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Old 11-28-2013, 04:59 PM   #1
rclark
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Battery went almost dead over night.

While dry camping on a road trip the batteries on the Alpine went almost dead. Had the LP furnace on over night with thermo set at 61. Was down to about 35 degrees outside. Got up about six to use bathroom and noticed lights were real dim. Check inside temp it was 53 and furnace was not working. Furnace was on from about seven hours. Had done the same thing the night before and battery was still on G when we got up. Generator would not start. Fortunately I had unhooked the connection to the TV so would still have batteries to start generator. Shouldn't the furnace be able to run all night without the batteries going dead. Drove about three hundred miles the day this happened so I am sure Battery should have been fully chanrge.????
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Old 11-28-2013, 05:15 PM   #2
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Depending upon the model of your furnace and its BTU, it may be drawing anywhere from 4 amps to 7 amps. If you had your lights on during the evening and if they are the regular incandescent bulb type, those lights will draw heavily on your battery. Add to that the draw made by the fridge, HW heater, water pump and detectors, your battery is being taxed. You mentioned that the furnace was operating most of the night which will draw heavily on the battery.

Did you use the generator to charge up your batteries during the day? Switching to LED lights will help significantly to reduce the draw on your batteries.

If your batteries are not in good condition or not being charged between periods of heavy demand, it isn't surprising that they "ran out of gas".
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Old 11-28-2013, 06:56 PM   #3
rclark
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We parked in a rest area and put the bedroom slide out and went to bed. WH was off, refridge on LP. Furnace was the only draw that I can think of. We had driven 300 miles that day. We did the same thing the day previous and batteries did fine. Batteries were new in Jan 2013.
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Old 11-28-2013, 07:37 PM   #4
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Maybe the first night was not as cold as the second but in general the furnace could easily drain the batteries when keeping it that hot when it is in the low 30's outside. Personally, I would throw another blanket on and turn the furnace way down.
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Old 11-28-2013, 07:59 PM   #5
Festus2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rclark View Post
We parked in a rest area and put the bedroom slide out and went to bed. WH was off, refridge on LP. Furnace was the only draw that I can think of. We had driven 300 miles that day. We did the same thing the day previous and batteries did fine. Batteries were new in Jan 2013.

Even though your fridge is on LP, it still puts a small drain on your 12v battery as will your HW heater if you had it on propane. Both have circuit boards which require 12v DC to function.

It appears as though you did not use your lights or water pump but if you did those two would also place a load on your battery.

Not sure how many hours your furnace was on but if it ran more or less continuously throughout the night, it could have run down your batteries.
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Old 11-29-2013, 02:59 AM   #6
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Check the "charge" connection on the truck side of the 7 pin trailer connection. Maybe your batteries were not as hot as you thought. On some trucks the "Charge" connection is on a separate fuze.Check the fuze. Are the connections clean? You did not mention if you had a battery switch allowing the use of either or both. If you do, don't use both. Use one battery at a time. I installed two volt meters on my rig. No guessing as to charge.
Hope this helps
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Old 11-29-2013, 08:23 AM   #7
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They probably weren't fully charged to begin with. The idiot light gauges are very unreliable and will only tell you something about your batteries when you've disconnected from shore power. I picked up a $9 hydrometer from Amazon last spring and found that to totally charge our two takes at least three days of being plugged in or being hooked to a charger. Neither the converter nor my old charger really put out enough voltage to charge the batteries any faster. Once the hydrometer says they're fully charged they're good for a good two nights boondocking (slides out & in, furnace, some lights).
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Old 11-29-2013, 02:06 PM   #8
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Furnace on battery

I think you would be really close with all night furnace use, your situation does not surprise me. While we do not do very much cold weather camping, I do always carry our old trusty Mitsubishi 1k. If in your situation, I would leave that running in the truck bed and plug the unit in. We have an extension cord mounted under the unit, runs from the rear 50/115 adapter plug all the way to the drivers side propane bay. When needed, we just drop the cord through the bottom of the propane bay and plug into the generator. Very nice for coffee maker and other with keeping the battery charged when on the dry.
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:05 PM   #9
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Thanks for all the info. I assume truck connection is good since as soon as I started the truck and then plugged in the fiver the batteries showed green with a c which means charging? I let it charge for a few minutes and was able to start the on board generator. (When I bought the unit the generator was supposed to be set up with a separate battery so you could start the generator when the fiver batteries got low. Did not happen I guess I didn't check it out) I thought driving for 300 hundred miles would fully charge the fiver batteries. I guess not.

We are plugged into shore power for the next week and then will dry camp on our way to Camp Pendleton to see our son. Won't be as cold so maybe won't be a good test. I definitely will unhook the TV, not willing to try and see if it would drain the truck battery also.

Does anyone know if most on board generators have a separate battery? Seem like you should be able to start the genny when fiver batts go south.
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:39 PM   #10
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My Fuzion 403 came with a single battery. First mod I made was a dual battery system
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Old 11-29-2013, 04:49 PM   #11
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I have dual batteries, but the generator starts off these batteries?
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Old 11-29-2013, 05:53 PM   #12
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im thinking about 3 batteries

ive seen several systems on here. one guy did 2 6volt batteries in series with a 12 volt for the generator. I am thinking about adding a third 12 volt battery with an automatic battery charger hooked to it just for the generator. then if my batteries go dead I still can start the generator
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Old 11-29-2013, 06:11 PM   #13
rclark
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I been thinking about the third batt also, not sure how it would hook up to keep separated from the house batts and still be charged up when the generator was running. Never heard of the automatic charger you are referring to. A little detail please and thanks.
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Old 11-29-2013, 06:14 PM   #14
rclark
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I might add my DW says get a Motorhome to solve the problem??
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Old 11-29-2013, 07:59 PM   #15
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DH's should always listen to the advice of their DW's. Having said that, I'm not sure getting a motorhome, will solve your current battery problem.
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Old 11-30-2013, 04:00 PM   #16
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automatic battery charger

you know they make automatic battery chargers for cars, bikes, etc. I would guess a 2 amp would be sufficient to keep it up. that's how I kept my batteries up when the power converter went out. while you have 120 volts the charger will charge the battery till full. and since all it is going to do is start the generator there wont be much draw on it.
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Old 12-15-2013, 09:21 PM   #17
rclark
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Spent the night in Deming NM and temp was down to about 25. Had furn(LP) set at 55 last nite and the temp was down to 25. Used the lites a little bit before bed. Battery was still on G(yellow) when I got up about 7 and started the generator with no problem. For insurance I unplugged the TV again. In nice RV park in Ft. Stockton TX tonight.
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