Use for Battery Disconnect?

[Red-Rover]

Waiting here in Northern Indiana for the weather to improve before taking delivery on a new 5er.
During my extensive shopping for a new unit, I noticed that all trailers had a battery disconnect switch. My 20 year old present unit has no such provision and I don't understand the need. Except for the times that my old trailer went into indoor winter storage, the battery never was disconnected. Is there parasitic power loss in the 12 volt system?

[fuzzdr]

I use 2 round marine type battery swithes on my boat which has 2 engines with 2 starting batteries. I screw the switches to the bulkhead that is under the top step in the companionway to the cabin area.......where it is very easy to access. I also have 3 larger deep cycle house batteries under the step. The switches have 3 positions; off, 1 and 2. Also there is an output terminal on each switch. So theoretically I have 3 banks of batteries; the deep cycle bank of 3 that I use for anchoring out ( sort of dry camping on water) Those are connected in parallel and attached to terminal 2 of both switches. Each starting motor battery comprises a bank of only one battery each. One of these goes to terminal 1 on each switch. My converter has 3 output terminals.....each one of these is connected to the battery switch terminals. This works for me.
For my camper, I would do the same but only have one battery switch. Same deal.

[valhalla360]

Tin Pusher wrote:
Who needs a switch? Wilderness has wingnuts on the battery terminals. Spin one off, pull the wire, I'm done. Well, put the wingnut back on 🙂

Thought of a disconnect, but didn't see any real need.

I've been using the caveman appraoch. The problem is a few times, I have dropped the wing nut and lost it. Luckily I had a couple of spares in the tool box or I would be SOL.

[Tin_Pusher]

rhagfo wrote:
Well the battery in my 5er is in a box with about 10 screws holding it shut!

Well then a switch makes sense for you. No more often than I disconnect, my "Caveman approach" is fine for me.

As usual, the correct answer is "well, it depends..." 🙂

[rhagfo]

Atom Ant wrote:

Tin Pusher wrote:
Who needs a switch? Wilderness has wingnuts on the battery terminals. Spin one off, pull the wire, I'm done. Well, put the wingnut back on 🙂

Thought of a disconnect, but didn't see any real need.

Caveman approach 🙂

Well the battery in my 5er is in a box with about 10 screws holding it shut! WAY, WAY too much trouble to get to, $29 switch, $5 in cable $3 for crimp on terminal eyes, DONE!!! Simple rotary switch On or OFF takes 5 seconds to open the front compartment and flip the switch.

[A_hitch_and_hop]

I do the same as Tin Pusher. If I am going to have unit in storage for more than a month, I pull the battery and place it on a trickle charger. If I hook the unit to the truck with out the battery connected, I am able to operate all the 12vt stuff including landing gear. My thoughts are to keep it simple stupid (KISS).

[Imaroadrunnr]

A few days before making my annual trip to Quartzsite, AZ, I noticed a liquid under one of the 6 volt battery boxes so after i put my finger in it so I could smell it, I realized it was battery acid. I have two 100 watt solar panels and a 12 volt 30 amp charge controller but when I was parked n the dirt with my pals, the batteries never got a complete charge even though I had a 2,000 watt Honda generator cranking most of the day. I use a 700 watt inverter which hums loudly so I can use my c-pap unit all night. The lights in the rig show the batteries are fully charged but the controller only indicated about 3/4 charge. After being parked two weeks on just solar power the controller finally has a green light but only a 3/4 charge. Do I worry too much? Oh, I had to rush down to Costco and buy two batteries before I left. Maybe they were really discharged from being on the shelf? I don't think they were discharged 'cause they were really heavy:-)
Stan

[Atom_Ant]

Duramax1 wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Yep..depends on who installed the disconnect.

My Emergency Break Away switch/slides/rear stabilizers/LP Detector are wired directly to batteries.
Only parasitic draw would be the LP Detector.

My disconnect isolates batteries from DC Dist. Panel and converter/charger.

I think that you are saying if the disconnect switch is wired to the battery ground terminal, nothing will work if the switch is turned off.

But, if the disconnect switch is wired to the battery positive terminal any device that is directly wired to the battery will continue to work even though the disconnect switch is turned off.

Am I correct?

I don't think that is what he said at all, and what you are saying is not a true rule.

what he is saying is that his battery switch isolates the converter and 12 volt distribution panel, but items such as his Emergency Break Away switch/slides/rear stabilizers/LP Detector are wired directly to batteries and are therefore always energized, even with the battery switch off.

[Atom_Ant]

Tin Pusher wrote:
Who needs a switch? Wilderness has wingnuts on the battery terminals. Spin one off, pull the wire, I'm done. Well, put the wingnut back on 🙂

Thought of a disconnect, but didn't see any real need.

Caveman approach 🙂

[Tin_Pusher]

Who needs a switch? Wilderness has wingnuts on the battery terminals. Spin one off, pull the wire, I'm done. Well, put the wingnut back on 🙂

Thought of a disconnect, but didn't see any real need.

[GON2SKI]

I just installed a knife switch shutoff on one ground post of the 2 6V batteries, even though there is a factory battery cutoff switch……. should prevent surprises of discharged batteries for long term storage and I am adding a digital volt meter panel to show accurate reading at the battery storage compartment.

[Duramax1]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Yep..depends on who installed the disconnect.

My Emergency Break Away switch/slides/rear stabilizers/LP Detector are wired directly to batteries.
Only parasitic draw would be the LP Detector.

My disconnect isolates batteries from DC Dist. Panel and converter/charger.

I think that you are saying if the disconnect switch is wired to the battery ground terminal, nothing will work if the switch is turned off.

But, if the disconnect switch is wired to the battery positive terminal any device that is directly wired to the battery will continue to work even though the disconnect switch is turned off.

Am I correct?

[laknox]

On my '04 Komfort, the disconnect is a small push/pull switch right above the door. I =ass=ume that it's on the main hot wire from the plug (at the extreme rear) to the power converter, up near the bedroom. It will NOT charge the battery if plugged in and the disconnect is OFF. I found that out the hard way. Of course, nothing in any manual that came with the FW to explain this...

Lyle

[Old-Biscuit]

Yep..depends on who installed the disconnect.

My Emergency Break Away switch/slides/rear stabilizers/LP Detector are wired directly to batteries.
Only parasitic draw would be the LP Detector.

My disconnect isolates batteries from DC Dist. Panel and converter/charger.

[RoyB]

Both my trailers has DC power to the slides, CO2 sensor, and emergency brake-away pull switch 'DIRECT' wired to the battery terminals. My battery disconnect switch is wired between the battery terminal and the 12VDC power dist center on one trailer.

When my DISCONNECT is turned off I still have those three items listed above still connected to the battery terminals.

On my OFF-ROAD TRAILER I have three each battery selector switches setup using BLUE SEA Battery HD Marine quality four-position DC switches where I can select one or all batteries as well as a complete disconnect. Having two battery banks banks it is sometimes necessary for me to be able to be using one bank when camping off the power grid while I am re-charging the other battery bank using my 2KW generator and portable battery charger. My emergency modes requires me to have complete control of all my batteries to be used or disconnected for different modes of operations...

Most folks just have ONE DISCONNECT battery switch to be able to totally disconnect their battery system when in storage mode. It sure beats just operating the disconnect switch instead of removing the battery terminals.

I always thought this was a neat BATTERY SWITCH DISCONNECT setup for the causal user with the removal 'KEY' knob. This could mounted on the plastic battery boxes and looks real neat to me...


Roy Ken