2015 Keystone Passport Battery Drain

[JohnZurk]

Hi All,
We just got our new 2670BH Keystone Passport. I intend on dry camping and thus planned on adding a second 12V battery. Before I got around to it I noticed that my batter would be dead less than 24 hours after unplugging with nothing obvious "on" in the camper.

Over the weekend I went ahead and added a second battery (same size) and left it to charge for the day. Sunday I unplugged it, left nothing on and sure enough, it is dead today.

I have read a few posts on the topic and don't suspect the batteries are bad (I suppose that could be the case, new batteries are bad) but wondered if anything pops into anyone's mind with this brand as culprits for battery drain.

I ensured all lights are off in every compartment
Checked for switch on freezer (non installed)
Checked to make sure fridge is off (does it matter what the other switch is set to (gas/auto) if the other switch is off? Either way, it wasn't remotely cold anyway.

I put the TV antenna down today to see if that matters (not sure why it would)

Thanks for any help!

[JohnZurk]

Once again, thanks for the help... I am all squared away.

[JohnZurk]

Breaks... who needs 'em!

I found that the pin for the break away breaks was pulled, after reading Mbob's post I find that indeed, the pin was pulled. Further reading tells me that this will drain the battery ASAP. Still going to use the mulit-meter to check a few other things out along with an electrition buddy of mine, but I HIGHLY suspect that the pin being pulled (kid responsible to be named at a later date) is likely the problem.

More to follow, thanks to all for the help!

[Slate_CM]

To test current draw, amps, you would disconnect the negative terminal. Set the meter for DC amps. There should also be a place on the meter to put the red probe labeled 10A or so.

Then put black lead to the battery negative and the red lead to the negative battery cable. Don't test anything heavy draw like a tongue jack or heater fan. I'm not sure what a TT should draw with everything off, but on a car it should be no more than about 50mA or 0.05 on the meter.

[burlmart]

i am wndering if the truck alternator charges the house battery when towing. if so, there may be a malfunctioning isolator solenoid stuck on , or a malfunctioning electrical diode or something like that.

with such high current drain, i'd be surprised if you don't get bad sparks disconnecting the battery positive terminal ( be careful if you try}.

to measure current with many mulitmeters like you tried w/ negative term disconnect, you set meter to read DC amps and move the red probe to a different plug opening. read user manual. you will have only 10 seconds to measure this, as it heats up multimeter (at least my walmart is like this)

[ktmrfs]

If your battery is indeed down to 2.8V in the morning I suspect the repeated discharges have basically killed the battery. Anything below 10V is down to almost 0% charge.



12V batteries are usually a combo starting/deep discharge battery and can't take many discharges down to below about 11V before being damaged. Even a high quality 6V deep discharge won't take more many discharges down to 10V. They will take 100's down to about 11V, dozens down to 10V. Few down to 2.8V.

At this point, I'd have the battery load tested and most likely replaced. then you can repeat the tests. the tv amp is load you don't normally want on. likewise with the fridge, it shouldn't draw ANY current with the fridge off.

you should easily be able to dry camp for several days with two 12V batteries as long as your carefull with the lights.

[mbopp]

By any chance the break-away emergency switch isn't activated, is it?

[JohnZurk]

The disconnect switch is a great option and I plan on installing one, but my problem is that I won't be able to dry camp for more than a day and have any power... even with two 12V batteries. Or, I have to constantly flip the disconnect switch to use anything that needs power of which the refrigerator requires 12V power for the electric igniter.

[wbwood]

Add a battery disconnect switch or just disconnect the battery cables. That is what we did with our Keystone Sprinter TT we used to have. We learned pretty soon that with the LP detector, it would kill the battery after a week or so. In the beginning, it seemedto us that the battery would last a few weeks. But ti kept getting shorter and shorter on the time. We essentially were killing our battery. Ours did not have a disconnect switch. Ended up buying a new battery and started just removing the battery and bringing it home with us since ours was stored in lot by that time. Our class C has a disconnect switch. We still have to remember to turn it off, but we usually do within a day if we forgot.

If you add a disconnect swtich, remember it has to be in the on position for it to charge. If it's off, it will not charge up.

[Community Alumni]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

..........

TV Antenna booster ON?...........

Never thought of that; I don't recall the booster light being on if not on ac power but I would need to check.

[JohnZurk]

Okay, that didn't work... multi meter said 2.8 v this morning...

[JohnZurk]

Okay, I have learned a few things...
I apparently don't know really know much about using a multi meter, but I learned enough to know my batteries were charged to 12.78V.

I found that the TV amp was on.

I wasn't able to figure out how much anything really draws by pulling fuses and touching the terminals with a probe with the multi meter on the A with a line with three dots under it.

Three of the fuses have LED lights that came on when I pulled them and one is the propane detector... if I read it right on the multi meter, it pulls .01

I also tried pulling the negative cable and using the multi meter to touch it and the negative terminal... I couldn't make sense of any of the readings except when it read the same as the it did when I touched both terminals of the battery itself.

We will see tomorrow what the batteries read in the morning.

dee74, what did you do to resolve it? Get rid of the camper?

[dee74]

My 2014 Passport was the same. In two days the battery would be completely drained. I never did find out what caused the battery drain.

[fitznj]

I had the same on my camper - battery would die within 24 hours even with "everything" off (ie lights, radio). I have a battery disconnect, so got in the habit of turning it off at night but I was curious what was draining the battery. Using an ammeter did not give me any clues - although using a volt meter across the battery did show a drain.

Last summer, I got I switched off the fridge and CO2 detector - sure enough these items were drawing down the battery.

I now switch off the fridge AT THE FUSE BOX at night and my battery lasts the night. I have since added a second battery and a 165W solar panel which keeps the batteries topped up (no more generator)

Gerry

[debraindi]

I have 2015 keystone 311 Impact toy hauler my battery that the dealer tossed in will stay good for days running the led lights. You can join Keystone forums that address keystone produces and very helpful.