High amperage draw on 12 volt system

Dingo · 07-12-2020, 06:20 PM

I need some assistance. This is my first trailer . It is a 2005 T2363 trailer and it’s 26 feet long. IT seems, at least to me that I’m having a heavy draw on my 12 volt electrical system.( battery) Fridge on propane, hot water heater on propane, only thing on is the water pump. The total draw is .49 amps. When I disconnect the radio it immediately drops to .12. A drop of .37 amps. This does not seem correct to myself. My question is this normal or is this somewhat high? If so is there a fix that you know of?
Thanks in advance Dingo.

Tinstaafl · 07-12-2020, 07:47 PM

370 milliamps isn't much current at all for a radio that's turned on, and not really all that much even if it's turned off but has an active display like the clock.

Even on propane, the frig will have some electronic circuitry that draws a bit of juice.

I wouldn't consider that amount of current to be out of line; your battery should last for quite some time at that level. Easy enough to put a switch on the radio's supply line if you really want to be miserly with your power.

j52wf · 07-13-2020, 05:43 AM

There is also the propane leak detector drawing a little juice. I had a radio switch installed on one of my trailers. Didn't bother on the last 2. If it was really necessary, I would just pull the fuse.

mainah · 07-13-2020, 07:02 AM

Group 24 battery is an 80 amp hour battery so at the high end 40 hours at your full load everything running so close to 4 days.

**JohnB** · 07-15-2020, 04:30 PM

Hi Dingo,

This is the manual on my 2004 Sunline Voyager radio/CD player. I'm not sure if Sunline changed the model or not in the 2005 campers. https://www.asaelectronics.com/downl...ers_manual.pdf

It really does not list with amperage or watts it needs to run on. It states it can push 50 watts to the speakers. Not sure what voltage they are using in the speaker circuit, but if you measured 0.370 amps with it just on and not playing a CD, well that can be what it is.

If you are looking at this from trying to boondock off grid on battery power only, and we camp that way often, just take the unit out of the cabinet and pull the fuse. That is what I do, we do not listen to it, so not need to waste the power. When plugged into shore power, they give you a very large power converter to create 12 volts and it will power any and all things in the camper.

And if you are wanting to only run on battery, change out the light to LED's. The old incandescent draw 1.4 amps each. That is a lot of power on 1 light bulb. LEDs can be 0.2 amps

Hope this helps

John