New Camper, New RV'er - Battery Dead

[GaBidcaller]

My wife and I recently purchased a new 2013 Keystone Bullet. When we took delivery of the Bullet the first of March 2013, a new deep cycle Battery had been put in the unit. We brought it home, stocked it up with the essentials and then took the unit to the RV Storage yard. That was 3 weeks ago. Today I went to the yard to check on it and found that my new Deep Cycle Battery was dead. I know that I made sure that every thing electrical in the camper was off when I put it on the RV Storage yard.

Can anybody give me some ideas as to what I might have missed that would have drained my battery down to dead in 3 weeks?

[SAD]

When in storage, it's best to have a battery disconnect switch. Which would totally is connect the battery from all items.

Generally there are parasitic losses in an RV despite everything being turned off - propane, CO2 detectors; radio presets; control boards for various appliances (despite being off)....

[Festus2]

In addition to those parasites that SAD mentioned, there is also another one that may be found in certain Dometic fridges. It is Climate Control rocker switch that is located on some Dometic fridges beneath the top decoration panel that houses the control panel. You have to open the freezer door and peek up and underneath the control panel to see this switch.

Your fridge may or may not have this Climate Control switch but if it does and was turned on, it will drain your battery (if not plugged in) in a hurry.

If you are not going to install a battery cut-off switch, you can always pull one or two of the fuses in the radio and CO2 detector circuit -- in the fuse box when the RV is in storage.

[Little Guy]

I find it easy to just take the battery out, put it on the workbench attached to a battery tender/maintainer. Fresh battery every trip, plus no dirtbag can steal it while the rig is in storage. I just hate when that happens.

[SteveC7010]

Some items to check:

Propane detector - constant current draw

Any other detector that is hard wired on the 12vdc side - constant current draw

Back light of the AM/FM/CD/DVD player - constant current draw

Memorized presets in the radio - constant current draw in some models.

Double check your outside compartments for a light left on.

ON/OFF switch for the propane side of the water heater. It is remotely possible that if you shut off the gas but leave the switch on, it may just try to light itself over and over again. Unlikely, but a good item for your shutdown check sheet anyway.

I do not know for sure that the remote control master unit does not have a parasitic draw. That might be worth a check with Lippert.

As other have mentioned, adding a battery switch is more than just a good idea these days. With all the parasitic draw items in our rigs, it's a must to shut off the battery when in storage. Failing a battery switch, disconnect the negative lead from the battery and tuck it away from the battery.

CRITICAL NOTE: In the RV world, White is ground and Black is hot for most things, especially in the battery compartment.

[fla-gypsy]

As noted this is very common due to parasitic loads. You have to disconnect or install a disconnect switch to prevent killing batteries.