Battery Leads Arcing

AidenJ wrote:
I think you will find that the battery disconnect on the N/L does not affect the elec. jacks, but it does shut off the gas detector.

You should check that. Never seen any campers disconnect that did not disconnect everything.
What would happen if the jack controller malfunctioned and kept one or more jacks running?
That is not a good scenario if you can not quickly disconnect. If you find that the controller is hardwired to the battery I would promptly fix that!

I installed a jack kill switch so I can remove the power from the jacks when I do not use them. I do not like the idea of the jack controller having power all the time..... Would you?

Like this one, 75 amp:



http://www.repairconnector.com/products/Heavy-Duty-Push-Pull-75-Amp-Switch-SPST.html

Jim

I think you will find that the battery disconnect on the N/L does not affect the elec. jacks, but it does shut off the gas detector.

The brunt of the arching is caused by the converter...
This will happen regardless if you are hooked to shore power or not.

What is happening is part of the converter is always alive as long as the battery is connected!

The current from normal parasitics will not draw a SNAPPING arc.

If you do not like the arc you should turn off your battery disconnect switch if you have one.

Thing is. Your propane detector is ALWAYS on. It Will cause the spark. It will also kill the battery if you leave the battery hooked up

It is hard to know that everything is disconnected. Many devices have power supply input filter capacitors, the inrush current to charge those, even when they are off, can be large enough to cause an arc. The output filter capacitors on the converter/charger are definitely large enough to cause an arc. The current is momentary, quite large, but diminishes to zero in an instant as the capacitors are charged. The only way to know if there is a constant drain on the battery is to measure it with a sensitive ammeter after everything is hooked up and the transients have settled down.

My trailer draws 1/4 amp with everything possible turned off, except things that can't be turned off like propane and smoke detectors. That's enough to give a tiny spark when hooking the battery up. It's also enough to run my standard battery down in about 2 weeks.

delete

A "shade tree" ammeter is a 12 V bulb.

Connect one side of the bulb to a battery post; connect the other side of the bulb to the cable that would normally go on that post. The cable to the other battery post needs to be connected normally.

IF.....the bulb lights bright for a few seconds and then goes dark, you have nothing to worry about.

IF....the bulb continues to glow for a LONG time, you have some phantom leakage that needs to be tracked down.

I think it's possible that you have some things like smoke, fire, CO, propane detectors that do not have a central fuse.

That will happen when first connecting a device like an inverter, but with "nothing" on, it shouldn't happen.

That said, if things are really amiss you'll see that wire get hot almost immediately. If not, I wouldn't sweat it. But I think something is on that you just haven't found yet.

Just be SURE you have the polarity correct.

When it happens to me, I put the wing nuts on and go about my day. Never had it be a problem other than scaring me when it happens.