Parasitic battery drains
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Category: R-pod Discussion Forums
Forum Name: Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks
Forum Discription: Ask maintenance questions, share your podmods (modifications) and helpful tips
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8941
Printed Date: 22 May 2025 at 2:19am
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Topic: Parasitic battery drains
Posted By: Pod People
Subject: Parasitic battery drains
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 11:27am
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------------- Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179 https://postimg.cc/0zwKrfB9"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: Pod People
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 11:35am
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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 ------------- Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179 https://postimg.cc/0zwKrfB9">
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Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 12:23pm
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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. ------------- |
Posted By: JandL
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 3:10pm
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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 ------------- JandL 2013 Honda Ridgeline 2012 177 2 Paynes in a Pod |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2016 at 4:02pm
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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.
------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: mtbmitch
Date Posted: 27 Oct 2016 at 11:08am
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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. ------------- enjoy the fresh air |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 27 Oct 2016 at 12:58pm
"RV industry" and "QC" have no discernible association. ------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 28 Oct 2016 at 8:57pm
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lol ------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual 
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Posted By: Luv2Q
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 3:10am
In fact, it almost seems like they're mutually exclusive. ------------- John & Teri Tundra 5.7L V8 / RP 180 E2 WDH / Integrated controller (POS) replaced by Tekonsha P3 |
Posted By: mjlrpod
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 9:27am
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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. ------------- 2017.5 Rp-172 2020 R-pod 195 2015 Frontier sv 4.0L 6cyl I'll be rpodding |
Posted By: sailor323
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 9:48am
| Which is best depends on the kind of camping you do. If you mostly hook up to shore power, a single 12V battery is all you need. If you boondock a lot, you need as much storage capacity as possible. 2 group 27 12s will give you about 100 usable amp hour. 2 6s will give you about the same, but since they are true deep cycle batteries, they can be recharged many more times than the two 12s and can deliver higher voltage for longer time than the 12s. They tolerate deep discharge better than the 12s |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 11:48am
The answer is capacity, cost, and effectiveness. A single 12V GP24 battery like supplied with your camper has a capacity of 85AH. Two 6V GC2 batteries provide 220AH. It would take three GP24s or two GP27/30s in parallel to approximate this capacity. Due to the huge number of golf carts in the world the GC2s can be less costly. And due to physics, battery cells work better in series instead of parallel. The cells in two GC2s are all in series. Paralleling multiple 12V batteries puts the cell groups in parallel which is not as good. See the following excerpt from the Trojan battery catalog:
------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 4:15pm
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Also, with GC2's, you get TRUE deep cycle batteries, which are less likely to be damaged when deeply discharged.. (below 50% capacity)
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Posted By: voisj
Date Posted: 29 Oct 2016 at 8:33pm
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Batteries usually come charged ready to go so here's the questions, 1 Are all the the cables tight to the battery terminals?( and the plastic caps removed. iv'e seen it) 2 2 6 volt batteries are wired different than 2 12 volt batteries, are they wired correctly? 3 Is the ground tight to a clean metal contact, No paint? I second the refer on gas suggestion, but there is no reason if all is correct they should die so soon. ------------- http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=9426&title=slopod-180-mods-johnsue - SLOPODMODS John&Sue,SLO,CA 2016 180 HRE, 2013 F150 Eco Boost 
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Posted By: Pod People
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2016 at 10:45pm
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Thanks to all for the suggestions. As it turned out,the first answer from furpod was right, as usual.Apparently the batteries were not fully charged from sitting on the shelves. The batteries were manufactured in July, 2016. After being hooked up to shore power for a day, they have been flawless since. I got them from Sam's Club at a cost of $112 each. They are Energizer CG2 and rated at 122ah each. Vann ------------- Vann & Laura 2015 RPod 179 https://postimg.cc/0zwKrfB9">
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