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Pod People
Senior Member
Joined: 22 Sep 2011
Location: Chapel Hill,NC
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Posts: 1088
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Topic: Parasitic battery drains Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 11:27am |
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Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179
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Pod People
Senior Member
Joined: 22 Sep 2011
Location: Chapel Hill,NC
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1088
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Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 11:35am |
Somehow,the blank post happened- sorry!! We just purchased 2 new 6 volt golf cart batteries. After installing them, we drove for about an hour with the truck charging them. After using them for 1 day, the meter showed they were down to 12.2 volts. We used no lights(all solar powered lanterns), the furnace came on twice and the refrigerator was on propane. The only parasitic loads that I know of was the propane detector. We have no entertainment system. I do have a 400 watt inverter directly connected to the battery, but it was not in use. We did not use the water pump. We have a 20 watt PWM solar controller installed but we did not use it. Does anybody have an idea why the batteries were weakened so quickly? Thanks Vann
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Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp
Joined: 25 Jul 2011
Location: Central KY
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Posts: 6128
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Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 12:23pm |
What was their charge state to begin with? "Charged while driving" doesn't help us much.. You could have a 200aH "needed charge" and in an hour your eX can only send 30 or so back there through the Bargman connector, and if running the fridge on 12v, it ate at least 10 of them..
I have tested our standby loads, and show 165mA, and we have a couple remote control additions that sit and listen for commands.. Your best bet would be to use a multimeter to see what your steady state draws are. It easy. Just disconnect a battery cable, pos or neg will work, set your DMM to mA/A, or whatever setting it has for current that is appropriate, make sure you are plugged into the leads that match the expected current (I always use the 10A range/inputs) Then put your DMM in-line with the battery and cable, as a "jumper". You can do this with everything turned off, to see what draws you have all the time, and with some stuff turned on to see how much it draws.. but be careful with that, you don't want to blow the fuse or worse, in your DMM.
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JandL
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Joined: 29 Mar 2014
Location: California
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Posts: 364
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Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 3:10pm |
I agree with furpod you have over 200 amp hours batteries and they may have not been fully charged when it was installed in your trailer. I would plug the trailer into AC and let onboard battery charger bring them to a fully charged state. If you have a volt meter you can check the voltage level
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JandL
2013 Honda Ridgeline
2012 177
2 Paynes in a Pod
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CharlieM
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Joined: 23 Nov 2012
Location: N. Colorado
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Posts: 1797
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Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 4:02pm |
Make sure the fridge is on propane, not battery, while driving. The 12V option almost guarantees little or no charging. The inverter can have a small residual draw even when not in use. Disconnect it or make sure it is truly off when not in use. Leave shore power connected for a full day between trips for a full charge. 200+ AH dual golfers should last days for usage as you describe.
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Charlie
Northern Colorado
OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD
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mtbmitch
Groupie
Joined: 15 Sep 2013
Location: Boise, idaho
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Posts: 91
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Posted: 27 Oct 2016 at 11:08am |
Also check where the battery cable ground attachment to the frame is. Mine had a coat of paint between ground cable and the frame. Only way and return voltage was getting back to the battery was via a few threads on the bolt. FR really needs to get a good qc program going.
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enjoy the fresh air
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CharlieM
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Nov 2012
Location: N. Colorado
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Posts: 1797
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Posted: 27 Oct 2016 at 12:58pm |
Originally posted by mtbmitch
......................... FR really needs to get a good qc program going.
| "RV industry" and "QC" have no discernible association.
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Charlie
Northern Colorado
OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD
PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp
Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Location: MD
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Posts: 9062
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Posted: 28 Oct 2016 at 8:57pm |
lol
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Luv2Q
Senior Member
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Location: Central TX
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Posts: 309
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Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 3:10am |
Originally posted by CharlieM
Originally posted by mtbmitch
......................... FR really needs to get a good qc program going.
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"RV industry" and "QC" have no discernible association.
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In fact, it almost seems like they're mutually exclusive.
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John & Teri
Tundra 5.7L V8 / RP 180
E2 WDH / Integrated controller (POS) replaced by Tekonsha P3
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mjlrpod
Senior Member
Joined: 27 Sep 2016
Location: Massachusetts
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Posts: 1221
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Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 9:27am |
Ive seen a few posts about batteries. Most times they say they use 2 six volt batteries. why?? is 2 sixes better than 1 twelve? is 2 twelves ok? just wondering how i want to set mine up when i get it.
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2017.5 Rp-172
2020 R-pod 195
2015 Frontier sv 4.0L 6cyl
I'll be rpodding
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