Battery draining issue

[Campy]

We went on a camping trip for over a week with no issues at all. Came home and parked the camper and in just a couple of weeks the battery is flat. I charged it up and turned off the master switch and dead battery again. Turns out the master switch don't turn everything off. Any ideas what could be a major drain or possibly the built-in charger itself, I had one in a class A fail and drain the batteries.

[notanlines]

Campy, your battery being drained in a matter of 10 days to two weeks is very normal, right on target. A number of things are designed to be operative 24 hours a day so they are wired direct to your battery. Smoke alarms that might be part of your system, carbon monoxide sensors, AM/FM radios are but a few I'll mention. Your only alternative is to install a direct cut-off on either the hot or ground cable on your battery itself. I've included a site with an example, one of probably fifty or more that will do the job.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FLXDBG6...d-fa30b367fac6
I might add that your particular battery is more than likely on it's last leg after having been run down flat a couple times. Might look into that.

[GHen]

X2, it’s normal for the battery to be dead in 2 weeks. Yes, stupid.

I also added a full battery cut off and don’t use the factory disconnect. Just remember to turn it on while traveling, it powers your emergency trailer brakes.

[wiredgeorge]

You could run a 15A power cord and connect to your trailers power cord via adapter or put a 12V float charger with extension cord next to your battery and keep it charging. I have no battery cut off switch in my old camper and that is what I am forced to do so the battery doesn't get drained.

[{tpc}]

Look to your radio inside the camper. A lot of these have the "time" on them, so as a result a lot of them don't disconnect from a master switch, even if your lucky enough to have one. If it has the time, or blue glowing led lights, or anything of the sort, I would bet this is the parasitic drain causing your battery to go flat.

Very easy to wire a switch up to this sort of thing to remove it from the battery if you need to. The CO2 or propane detectors also have a "light" on them (and probably other functions they are doing) that can cause a similar drain.

[GHen]

Smoke detectors, Co2 detector, a leveling system, trailer brakes all can draw power even with the factory disconnect. Too many government regulations tied to its design has caused it not to function as intended, just like the government, lol.

On top of that the factory disconnects are subject to being miss wired by the factory, that was the only warranty issue on my rig.

[Campy]

Battery should be ok according to Interstate, it's a deep cycle and designed to be run down and charged back up. Leaving them dead is what damages them. I have since installed a main shut off in the front near the battery that will shut down everything.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Campy

Battery should be ok according to Interstate, it's a deep cycle and designed to be run down and charged back up. Leaving them dead is what damages them. I have since installed a main shut off in the front near the battery that will shut down everything.

Campy what kind of battery is it that you have? The only true deep cycles Interstate has are the GC2s. They do now have the EFB (enhanced flooded battery) line that do offer more reserve capacity but also still retain the CCA ratings which means they are still a hybrid. Here is a link to what discharging a hybrid battery does to its life (see page 4):

https://www.intechtrailers.com/image...nce-Manual.pdf

Whoever told you the battery "should be OK" meant you can recharge it and it's not dead and won't come to life again. The problem is that the times it will "come to life" is cut short by about 90% if it gets fully discharged.

My dealer pulled the breakaway switch on my trailer while they were working on it and left it until it killed both new Interstate batteries. They charged them and told me they were "OK". I showed them the chart in the link and told them they had ruined the life of the batteries and I wanted new ones....they were replaced.

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Campy what kind of battery is it that you have? The only true deep cycles Interstate has are the GC2s. They do now have the EFB (enhanced flooded battery) line that do offer more reserve capacity but also still retain the CCA ratings which means they are still a hybrid. Here is a link to what discharging a hybrid battery does to its life (see page 4):

https://www.intechtrailers.com/image...nce-Manual.pdf

Whoever told you the battery "should be OK" meant you can recharge it and it's not dead and won't come to life again. The problem is that the times it will "come to life" is cut short by about 90% if it gets fully discharged.

My dealer pulled the breakaway switch on my trailer while they were working on it and left it until it killed both new Interstate batteries. They charged them and told me they were "OK". I showed them the chart in the link and told them they had ruined the life of the batteries and I wanted new ones....they were replaced.

Words like “ok” and “ fine” never instill much confidence

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by jasin1

Words like “ok” and “ fine” never instill much confidence

Sometimes dealers use those terms as a polite way to say "shut up and go away". JMHO

[quaddriver]

Originally Posted by jasin1

Words like “ok” and “ fine” never instill much confidence

Im pretty sure those hornets are not the murdering type?

[flybouy]

Would be interested in which Interstate battery you have.

[NH_Bulldog]

I don’t believe that Interstate has any true Deep Cycle batteries. They may say Marine/RV Deep Cycle, but they list CCA and CA (cold cranking Amps and cranking amps) which is not a real Deep Cycle. You should never get below 50% state of charge (some say no less than 80%). Anything below that drastically shortens the life of the battery and may not ever take a full charge again.

[Essvar]

Originally Posted by NH_Bulldog

I don’t believe that Interstate has any true Deep Cycle batteries. They may say Marine/RV Deep Cycle, but they list CCA and CA (cold cranking Amps and cranking amps) which is not a real Deep Cycle. You should never get below 50% state of charge (some say no less than 80%). Anything below that drastically shortens the life of the battery and may not ever take a full charge again.

