new battery

marcom13 · 07-08-2014, 09:21 AM

Hi Folks, well summer's here, spring maintenance done, time to play. I have a sunline T1700, put a brand new battery in, shut off all that I know about,EG: lights fans, pump but over night battery went dead. I have it on ac now hoping my 3230 converter will charge it up. My question, for those of you with experience is, what have I missed to drain off the battery, got two weeks before the first trip and must start checking everything.
Thanks to all of you for your past kindness and for any future help. Thank you,
Emmett

**JohnB** · 07-08-2014, 10:52 AM

If you have a power booster on the TV antenna, this can add a drain to the battery. Look for a little green light on the wall outlet for the TV set where the antenna cable plugs in.

The LP detector is on all the time. There is no way to turn it off inside the camper, on purpose. Over time, it can drain the battery. (days to a week or more)

If your camper has a DVD/or Radio with a display, the display uses a low level of power.

You really need to either add a disconnect switch to the battery or unhook the negative terminal from the battery when you are storing the camper to prevent the battery from draining down.

Now that said, if you have a "new" battery fully charged and that went dead in one night, that is a different problem. The 3 items I listed above can take several days to drain the battery and pending the combination of them on, 1 week or more.

By chance, do you have a digital volt meter? Check the battery voltage (at the battery) when you stop using the camper and then the next day when inside is dead. Need to record in one decimal place. This will help tell if the battery actually made it to full charge and then drained down. This helps point to other possible issues.

This sort of comes down to, you have a real large draw inside the camper pulling the battery down, the battery was never fully charged to start with, something is creating high resistance not allowing the battery power to get inside or back to the battery to charge OR well something else not yet thought of.

What brand power converter do you have? (is it the original?)

What year camper?

When the battery is dead, does the camper light up (12 volt things start working) when you plug in the power converter?

Hope this helps

John

mainah · 07-08-2014, 05:57 PM

The converter is a ho hum charger not real good at battery charging but a charged rbattery should not go dead over night. I have gone 5 days running my 12 volt stuff fans LED lights etc with 2 batteries. Do you own a 12 volt test light? If you don't buy one at the auto parts store disconnect one battery lead connect the test light between the cable and the battery it should not light. If it does start pulling fuses until it goes out if all the fuses are out and it's still on the converter/charger is suspect. What ever makes it go out should be easy to deal with once you find out what does not work with the fuse out

marcom13 · 07-08-2014, 11:21 PM

I knew I could count on the members here!!! OK,so it turns out that the pump had been on and I did not hear it because of the storm, the reason why I was in the camper at 1am in my driveway, to shut the windows. I am now charging the battery from my 3230 inverter/converter and after just an hour, everything is working. Mainah, thank you for your help, I will buy a 12 volt tester for the future and John B, thanks for all your suggestions as well. I'm getting excited, each new thing that I discover makes me happier about buying this little trailer. Going to the Great American Irish Festival in Herkimer NY on the 24 and 25 and 26 of this month and want everything to be working so Momma and I can just relax and enjoy the Irish festivities. God Bless and thanks again.
Emmett

Poppy & Nana · 07-09-2014, 04:51 AM

Emmett - glad you are slowly but surely figuring out your Sunline.....in case you did not know - we are having a few Meet & Greets in New York in September and there is also one in Vermont - see that you are going to Herkimer in July - well Old Forge (Adk M&G) is September 19th (ish) and Rochester is Sept 5th (ish)....come join us and meet some of the wonderful forum members!!!!

**JohnB** · 07-09-2014, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marcom13

OK,so it turns out that the pump had been on and I did not hear it because of the storm, the reason why I was in the camper at 1am in my driveway, to shut the windows. Emmett

Emmett,

GREAT!!! Glad you found the problem. Heads up though, if the water pump has been running for a real long time, hours worth, dry and not pumping, that "might" create pump priming issues later on. There are check valves in the pump that dirt or something gets beat into the seat and then they do not hold prime well. Just a heads up you try the pump out before your next camping trip so you know all is good.

I had this happen to me. We went for a walk at camp and the pump was left "on" but it had pressure built up and not running. Came back from the hike a few hours later to the smell of hot electrical insulation stink. Oh boy... The water tank was just about empty, the pump must of turned on to build pressure and it sucked air over the top of the water in the tank and blew the pump prime. The pump was running for a few hours dry and was a real low pitch hum I could barley hear. when we came back

After this event... I learned. 1. Never leave the pump turned on when you leave the camper....

2. The pump never worked right again after this. It kept loosing prime to the point I replaced the pump.

Happy camping this year.

John

marcom13 · 07-10-2014, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poppy & Nana

Emmett - glad you are slowly but surely figuring out your Sunline.....in case you did not know - we are having a few Meet & Greets in New York in September and there is also one in Vermont - see that you are going to Herkimer in July - well Old Forge (Adk M&G) is September 19th (ish) and Rochester is Sept 5th (ish)....come join us and meet some of the wonderful forum members!!!!

Hi,
Poppy and nana,
We have already discussed this possibility and both of us are excited at the prospect of our first M&G. A million years ago, when I lived in Syracuse, my friends and I used to camp at Nick's Lake, in old forge. The first time we did this, I met the town operator over the phone and met her for drinks. What fun in the days of picking up the phone and just giving a number to connect to. We are planning to be there. I'm still fully employed but will make time available, CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poppy & Nana · 07-10-2014, 02:34 PM

Wonderful!!!!

This have changes a bit.....even since we purchased our house here 25+ years ago...

See ya in September! - Loop C is where we are trying to gather!!!!