Vulcan Rider wrote:gotsmart wrote:
I'm currently working at an RV park and the parasitic draw in my E450 has already drained the chassis battery once.
Two comments:
1) Why does this occur ? My E450 will sit for weeks and weeks and still be good. AFAIK the only parasitic drain is the memory for the radio and some engine computers.
Try letting it set 4, 5, 6 months at a time without starting the engine. I'm a bit lazy in this regard during the dry season. You know the battery is dying when the cab's dome light won't come on or the power door lock switch doesn't lock the doors.
2)I really don't think that 5 watts is enough to do any actual good.
It's enough. Read the product reviews in the Amazon link. I wanted a unit that is capable of negating the parasitic draw. The customer reviews indicate the 5W panel works fine for this purpose. If I had wanted more I would have bought a Battery Tender. The other reason for going with this solar panel is that it is not taking any amps away from the pedestal.
I start mine every 30 days or so and let it run for 15-30 minutes.
This charges both sets of batteries.....if I remember to throw the battery disconnect switch for the coach.
My MH has no battery disconnect switches. It's plugged into a pedestal, so charging the coach battery is not a problem. I don't bother starting the engines (includes the generator) during the summer dry season here. I do exercise the engines in the winter rainy season about every month and a half - to cook the moisture out of them from the super-high humidity.
