Help - jacks are draining my batteries
My 2020 camper came with HappiJacs which consume a ton of power from my 2 deep cycle batteries. Once the batteries are drawn down after removing the rig (3000 lb dry weight) from my truck, it's nearly...
Forum Discussion
The jacks are not your problem.
Is this a new issue, and since when has it been happening?
How much capacity do the batteries have? I assume around 100Ah (Ampère-hours) each, so that would be around 200Ah total. Which, in theory, means that they can deliver 200 Amps of current for one hour when fully charged.
The four jack motors have 25A fuses at the Happijac circuit board.
So the maximum current they could ever draw before blowing the fuses is 4x25A = 100A. Realistically, it will be a lot less. But even at the max. 100 Amps current, your fully charged batteries would run all four jacks for *two* hours (that is a theoretical number, I am aware that you can not use all 100% of capacity). But the actual run time of the jacks is just a few minutes, and for much of that time the jack motors are under a light load, if any. So they are drawing much, much less than the max. current. Raising and lowering the camper should not make a big difference in the charge state, unless there is a problem elsewhere.
IMO:
One or both of your batteries are bad and not taking/holding a charge properly,
or some high-current user such as an absorber fridge set on 12V is continuously depleting the batteries,
or the batteries do not receive a decent charge (e.g. defective converter, or battery terminal connections or other wire connections not good. Do not forget to check the mass (negative) side, too).
Is this a new issue, and since when has it been happening?
How much capacity do the batteries have? I assume around 100Ah (Ampère-hours) each, so that would be around 200Ah total. Which, in theory, means that they can deliver 200 Amps of current for one hour when fully charged.
The four jack motors have 25A fuses at the Happijac circuit board.
So the maximum current they could ever draw before blowing the fuses is 4x25A = 100A. Realistically, it will be a lot less. But even at the max. 100 Amps current, your fully charged batteries would run all four jacks for *two* hours (that is a theoretical number, I am aware that you can not use all 100% of capacity). But the actual run time of the jacks is just a few minutes, and for much of that time the jack motors are under a light load, if any. So they are drawing much, much less than the max. current. Raising and lowering the camper should not make a big difference in the charge state, unless there is a problem elsewhere.
IMO:
One or both of your batteries are bad and not taking/holding a charge properly,
or some high-current user such as an absorber fridge set on 12V is continuously depleting the batteries,
or the batteries do not receive a decent charge (e.g. defective converter, or battery terminal connections or other wire connections not good. Do not forget to check the mass (negative) side, too).
