Battery Drain

[gail]

We've been experiencing battery drain when we leave our Oliver parked for a few weeks. We have all the breakers switched off, yet find the batteries dead when we try to hook up. There is obviously a discharge somewhere in the trailer. Anyone else experience this phenomena?

Mike & Gail

[ScubaRx]

Mike and Gail,

 

When you say breakers, are you referring to the 120VAC breakers or the 12VDC switches to the upper left as you enter the trailer? The 120VAC breakers would not prevent a battery drain. Somewhere there is something drawing 12 volts (as you've already figured out.) Try to think of all the items that would use 12 volts: Lights, pump, jacks, fans, stereo, television, inverter and make sure they are not running. Lights are probably the biggest draw (closet light off?) There are several moniters (smoke, propane gas, CO) that will draw some power, but I would hope not enough to actually run the batterys down in a matter of weeks. We keep our Oliver plugged up all the time, so we've not had this problem.

 

Not much help, maybe others will weigh in and be smarter....

 

Steve

[gail]

Steve,

Will have to ask Mike which breakers (ours are upper left as you walk in). Yes, we've checked to be sure all 12 volt usage items are off. Mike is sure there is something in the wiring....very frustrating! We park our trailer in a storage lot with no electric hookup. Until we figure this out, next time we park it we will disconnect the batteries.

We have a Maggie canine also, a Westie. What is your Maggie?

Gail

[ScubaRx]

Gail,

 

Apparently I don't know my right from my left. My switches are on the left also.

 

Our dogs are:

 

Storm - Male Doberman Pinscher

Maggie - Female Miniature Pinscher

Lucy - Female Daschund

 

They are all black and tan and love to travel with us. When you get all five of us in the trailer at one time it is a little tight.

 

Here's some pics that are posted on another site:

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/oliver-tra ... ool/page2/

 

Steve

[gail]

We had the 12VDC breakers all off. Charged our batteries at home, then connected them and heard a little zap so there was still something pulling power. Looked over everything, can't figure it out. Unless it would be the two monitors - carbon monoxide and smoke??

 

Wow, 3 dogs and you two, that would be a tight fit!! Our Maggie just curls up behind the table leg in her bed and is a very happy camper, can't wait for a trip. We're off to Interlochen, MI tomorrow. Glorious camping weather here in Michigan this time of year.

 

Gail

[herm]

Gail,

 

Your idea of disconnecting the battery between trips is a good one, since you don't have access to shore power. I try not to leave mine unplugged for more than 1-2 weeks max, as the voltage will have dropped to 12.4 by that time. Letting the batteries go completely dead is bad and will shorten their life. The only other option I can think of would be to connect a small, portable solar panel (if you have it stored in a secure outdoor area) to compensate for the continuous draws.

 

Herm

[SeaDawg]

Under the aft single dinette seat, there's a red circuit breaker switch/trip. With this turned off, you will disconnect all electricity coming from the batteries, unless there's something else run to your battery differently than ours. Unless you trip this, or disconnect the batteries manually, you will always have a small amount of drain from sensors, etc.

We had the same problem once leaving our trailer for ten days, before we had solar power to recharge. Hope this helps. If you can't find the trip, post again. I don't remember exactly where it is, and the trailer is back at Kakabeka Falls CG... no wireless there.

 

Sherrry

[tumbleweed]

Hi!

Seadawg probably right to shut off all juice.

We're currently workamping in New Mexico with three dogs and other than neat little dances in the aisle in passing, we're having a BLAST!!!

Hope this settles your dilemna!

Chuck Geri n the critters!

[herm]

Oh yeah...forgot about that little breaker on the converter/charger...good suggestion, Seadawg. The only downside is I think you'll also lose the clock and radio presets on the Jensen, but that's only a minor inconvenience.

 

Herm

[gail]

Sherry,

Wow! We've been gone camping and returned to read your tidbit of wisdom. Found the little red button!!

That will be soo much easier than disconnecting the batteries.

Thank you thank you Thank you!!!!

Gail & Mike

[GarryandKristi]

The DC cutoff switch does not isolate power from the CO/gas detector at least on our 2018 Elite II.  I am pretty sure this is for safety purposes/ code. It seems to isolate all other DC uses though. The Atwood sensor unit on ours shows a typical current drain of 70 milliamps so about 50 amp-hours per month.

 

Another forum talks about a 1 amp inline fuse for the CO/gas sensor.

 

Garry

[STEVEnBETTY]

On our ollie( hull #219) there are two ways two remove power from the D.C. Circuit, in the upper rear compartment there are a set of switches, and under the street side bed ( twin bed) there is a sail switch that a flag pops up when it is activated. But Garryand kristi is correct, even with both switches off there is still a parasitic drain from the co2  detector, the smoke detector has a 9 volt battery in it.

 

Steve

[SeaDawg]

Hi, GarryandKristi,

 

And welcome to the forum!

 

Steve and Betty have offered much better info on the wiring and disconnects  of the newer trailers. The post you pulled up is about our 2008. written in 2009... a lot has changed since then....

 

I believe that the current recommendation is to disconnect the battery,  or put your trailer on a float charger, to maintain your battery life, when you have to put it in storage.

 

We can avoid that because our solar panels keep the batteries topped off, as we store our 2008 outside, as can others with a similar situation. If I remember correctly,  our 2008 disconnect truly cut off power draw from the battery... but it's been ten years since I've had to use it. :)

 

Hope you are enjoying your 2018 as much as we have enjoyed our 2008 for 11 seasons....

 

Sherry

 

 

[GarryandKristi]

Hi Sherry,

 

We have 120 VAC 15 amp I believe service at the storage facility so I think i’ll Just leave her plugged in as a lot of folks have mentioned. Thought about adding a battery cutoff switch to the negative leads but kind of hate adding components. I had disconnected the negative leads into trailer but those are a bit of a pain to reconnect with the heavy gage cables and relatively short terminal stud at the battery.

 

I guess I have problems with the Keep it Simple Stupid rule :-).  We are enjoying our Ollie!

 

Thanks,

 

Garry

[Overland]

Since my battery monitor will show amperage drain, I went through all the electrical items on our trailer one by one so that I would know how many amps each pulled.  Here's the list, which apart from a few items like the fridge and inverter, should apply to most Ollies:

All lights off, no fridge, no inverter - 1.2 A

All lights off, fridge running, no inverter - 3.7

All lights on, no fridge, no inverter - 5.7

All lights + fridge - 8.2

All lights + fridge and inverter - 10.2

Fridge - 2.5 (3.5 starting)

Inverter - 2.0

Reading lights, all - 0.3

Outside lights, each side - 0.7

Outside courtesy - 0.1

Inside courtesy - 0.1

Cabinet lights - 1.1

Main cabin overhead - 0.6

Right bed overhead - 0.3

Left - 0.3

Kitchen - 0.3

Dinette - 0.3

So I have 1.2 amps of parasitic drain.  That's probably higher than most, since it includes my Cradlepoint router and Victron stuff.  It's enough to kill my batteries in 12 ½ days, which I've verified.  Solar is more than enough to keep on top of it of course, but if I were to cover the trailer or store it inside or in the shade, I'd want to disconnect the batteries.

 

 

 

 

[Mainiac]

On my boat, the last thing before getting off, throw the big red switch. It is about 4" a round. Get on, throw switch from off to on. Get off, throw from on to off. Probably pretty easy for a local marina to install one for you.