Not Maintaining Battery Charge

[Rocketgirl]

I recently purchased my 2002 1950 Lite. The battery eas dead on the lot, so the place i purchased it from put in a brand new battery. I have been using the Trailer every weekend and between trips, the battery seems to loose power completely over the course of a few days. I think it recharges when hooked up to my Jeep. I tried pulling the carbon monoxide detector fuse, no help.

I am camping off the grid this weekend and hope i can get a full charge on the battery before i get there.

Would it help to turn off other fuses? I can run the appliances off propane. Just need the 12 volt lighting and maybe the blower for the heat tonight.

From the other forums electrical responses, it sounds like the TV antenea draws also?

In addition, i am thinking of getting some assistance from a solar panel.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[krazedave]

You say you are camping off the grid this weekend so I assume the other times were with electric hook up. If that is the case I would plug trailer in and disconnect battery and check with a multimeter if you have voltage to battery. If not you have a convertor problem. Yes the TV booster draws and also your fridge does even on lp. Your water pump and water heater also draws. One battery is only good for about four days of dry camping when using TV and furnace as little as posible. Furnace draws the most power.

[Rocketgirl]

Ok, it sounds like I need to get a volt meter. Another thing that seems a little "off" (and i am wondering if it could possibly contribute to the battery drain), is the tank/battery level meter. The battery readings seem inconsistent, it can go from completely drained, to a little while later 1/3, then plug it into my running Jeep and it is instantly full (drawing from Jeep battery perhaps?), let the Jeep charge it for 15 minutes, check unplugged from Jeep, back to 1/3, but 1 12volt light barely has power and when pressing the " Check" button, the panel flashes and goes off completely. Maybe it just gets flukey when the battery is low? I can do another Jeep charge a little while later, and it might work as expected.

[j52wf]

Check inside the refridgerator. There might be a switch that heats the door gasket. That will kill a battery quickly. Turn it off.

[mainah]

Yep you need a good volt meter.

[Gene]

Here are a few random things that may help.

When on shore power, the converter should charge the battery. The converter in the 2002 models was usually a Centurion 3000 model. When the Centurion has shore power it needs to "see" 12 volts from the battery before it will turn on. "Seeing" 12 volts from the Jeep will turn it on. (Discovered that the hard way when my 2363 was "new to me")

That monitor panel with the lights will show "full" when connected to the Jeep. The Jeep provides about 14 volts but there will be a lot of loss in the wires from the Jeep to the trailer and trailer battery so it will not charge a low battery nearly as fast as it would charge the Jeep battery with the big heavy wires from the alternator to the Jeep battery. If the converter is not working it would be better to use a battery charger than to run the Jeep for long periods.

There are a lot of little things in the trailer that are a "parasitic" drain on the battery. The parasitic drain can drain a good battery in 3 or 4 days even with nothing switched on.

The furnace blower consumes a LOT of current and can drain a battery overnight unless you have a big battery (or 2) with a high amp/hours capacity.

Please don't disconnect the LP detector, it is a critical safety device.

Good luck .....

... oh yes, you do need a voltmeter. Even the cheap one from Harbor Freight helps.

[mainah]

I believe you'll find that charger has two systems one to charge the battery the other to light the lights. If I recall they did have charging problems again you'll need a volt meter plugged in check the voltage at you camper battery and see what it is. You can also do the same thing with your TV plugged into it while it's running. Give that a try and post your voltages. Unless you have an inverter to make 120 volts you should be able to get a least a couple of days out of "normal" use. If you have a test light you can remove the - battery cable on the camper and insert the test light in line between the cable and the battery post if it lights some thing is on. you will then need to remove fuses until the light goes out then you will know what is staying on. Certain things like radio memory and propane detectors do stay on but draw little current generally not enough to worry about short term.

[Rocketgirl]

Refrigerator: through process of elimination, experimentation on a long weekend off the grid, and this forum, I think j52wf is closest. I found the correct refrigerator manual and here is what it says about this mystery on/off switch I found on the Dometic Americana:

Climate Control Heater - in short, it eliminates condensation in humid, hot climates. It was in the "on" position. "NOTE: the climate control will draw 12 volts DC power continuously when in the ON position. It should be turned OFF when a charging source is not available."

So, I turned it off. So far so good. I will post my progress after this trip ends, Monday afternoon.

I hope this is it!!!

[Gene]

Originally Posted by mainah

I believe you'll find that charger has two systems one to charge the battery the other to light the lights. ....

Mine is one common buss that connects the converter out, battery, and 12 volt distribution.