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
Dupa wrote:When all 4 Happijacs on our 3000+ lb. 2019 TC are raising the TC up at the same time they draw approx. 25a in warm weather, 30-35a in cold weather (we have the direct drive units). Current draw drops approx. 15-25% when lowering the TC. Two fully charged, reasonably *healthy* group 24/27 batteries should easily power these jacks for at least 1.5 hours before discharging the batteries anywhere near 50%.
I am using all 4 jacks simultaneously. Maybe a little overly simplistic way of thinking about it (and also maybe a little out of my element here) but it seems like the same amount of power/energy is needed to raise/lower the camper, so whether you break it into pieces (1 or 2 at a time) or do it all at the same time (all 4 jacks) shouldn't matter all that much. If I'm wrong, and doing 1 or 2 at a time would help solve my problem, please let me know.
Unless you're taking more than 1.5 - 2.0 hours to unload your TC, there is a problem. Either the batteries are not getting sufficiently charged (for any number of reasons) and/or there's excessive voltage drop and/or current draw somewhere in the system. Bad batteries, wiring, connections, converter, motors, etc. can all potentially play a part in this problem.
One could write a small book on how to troubleshoot this. IMO, a good tech should be able to narrow down the source of this problem with a few voltage/current measurements fairly quickly.
Lots of good troubleshooting tips being provided here. Good luck!
