Parasitic battery drain

[robkathybat]

We are heading to Utah tomorrow to visit son and family. We will park the 5th wheel for about 13 days while we are there. I measured the battery drain with everything off and got about 1.2 amps. With just the fridge on I get about 2.5 amps, which means my batteries will drain after about 3-4 days. We don't really want to unload the fridge so finding the 1.2 amps parasitic drain would help a lot. I have measured the propane detector and got .05 amps, so that is not it. I know there is a lot of talk about the fact the installed disconnect switch does not turn everything off. I took care of that problem a long time ago. I am looking to leave just the fridge on and not draining the battery that fast. Does anyone know what the 1.2 amp parasitic load could be? I'm not sure all the "auto" things could suck that much juice. Thanks

[mhs4771]

No place you can plug an extension cord into a standard duplex outlet and use an adapter to plug the RW's cord into the extension, since you only need enough power for the fridge?

[jrlsburns]

Is there any drain by the brake circuit (brake away switch)? Any thoughts of a cheap solar panel like the ones that hook to battery with alligator clips.




2007.5 Chev Dually, B&W Companion, RDS 50 Gal. Transfer Tank
2012 36RL, Titan Disc Brakes, Upgraded Springs, MORryde wet bolts, MORryde Crossmember, Sailun Tires

[travelin' texans]

I bought a, IIRC, 3 amp solar charger at Batteries+ for about $35 then hooked the + clip to battery #1 & the - clip to batter #2 with the main ground cable disconnected from the battery, while in storage in Arizona this maintained enough battery power to run the slides out/in once, then could do it again in a couple weeks. With only a 1.2amp drain should keep yours up for a couple weeks, depending on sunshine.

[r time soon]

Yours might have the Winegard antenna booster. That takes power. Malke sure the green light is off. Also check stereo for memory functions like time and station memory.

Chris

[robkathybat]

According to my son the parking area is a gravel parking lot near the campground on the base, so absolutely no AC power. As far as a solar panel goes, while it would extend my time it would not solve it. I did find a .8 amp draw on the fuse in position 2 labeled "ODS SLIDE". I have no idea what that means, in fact I have a hard time understanding most of the labels in the electrical panel. I will check out the antenna booster.

[travelin' texans]

ODS =.OFF DOOR SIDE.
Meaning most likely the bedroom slide. Those motors supposedly must be powered to keep the slides in place while traveling.

[almcc]

I learned about these drains after I parked the RW in the driveway and turned off the battery switch, the circuits that bypassed the switch drained the batteries completely after a period of time. I rewired at the circuit breaker block behind the batts so that no drains occurred with the switch off. From memory, the drains were the CO detector, the front slide circuit and the Lippert leveling control panel.

[robkathybat]

Interesting. So I could pull that fuse while parked and drop the .8 amps off, and turn off the antenna booster and buy myself a couple of days.

[Shane Wood]

I added another battery cutoff on the negative cable and solved the problem

[mhs4771]

Another thought to reduce the drain. Remove all cable off the Negative Battery terminal. Then determine which cable goes directly to the Inverter and re-install that cable only. That way there would be no other drains except the inverter.
We're running four 6 volt Golf Cart Trojans, so could probably go a while, but doubt that they would last for 2 weeks.

[Ray Keen]

I installed 2 100w solar panels my 2015 31SL after I bought it new. Never had an issue with keeping the fridge on for an extended period of time. Up to 2 weeks sometimes. We only unload the fridge after we are done camping for the season. Just a thought.