Battery drain

[Aorobie]

dry camping with my 2017 Fuzion 371 with two brand new 6v batteries first trip having to jump start the generator in the morning as the voltage was down below 11v figured maybe I need to be a little more careful. Second trip out monitored the voltage all day and into the night and starting generator when voltage dropped to 11v. This most recent trip as an experiment I used absolutely nothing for a 24 hr period and still the voltage falls off. Rest of the weekend staring at the voltage meter and starting generator. Other than the led lighted USB port and 2 led lighted rocker switches what is sucking on my batteries? I have noticed the refer circulating fans seems to run a lot and the iN·Command system may used a little juice also. Any thoughts or ideas appreciated

[chuckster57]

Your radio has a memory. If you have a 4 door Norcold refer with the built-in fans, I have noticed they will suck a lot of juice. I know the refer will kill a gp27 battery overnight.

[Aorobie]

Thanks for the quick response..yes norcold 4 door and that will be my next check I'll shut it down at night and see how that effects my voltage drop.

[ctbruce]

Also the carbon monoxide CO detector deaws, but don't disconnect it.

Does your refer have the heated strips in the doors?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Aorobie]

Heated strips in the doors? I'll have to take a look the manual but I don't think so

[Wildhorse]

These trailers are hungry no doubt. The fridge can draw up to 4 amps if you have an ice maker, but mine doesn’t and is down closer to 2 amps. The sound bar on mine draws a half an amp even when turned off. The cameras are always hot, as well as the C02 detector. There’s a button hidden behind your TV that powers an amplifier in your roof antenna and if you leave that on it draws a half an amp. In a day that’s 12 amp hours wasted. The sound bar is another 12 amp hours spent for nothing even when it’s off. I wired in a kill switch for the sound bar to get rid of that draw completely when we’re not using it. The heater blower is the real killer of batteries on my Raptor. It’s in the 12 amp range when it’s blowing.

I’ve done an energy survey in the past by disconnecting my battery cable and putting an ammeter into the circuit and turned everything on and back off individually to have an accurate chart so that we can sort of spend our amp hours in a way that low voltage alarms and our shivering from being cold don’t wake us up in the middle of the night.

One of the things to keep in mind is that when you disconnect your truck and use your leveling jacks the batteries are hit pretty hard to lift and gyrate that beast of a trailer until it’s level. Basically you start your stay with batteries that are far from topped off from this. Then most likely the generator never runs long enough to get you back over 80 percent charge. I also have two 6 volts with 250 amp hours to spend, well actually 125 amp hours to not drop below 50 percent goal for improved battery life. Of this assume 80 percent charge starting out which might be optimistic due to the jacks when you arrive as well as slides trying to kill your batteries. So now those 250 amp hours on tap are closer to 200, and the usable is down to 100 now. In 24 hours your fridge will burn up 50 of those, and up to the entire 100 if you have the ice maker. Add in a sound bar that’s turned off that will spend 12 amp hours each day, as well as your, tv antenna amp left on and you’ve burned thru even another 12 of your amp hours on tap without ever using any power in your own mind. If the heater turns on your fate is now sealed.

I’m in this energy charting loop again myself because I’m trying to really nail this stuff down for an inverter install that I’m about to do. My Raptor has been powered up all day out front the last several days and with shore power removed at 8 pm and batteries checked the next morning at 8 am. With the batteries peaked at 8 pm and the fridge on, heater on and set to 62 degrees, in command on, and the nothing else happening because we aren’t in there using anything the batteries are down to 65 percent the next morning. This is three days in a row now so I’m believing it to be pretictable. This is also eye opening in that when camping and by starting at 80 percent or less due to slide deployment and the jacks I’ll be under 50 percent in the morning even with my big 6 volt batteries in the scenario I have been testing with. I’ve decided that I need another 250 amp hours on tap to make my trailer usable without shore power. The way it is I don’t think we can run the generator enough to ever go to bed charged to 100 percent.

I hope this has helped to illustrate your problem. Your trailer is even bigger than mine.

[Tinner12002]

dry camping with my 2017 Fuzion 371 with two brand new 6v batteries first trip having to jump start the generator in the morning as the voltage was down below 11v figured maybe I need to be a little more careful. Second trip out monitored the voltage all day and into the night and starting generator when voltage dropped to 11v. This most recent trip as an experiment I used absolutely nothing for a 24 hr period and still the voltage falls off. Rest of the weekend staring at the voltage meter and starting generator. Other than the led lighted USB port and 2 led lighted rocker switches what is sucking on my batteries? I have noticed the refer circulating fans seems to run a lot and the iN·Command system may used a little juice also. Any thoughts or ideas appreciated

Not sure if Fuzions have it but on my IN-Command I have an auto start for the gen so if voltage gets to a certain low point it will auto start the gen and run it for 60min I believe.
I know they have phantom draws because after leaving mine for a couple weeks, battery was dead so I installed another disconnect when I had my 3 new batteries installed. Though that only helps when storing it.

[JRTJH]

Something not yet mentioned that is optional on the Fuzion line is the holding tank heaters. They are 12 volt "energy hogs" that will kill a battery in a few short hours. If they are inadvertently left on, expect to wake up to a cold trailer even with four 6 volt batteries.

[Aorobie]

Thanks for the outstanding info. I plan on following the paths that you have outlined. as of this morning I'm going to run my first test...shore power for 24hrs and because I think my refer circulating fans are the main culprit remove trailer from shore power and fire up refer and monitor the voltage. I've noticed those fans are running almost continually. short of maybe shutting down the refer for the night while camping any thoughts on being able if possible to shut down the fan yet keep refer running.

[chuckster57]

They are activated by the control board located on the back of the fridge. They operate anytime the fridge is "on" so there may be a relay somewhere. I haven't dug that deep into the control board of a NorCold refer yet. Id be interested in what you find.

[Aorobie]

Thanks went out and checked the tank heaters they are off ...forgot I had those don't think I'll ever use them but I got em