Main battery on/off switch

danrn · 12-01-2014, 05:28 AM

I took my RW to storage today and turned the battery switch to off. Before I left I hit the switch's that turns on the hitch light and the lights on the upper cap. They came on???? In my class A I hit two switches and "all" power was off. Is there another switch besides the one by the batteries? My luck some knuckle head will walk by my RW and say, hey I wonder what these two switches are for and leave them on killing my batteries. OK, maybe I am stretching it a little, but shouldn't ALL power be turn off when switching this battery switch off?
Thanks

markw · 12-01-2014, 05:51 AM

Unfortunately some things are still powered. The levelers and slides and the lights you describe. I think most things that can be left on accidentally are off. Only way to shut down everything is to disconnect the batteries.

Mark

**piper guy** · 12-01-2014, 01:40 PM

Or re-wire the cutoff switch so that it is a true cutoff ..........

mhs4771 · 12-01-2014, 03:54 PM

I have a question about re-wiring the Battery Cutoff switch. Does anyone know what the real current rating is for that switch, because if you wire the battery through that switch before it hits the buss distribution bars, that would mean the current for the hydraulic pump would be running through that switch, and the pump can draw upwards of 80 amps. Wonder if before changing, should one in vest in a good heavy duty switch??

**Dave&Ginny** · 12-01-2014, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

I have a question about re-wiring the Battery Cutoff switch. Does anyone know what the real current rating is for that switch, because if you wire the battery through that switch before it hits the buss distribution bars, that would mean the current for the hydraulic pump would be running through that switch, and the pump can draw upwards of 80 amps. Wonder if before changing, should one in vest in a good heavy duty switch??

Are you implying that the RV industry might use cheep switches......say its not so..

mhs4771 · 12-01-2014, 05:03 PM

I would never do such a thing, but when I had to tighten the connection on mine it did seem to be the most heavy duty switch I've ever seen. Also I don't want WestLake tires on my RW either.
Just boggles the mind that they can make such nice units, then cheapen them up with other things.
BTW, have never used our Disconnect switch as the RW has never sat still long enough.

atom ant · 12-01-2014, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

I have a question about re-wiring the Battery Cutoff switch. Does anyone know what the real current rating is for that switch, because if you wire the battery through that switch before it hits the buss distribution bars, that would mean the current for the hydraulic pump would be running through that switch, and the pump can draw upwards of 80 amps. Wonder if before changing, should one in vest in a good heavy duty switch??

That's a very good point! Although I would think a battery switch would be rated for starting amps of upwards of 250A - but.......this is an RV

Elliott & Vicky · 12-01-2014, 05:38 PM

Compared to the battery switch I use on my boat, this is a fairly light duty switch.

markw · 12-01-2014, 06:56 PM

Even with a full disconnect, does anyone know how long it might take two batteries to discharge themselves, if still left connected to each other?

Mark

**piper guy** · 12-01-2014, 11:33 PM

When I re-did the switches on mine I went to Marine Switches. Since I know they will handle the draw of a starter for a high performance Chevy Big Block I'm reasonably sure the hydraulic pump will not be a problem.

When I re-wired, I added a second switch to isolate the second battery. The few times we have dry-camped, since I don't have a genset (yet) I took the second battery offline so that I knew I had it in the morning for the jacks and slides.

I run 2 - group 29 Deep Cycle Interstates.

**hoosierguy** · 12-02-2014, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

I have a question about re-wiring the Battery Cutoff switch. Does anyone know what the real current rating is for that switch, because if you wire the battery through that switch before it hits the buss distribution bars, that would mean the current for the hydraulic pump would be running through that switch, and the pump can draw upwards of 80 amps. Wonder if before changing, should one in vest in a good heavy duty switch??

That Blue Sea Systems switch is rated for 300 Amps continuous and 1500 Amps for 10 Seconds. See the following link for specs.

https://www.bluesea.com/products/600...th__Knob_-_Red

The switch, as wired from the factory on our 2012 36RL, only disconnected one circuit out of 5 that circuits that connect to the bus bars. I only had to change 2 cables and remove one to set up the switch to totally disconnect all circuits.

BradPAjax · 12-03-2014, 02:06 AM

Setting the switch to off and leaving the batteries connected will kill them in about 3 days or less... has happened to me every time it gets dropped off at the dealer for service or annual inspection... dead as a stick when I show up to pick it up.
Plan to rewire in the Spring to really shut everything off.

atom ant · 12-03-2014, 02:26 AM

I've been lucky, as I've never had dead batteries and in summer between trips (which can be 6-8 weeks apart) I only use the switch.

In the winter, I do pull cables, just because if something does go wrong and the batteries do go dead in a freeze they also break.

Beechguyjim · 12-24-2014, 09:13 PM

I saw it listed somewhere at 150 Amps when I was looking at the wiring before installing a inverter I found out mine turns nothing off it goes form the buss to the buss also I can't believe there no fuse between the batteries and the buss if something goes wrong your just asking for a fire

almcc · 12-25-2014, 04:06 PM

That buss contains breakers of various amperages, where the wires are coming off the buss directly there are fuses on them (i.e the wire going to the lippert hydraulic jack panel), so it looks like everything is protected

mhs4771 · 12-25-2014, 04:18 PM

While looking at the new units with the Residential Fridge. They had two cables coming off the batteries, one going to a heavy duty fuse/ckt breaker then to the Inverter. The other cable went to the Battery Disconnect switch then to the Buss Bars. Sio it looks like everything could be shutoff except the Inverter.

danrn · 12-25-2014, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by danrn

I took my RW to storage today and turned the battery switch to off. Before I left I hit the switch's that turns on the hitch light and the lights on the upper cap. They came on???? In my class A I hit two switches and "all" power was off. Is there another switch besides the one by the batteries? My luck some knuckle head will walk by my RW and say, hey I wonder what these two switches are for and leave them on killing my batteries. OK, maybe I am stretching it a little, but shouldn't ALL power be turn off when switching this battery switch off?
Thanks

OK, I when back after a week and my batteries were totally dead. In my class A's I never had a problem with dead batteries. When I was there last I hooked up my truck to the RW and charged the batteries, so in one week they completely died. Either I have bad batteries (or need to be serviced), or something is draining them even though the main cut off switch is off.
Some of the post here have stated that the main cut off switch does not turn everything off and I found this to be true. So I either rewire (not my cup of tea), or find some other way to keep my batteries charged. I saw something interesting while leaving the storage site. One of the 5th wheels had a solar panel attached (temporary) to the pin with the line going to the batteries. I kind of like this idea of using a solar panel to keep the batteries charged over rewiring things, but if my batteries died in just a week I wonder if a solar charger will be enough to keep them charged.
Has anybody used a temporary solar panel for their batteries? if so, how well did it work for you?

almcc · 12-26-2014, 12:52 AM

I experienced the same problem and decided to re - wire, I used the schematic on the other forum site as a guide. I just checked the batts water levels after 2 years in service, virtually no loss of water. I disconnect the batts if I'm sitting on a site for more than a day on shore power and run off the convertor. Any loss can be made up from the truck umbilical when moving to the next site.