ATTENTION: All Postings that advertise items for sale will be deleted from the Discussion Forum. You may post sale items for free in the Classifieds section. Sign up now.
Hello
we have a 25 foot 5th wheel that we have sitting on our property, its a 89 vacationeer. I use a Onan Generator for the power the majority (no shore power) of the time but would like to use just the battery on occasions to. I just bought a new 12 volt deep cycle battery (100 amp hours)to use basically for light and maybe the heater when it gets cold. The problem is the battery discharges completely through the night, with nothing on or running (that i know of) the battery will constantly discharge at a rate of.08 volts per hour. I have tested this several times over the course of several hours and the discharge rate is constant. In troubleshooting this I have disconnected the fridge and even pulled all the fuses out of the panel (9 of them) and the battery will still drain. I'm puzzled! With the battery hooked up it powers the lights just fine and the heater fan and when the generator is running it charges the battery back up but I am stumped as why the battery has a continuous discharge without anything known on or running, What am i missing?
Any help here would be appreciated, thanks.
2 things, Batteries do self discharge, and an RV battery will require 3 to 5 days of chrging 24 hours a day to charge completly. The.08 volts per hour is interesting, but this drop is going to be dependent on the charge level in the battery. The Number normally used is amperage draw. The LPG detector will draw 50 to 400 milliamps depending on the make model etc. (= to.05 amps to.4 amps) This detector alone will kill a fully charged battery in one to three weeks. So the valid test is to fully charge the battery, check the charge level with a hydrometer. Then disconect the battery completly and retest in a day or two. If the charge continues to disapear, bad battery, if it doesn't hidden draw on the unit. And finaly if the furnace cuts in more than a couple times in the night it will kill the battery, 8 to 10 amps draw for a twenty minute heat cycle several times in a night and the battery will be dead. Good Luck
Thanks for the reply. I have checked the condition of the battery and it has been fully charged twice now and checked with a hydrometer. The battery can sit, completely disconnected from the trailer and hold the charge just fine. Keep in mind that with the battery hooked up and nothing on, fuses all pulled, heater off and nothing drawing off of it as far as I know, it will be completely discharge by the morning, (1 day). This is what is puzzling to me, something in the trailer is drawing it down and I just can't figure out what it is....
email Richard
reply to message
post new message
search forums
