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JohnZurk's avatar
JohnZurk
Explorer
Jul 14, 2015

2015 Keystone Passport Battery Drain

Hi All,
We just got our new 2670BH Keystone Passport. I intend on dry camping and thus planned on adding a second 12V battery. Before I got around to it I noticed that my batter would be dead less than 24 hours after unplugging with nothing obvious "on" in the camper.

Over the weekend I went ahead and added a second battery (same size) and left it to charge for the day. Sunday I unplugged it, left nothing on and sure enough, it is dead today.

I have read a few posts on the topic and don't suspect the batteries are bad (I suppose that could be the case, new batteries are bad) but wondered if anything pops into anyone's mind with this brand as culprits for battery drain.

I ensured all lights are off in every compartment
Checked for switch on freezer (non installed)
Checked to make sure fridge is off (does it matter what the other switch is set to (gas/auto) if the other switch is off? Either way, it wasn't remotely cold anyway.

I put the TV antenna down today to see if that matters (not sure why it would)

Thanks for any help!
  • The disconnect switch is a great option and I plan on installing one, but my problem is that I won't be able to dry camp for more than a day and have any power... even with two 12V batteries. Or, I have to constantly flip the disconnect switch to use anything that needs power of which the refrigerator requires 12V power for the electric igniter.
  • By any chance the break-away emergency switch isn't activated, is it?
  • If your battery is indeed down to 2.8V in the morning I suspect the repeated discharges have basically killed the battery. Anything below 10V is down to almost 0% charge.



    12V batteries are usually a combo starting/deep discharge battery and can't take many discharges down to below about 11V before being damaged. Even a high quality 6V deep discharge won't take more many discharges down to 10V. They will take 100's down to about 11V, dozens down to 10V. Few down to 2.8V.

    At this point, I'd have the battery load tested and most likely replaced. then you can repeat the tests. the tv amp is load you don't normally want on. likewise with the fridge, it shouldn't draw ANY current with the fridge off.

    you should easily be able to dry camp for several days with two 12V batteries as long as your carefull with the lights.
  • i am wndering if the truck alternator charges the house battery when towing. if so, there may be a malfunctioning isolator solenoid stuck on , or a malfunctioning electrical diode or something like that.

    with such high current drain, i'd be surprised if you don't get bad sparks disconnecting the battery positive terminal ( be careful if you try}.

    to measure current with many mulitmeters like you tried w/ negative term disconnect, you set meter to read DC amps and move the red probe to a different plug opening. read user manual. you will have only 10 seconds to measure this, as it heats up multimeter (at least my walmart is like this)
  • To test current draw, amps, you would disconnect the negative terminal. Set the meter for DC amps. There should also be a place on the meter to put the red probe labeled 10A or so.

    Then put black lead to the battery negative and the red lead to the negative battery cable. Don't test anything heavy draw like a tongue jack or heater fan. I'm not sure what a TT should draw with everything off, but on a car it should be no more than about 50mA or 0.05 on the meter.
  • Breaks... who needs 'em!

    I found that the pin for the break away breaks was pulled, after reading Mbob's post I find that indeed, the pin was pulled. Further reading tells me that this will drain the battery ASAP. Still going to use the mulit-meter to check a few other things out along with an electrition buddy of mine, but I HIGHLY suspect that the pin being pulled (kid responsible to be named at a later date) is likely the problem.

    More to follow, thanks to all for the help!

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