Interstate does have true 6v deep cycle batteries. They look like this

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Essvar

Interstate does have true 6v deep cycle batteries. They look like this

Aren't those their GC2 batteries? If so I referenced them in post 10.

[Essvar]

Originally Posted by sourdough

Aren't those their GC2 batteries? If so I referenced them in post 10.

Apologies… yes they are the GC2 and yes you did reference them.

[RogerThat99]

My battery is not new, but goes dead in a about a week also. My drain is the CO detector and the radio (light and clock). Last time I used it, I disconnected the battery to see if it would hold a charge. 2 weeks and I was still at 12.6 volts. So it held amok charge.

Today installed a 1.5v solar maintainer. I will see how that works.

[quaddriver]

after 25 years of rving, this summer I finally wised up and put a true 120v, 30a rv outlet on the garage...but before that I always did a 30->15A adapter and kept plugged in, the battery chargers I used (noco genius) would go into float...the batteries in winnie I just sold are 9 years old and will still boondock 3 days, mebbe 2 in the winter due to the furnace.


Im not sure I like the new battery charger in my converter yet, Id like to find a schematic and map it out. but if there is a drain, make your power budget....with everything off, even the led lights, find out how much current flows from the battery, not plugged in, switches off (but not the red battery switch!) by using a DMM in 10amp mode. if the total is under say 2amps or the max of your DMM DC amperage, then switch to 2amp mode and start unplugging things you THINK are on at the fuse box, build an adapter out of 1/4" blade terminals and see which line has a parasite.


it will likely be under 100ma each, BUT if you have a lot of them. small, times a lot, now equals a lot.


What is the amp/hr rating of your battery? say it is 140...that means 1amp, 140 hours or 14 amps 10 hours (not really, its not linear) and as the battery degrades, so does the a/h rating but anyways, 140 hours is 8 days. 1 amp should kill it in under 8 days.


a digital clock or co detector? my last CO detector ran about a year on 3 AA batteries...so I hope it aint THAT much.


does keystone publish the wiring diagrams of these things and a drawing with the wire paths?

[flybouy]

No wiring diagrams are available from Keystone. They are considered proprietary and if they did hand them out I don’t know what the chances would be of it matching any given unit. In other words, any 2 otherwise identical trailers coming off the line could be wired and plumbed diferently.

In reading your post there are 2 discrepancis with your "battery usage math". First, the vast majority of batteries supplied by RV dealers are flooded cell 12 vdc "dual purpose" (think marine starting/deep cycle battery). The battery will likely have an 85 ah or less capacity. As they are flooded cell only ~50% or less of that capacity is actually useable before the battery is damaged. For easy math let's say you have 40 ah to work with before things stop working. At a mere 1 amp draw you are looking at less than 2 days.

The actual battery drain can vary widely depending on the units fitment. Besides the obvious battery capacity and condition if a trailer has any blutooth operated systems duch as InCommand then that system is always on communicating looking for a signal. Unlike a powered vehichle the stereo may have a display that's always on so there's more drain than just the memory presets.

[quaddriver]

Originally Posted by flybouy

No wiring diagrams are available from Keystone. They are considered proprietary and if they did hand them out I don’t know what the chances would be of it matching any given unit. In other words, any 2 otherwise identical trailers coming off the line could be wired and plumbed diferently.

In reading your post there are 2 discrepancis with your "battery usage math". First, the vast majority of batteries supplied by RV dealers are flooded cell 12 vdc "dual purpose" (think marine starting/deep cycle battery). The battery will likely have an 85 ah or less capacity. As they are flooded cell only ~50% or less of that capacity is actually useable before the battery is damaged. For easy math let's say you have 40 ah to work with before things stop working. At a mere 1 amp draw you are looking at less than 2 days.

The actual battery drain can vary widely depending on the units fitment. Besides the obvious battery capacity and condition if a trailer has any blutooth operated systems duch as InCommand then that system is always on communicating looking for a signal. Unlike a powered vehichle the stereo may have a display that's always on so there's more drain than just the memory presets.

I was just using 140a/h as a frinstance...a big 30 group meets that easy. I have a new from camping world G24 interstate deep cycle, if it HAS a marine starting rating...thats a bonus, the MS rating means the plates are thicker and held up with thicker webbing to prevent cell shorts from the pounding. and it can withstand a heavy drawdown in short periods. I think winne had strict G24/DCs in them but the boat and TLB both use MS/DC batteries - for the beatings.



But like I said, the a/h rating is not linear, it runs linear to the first de-rate when the state of charge (SOC) drops below 90%, the a/h rating will hold for that 10%, i.e. in a 140ah case. 14 hours at 1 amp then its 90% and it changes. Used to be you could find this out...but not anymore.


Bummer they dont give the wiring with the trailer paperwork, I was surprised to find that...winnie had the coach engineering in them, wiring, plumbing, hard points etc. But she also had the + for every DC circuit was purple 12ga and the - was green....