Lance camper draining battery

If you plug in the 5th wheel plug and let it sit does it drain the truck battery as the camper plug does ? If it does not check where you tapped in for the lance plug . Is the 30a fuse under the hood for the charge line in or out ?

geoboy wrote:
You have a propane leak alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm that are always active unless you shut the power off to the camper, they will drain your batteries.

That is correct, although they will do so very slowly; a few days should not cause a problem if these are the only consumers. But then the TE says in the original post:

paul_arc wrote:
On the plug I installed on the truck, I did NOT wire the 8 gauge 12v wire to the battery.

Somewhere, +12V must be connected. It could be a defective isolator, among other things. I wonder what the voltages of the truck and camper batteries are at he beginning and after a few days.

You have a propane leak alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm that are always active unless you shut the power off to the camper, they will drain your batteries.

You have a bad isolator in the camper. Mine s under the step up in the front where all the electrics are at.

If only the exterior lights are connected, how can the camper draw anything from the truck when the truck is off? When no lights are on in the truck; no lights can come on in the camper, right?. All lighting pins in the plug are at 0V, or the respective light would be on on the truck as well. Provided everything is wired correctly on the truck side. The wiring for the exterior lights bypasses the camper battery and the rest of the camper electrics. In that regard, the camper behaves like a trailer without any power of its own. Or are there campers out there that do it differently?

So there must be *some* connection between the +12V charge line and the camper elecrical system, somewhere. I think. Can you disconnect the +12V at the truck side of things? Be careful though, dependig on how the truck side was wired, the line is fused to 30 or so amp - or maybe not at all if the plug was installed by someone who didn't know what they were doing.

I'll check first for any stray wires like suggested. The Lance receptacle in the truck bed is all molded plastic and you can't see the connections if there is something wrong with it. Before installing though I used my ohm meter and checked each pin together to make sure each pin was infinity with all the other pins and they were.

I guess what I can do is remove 1 wire at a time and let it sit for a few days then see which one quits killing my truck batteries. Then go from there.

All the camper lights are LED and they all work as they should.

My Arctic fox 5th wheel just plugs into my 7 way trailer connection and doesn't have a charging wire to charge the trailer batteries. But that one doesn't drain the truck batteries at all.

I bought a 7way Trailer Y harness for my bumper plug, so that I can put another 7 way in the truck bed for the 5th wheel. That one doesn't have any problems. Then I tapped onto those wires for the lance plug.
There is no battery drain without camper plugged in, and the camper charging wire is not connected.

Also one more note. When I got the camper, there were 2 blown 30amp fuses that are on the output side of the converter causing it not to charge the camper battery.
I replaced them and it seems to be working as it should. So I am not sure why they were blown in the first place.

Thaz a puzzle- said he do NOT connect the 12v+ charge line, only camper exterior lights. So shouldnt be any draw on truck batteries?
Hard time seeing miswired if not blowing fuse or one of the campers lights isnt always on. I'd still double check plug wiring-
Possibly, very slight but a strand of wire letting some charge line power thru to ground-or a light.

If your Arctic Fox charges as it should from the truck while being towed, then the Camper should too. Doing voltage checks on the batteries will tell you what is going on.

Check truck battery with nothing connected.
measure Arctic Fox battery
measure camper battery.

Connect Arctic Fox. Both batteries should be the same as disconnected.
Start engine. Both batteries should be very close to the same.

Do the same with the camper. Both batteries plugged in without starting the engine should be different. They should be almost the same with engine running

If they are not different when the engine is NOT running, you need to find the battery isolator for the campers battery, and figure out why it is not working.

I would go looking for where the current is going. You will need a DC clampmeter to make this a reasonably easy task.

Check each of the wires going to the trailer and write down the current for each. Follow the largest current flow to see where it is going. The wires will disappear into walls but they have to come out where you can measure again.

The problem with shore power vs truck power can be solved with a voltmeter. Check battery charging voltage separately for truck charging and shore power charging. It looks like there is a problem with the latter but find out for sure.