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New here, battery problems.

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Bandit206

RVF Regular
Joined
Nov 30, 2020
Messages
6
Hi
I just bought a 2002 fleet wood expedition 34m.
House batteries were bad and replaced them and were working great. Chassis batteries were also great. Away for 2 weeks and now all batteries are dead.
Though I had everything turned off, checked 2 times.
What to do besides just charging again?
I will be asking a lot of questions going forward and I hope I don’t come across as a complete dummy.
This is my first rv and I know I will need a lot of help.
Thanks
 
Can we assume correctly that the RV was not plugged into shore power during that two-week period? If so, there are many unseen parasitic power draws even when everything is "turned off." TVs, radios, monitoring systems, etc. still draw a small amount of power when they are "off." And, batteries do lose a small amount of charge if they are not on some kind of charging circuit.

If the RV was plugged in, then the charging circuit is not working.

TJ
 
This is my first rv and I know I will need a lot of help.
Well, you've come to the right place!

I had a 2004 Wind Sport a couple of years ago. If I left it off the charger for a couple of weeks, I would have the same problem. I couldn't find where the draw was originating, and chasing it down was promising to be too expensive, so I put a small solar panel on the roof. Turned out it generated enough power to offset the draw.

Now that may or may not have been the right solution, but it worked for me.
 
My rig is always plugged in. The old one only had 2 house batteries and an overnight stop without the generator running would result in 25- 50% drop on the batteries. I would only run a light for a few hours and maybe a fan.
As TJ said there are many things still drawing power even with the salesman switch engaged. I have learned to keep my car on a trickle charger when it will sit for a few weeks unused.
 
As far as the house batteries are concerned, if you have a battery disconnect switch, you should use that to depower the house if your coach is going to sit unplugged for any length of time. Secondly, turn off your inverter as that has a steady drain as well.

Regarding the chassis batteries, those should be okay for a few weeks unless there is a parasitic drain from somewhere. If your coach has one of those 5-watt solar panels on the roof, that should have kept your chassis batteries topped off unless it was stored inside away from the sun.
 
 
Take them to Sam's or somewhere where they can test them WITH load, not just voltage like you would with a voltmeter. Those instruments are accurate enough to tell you about the health of your batteries.
 

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