Battery (dis)connect?

[Barbell]

That is what I thought too. However, a brand new battery does the same thing the original battery did: with the ground cable completely disconnected; positive connected, goes dead is less than 48 hours. With both cables disconnected, battery will maintain 12+ volts for months. My military MOS was Electrician and I have spoken to a number of automotive electricians including from Keystone and no one has any idea of what the problem is; only that disconnecting both terminals solves it.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by Barbell

That is what I thought too. However, a brand new battery does the same thing the original battery did: with the ground cable completely disconnected; positive connected, goes dead is less than 48 hours. With both cables disconnected, battery will maintain 12+ volts for months. My military MOS was Electrician and I have spoken to a number of automotive electricians including from Keystone and no one has any idea of what the problem is; only that disconnecting both terminals solves it.

Then logic dictates that something in the trailer is positive to ground...

[NotyetMHCowner]

Electrons flow from negative to positive. Automobiles have negative ground systems, so any work you do electrically, you disconnect the negative cable to protect the electronics. If you disconnected the positive, electrons are theoretically wanting to flow from the negative terminal, through the wiring, through the devices, and back to the positive. If you disconnect the negative, it cant even start. To me, it doesn't make any difference. But you will not find an automobile manual to tell you to disconnect the positive. It is always the negative. I assume RV's are wired the same.

[Yosemitebob]

Originally Posted by NotyetMHCowner

Electrons flow from negative to positive. Automobiles have negative ground systems, so any work you do electrically, you disconnect the negative cable to protect the electronics. If you disconnected the positive, electrons are theoretically wanting to flow from the negative terminal, through the wiring, through the devices, and back to the positive. If you disconnect the negative, it cant even start. To me, it doesn't make any difference. But you will not find an automobile manual to tell you to disconnect the positive. It is always the negative. I assume RV's are wired the same.

That is a great explanation, but the reason for disconnecting the negative cable in an automotive reason, is to lessen the chance of a spark by removing the positive side first. Battery explosions are more susceptible to the spark at the source. I don't disagree with your statement, it's just more of a safety issue I believe. That being said, I do open the positive side with the switch.

[Pmedic4]

I make it easy - I remove the battery and put it on the shelf with a battery 'maintainer' hooked up in the garage.

There have been several threads about the Battery disconnect that comes on the RV, and how that doesn't remove the power from the landing gear or rear stablizers, which makes sense, or at least I understand it now.

What I found interesting, one time I had the Disconnect turned off - and yet the lights and pump inside the RV were still working! To say I was 'shocked', is to good of a pun to pass up, but I really was surprised! What it ended up being is that the switch, inside the disconnect didn't 'release', or however you want to describe it so the lights and things stayed powered. I checked, and just bumped the switch, and it snapped off. So, we all may want to check to see if the disconnect switch actually disconnects the power. It probably would bounce it enough to make it go off when traveling down the road?

[Yosemitebob]

Originally Posted by Pmedic4

I make it easy - I remove the battery and put it on the shelf with a battery 'maintainer' hooked up in the garage.

Unfortunately at my age, the battery is too heavy for me, I have to use the disconnect and I do with great success.