Battery problem

Bordercollie wrote:
Look for a short or some device that is drawing a lot of current. Check battery cable connectors and ground cable connection to frame. Battery may be useable.

Thanks. I did check the connections at the battery, which were fine, but I didn't chase down the other end. At any rate, if charging voltage is 12.5 to 13 volts with the engine running or plugged into a 30 amp connection, wouldn't that rule out a bad connection?

At any rate, I took the battery to Camping World today, and they said it's "probably" a bad battery. Or, they said, we're trying to run too much stuff at once while driving down the road. But all we're running is the radio/rearview camera and the refrigerator on automatic, which is running on LPG. It needs the battery on to do that, but surely that's a minimal draw. And if it's charging at 12.5 volts while going down the road, why wouldn't that keep it up? :h

Of course, they didn't have the proper battery, so we went to another local dealer for a battery and got to talking to him. He had the same concerns I have. Why wouldn't the charging system keep it up while driving, even on a marginal battery?

I have a new battery to install tomorrow, so we'll see.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Edit:
Oh, by the way. Yes, a short is my concern. Since we had our first problem in July that didn't occur again until Friday, I fear we have an intermittent, infrequent short that's draining the battery. I guess if the new battery goes belly-up I'll know it's not the battery. But I hope that happens before the manufacturer's warranty expires.