Just curious, what's your phantom load?

Jimbee wrote:
Hey All,

Just curious if you have ever measured the parasitic draw on your camper. I started probing 1 fuse at a time with an ammeter, to see what's using power when it's just sitting the driveway. I decided to pull the positive battery cable and check the load at that point. Came up with .4 amps. Jeez, after a few days that's almost 30 amps for just the radio and propane alarm! Just curious how that compares
to what your campers are pulling when sitting unused.

Mine was about .3 amps so I installed cutoff switches for the radio, propane alarm and my cell booster.

My old Komfort had a disconnect that killed everything but the landing legs and the slides. My new KZ leaves the jacks hot; for the life of me, I can't remember if it kills the slides or not. :h Don't forget that the disconnect also disconnects the CHARGE side, too! I had my Komfort plugged in for most of a week in prep for a boondocker, got to my site, and only had 3/4 lights on my charge state. Had to run my truck for about an hour a day to keep up, and still never got to a full charge. :M

Lyle

BobsYourUncle wrote:

MFL wrote:
I'm sure Bob is talking about a kill switch/disconnect right at the battery. This is the same as removing the battery ground wire, no power to anything. The type typically factory installed does not disconnect everything.

Jerry

Yes Jerry, I should have been more clear.

A switch right at the batteries to completely disconnect all power.
I call it a kill switch. Guess I should refer to it as a battery disconnect switch.

I recently came back from a road trip to Phoenix with the TT, and due to the piles of snow around here I opted to drop it at a storage yard until things thaw out a bit.

After I had the hitch unhooked and the jack down, I rotated the disconnect switch and pulled the 'key' out of it, and locked up the front storage area where the switch is located.

As I went to get in the truck, I noticed the light on the power jack was on! Got out, went over, turned it off, back on... then ran the jack up and down a bit. Opened the storage area, yup, switch is still off. Opened up the trailer and went to the main control panel - everything is off, none of the lights work, etc.

Apparently the battery disconnect switch kills everything *but* the jack, and the LED light on the front of the jack. That's as wired from the factory...

I agree with RobWNY's friend. I added switches to m stereo and my CO detector. I didn't just pull the fuses to these items because I personally installed a an led light onto each of these circuits and I wanted those lights to be usable. Another reason to kill the stereo power was because that thing lights up the interior of my TT like a flare gun on a dark night.

Ok. That's what I thought. When I added 6v batteries to my setup I made sure the Battery Shut Off turned off everything to avoid draining the battery bank I have. I have a buddy that installed switches to turn off only the CO/Propane detector and stereo and he calls them "kill Switches". His theory is by turning those things off when boondocking he doesn't have any unnecessary drainage of his single 12v battery. He doesn't use propane or the stereo so they don't need to be on.

MFL wrote:
I'm sure Bob is talking about a kill switch/disconnect right at the battery. This is the same as removing the battery ground wire, no power to anything. The type typically factory installed does not disconnect everything.

Jerry

Yes Jerry, I should have been more clear.

A switch right at the batteries to completely disconnect all power.
I call it a kill switch. Guess I should refer to it as a battery disconnect switch.

I'm sure Bob is talking about a kill switch/disconnect right at the battery. This is the same as removing the battery ground wire, no power to anything. The type typically factory installed does not disconnect everything.

Jerry

My trailer idles at 500 milliamps with the fridge gas valve open.

RobWNY wrote:
Just curious. When you guys are saying "Kill Switch" are you referring to the Battery Shut Off switch that many people install and are found already installed on many new campers?

The factory switch doesn’t always disconnect everything.

Just curious. When you guys are saying "Kill Switch" are you referring to the Battery Shut Off switch that many people install and are found already installed on many new campers?