alternator with a heavy load.

Needless to say I will be hooking up the switch again, as sometimes having a reset is important.