Ok bought this new. installed a Toad Charge. First time out after 6 hrs the battery was dead. This year stopped at every rest stop and ran the engine for about 20 min ea time. Coming back fro San Antonio Had a dead battery 30 min out and jumped it ran it for 20 min and left for the next rest stop. Dead battery. Had to have wife drive it back to Mesa, az.Followed Chevy's instructions on how to tow it. Accy mode, Trans in neutral, parking brake off.What am I doing wrong? Am I the only one having this problem? Is there some fuse to pull?Am thing of getting a dolly. Don't want to do that but can't change cars.Help plzTIadave

dave have you tested the 7-pin connector on the back of the coach to make sure there is power there? I am assuming you have a 7-pin connector, either way etrailer has some good info on the wiring setup, Trailer Wiring Diagrams scroll down for the Vehicle Side 7-Way

I had a Buick that drained the battery overnight. Testing showed no power drain on the battery. It turned out to be bad voltage regulators. After changing the alternator three times, it still did the same thing. It turned out the "new" regulators in the alternator were bad. It took over a year to solve the problem.

The 2018 and newer Equinox and Terrains pull a lot of power in Accy/tow mode. Your charge line might be too small. 12 gauge wire is needed. I've been fine at 5 hours tow time but had a dead battery after 8 hours. I'll always start and run my Nox at 4 hours max unless I'm nearly there.

Towed our Ford Flex according to specs and it always went dead. Ford says it shouldn't happen. Shows how much they tow. So DH put a battery disconnect (knife blade type) on the battery and we always disconnected. Worked perfectly. It even retains all the pre-sets, etc. He wired the lights directly to the battery so everything still worked, just didn't have a dead battery at the end of the day.Dale

Y-Guy wrote:dave have you tested the 7-pin connector on the back of the coach to make sure there is power there? I am assuming you have a 7-pin connector, either way etrailer has some good info on the wiring setup, Trailer Wiring Diagrams scroll down for the Vehicle Side 7-WayThe 7 pin works on all the lights ( blinkers, brake, running lights.) but I don't think it works for charging the battery.

2018 Chevrolet Equinox battery dyeing | Good Sam Community

rjstractor
Nomad
Jul 26, 2022
eric1514 wrote:
This is what I use.

TOAD CHARGE

It's a little bit of wiring but it works.

That seems a bit unnecessary if one's charge line in a standard 7 pin connector is sized and wired correctly. The last time I wired a 7 pin connector I used #10 wire with the appropriate fuse for the charge line and it kept my travel trailer battery fully charged. #12 wire on a 60 foot run like this product has sounds kinda small to do much good charging a battery that has any load on it.
Geeze
Explorer
Jul 25, 2022
dave from mesa wrote:
Ok bought this new. installed a Toad Charge. First time out after 6 hrs the battery was dead.
This year stopped at every rest stop and ran the engine for about 20 min ea time. Coming back fro San Antonio Had a dead battery 30 min out and jumped it ran it for 20 min and left for the next rest stop. Dead battery. Had to have wife drive it back to Mesa, az.
Followed Chevy's instructions on how to tow it. Accy mode, Trans in neutral, parking brake off.
What am I doing wrong? Am I the only one having this problem? Is there some fuse to pull?
Am thing of getting a dolly. Don't want to do that but can't change cars.
Help plz
TIa
On the 2020 Equinox you are suppose to pull the fuse for the rear wiper, why who knows.

dave
dave_from_mesa
Explorer
Sep 04, 2021
eric1514 wrote:
dave from mesa wrote:

Eric
Have one of those and unless it's wired wrong the battery still goes dead.

Did you follow the instructions to wire it? It doesn't use the 7-pin connector. The wires in the umbilical with the 7-pin connectors are too small. You must use the supplied wire and have a second umbilical with it's own connectors.

Or you can wire it up to the 7-pin connector but you still need to use the supplied wire through out. That's how I did it. Here's a pic of my umbilical.

I think I wired it correctly but I connected it straight to the MH battery.
eric1514
Explorer
Aug 29, 2021
dave from mesa wrote:

Eric
Have one of those and unless it's wired wrong the battery still goes dead.

Did you follow the instructions to wire it? It doesn't use the 7-pin connector. The wires in the umbilical with the 7-pin connectors are too small. You must use the supplied wire and have a second umbilical with it's own connectors.

Or you can wire it up to the 7-pin connector but you still need to use the supplied wire through out. That's how I did it. Here's a pic of my umbilical.
dave_from_mesa
Explorer
Aug 28, 2021
eric1514 wrote:
This is what I use.

TOAD CHARGE

It's a little bit of wiring but it works.

Eric
Have one of those and unless it's wired wrong the battery still goes dead.
eric1514
Explorer
Aug 28, 2021
This is what I use.

TOAD CHARGE

It's a little bit of wiring but it works.
Y-Guy
Moderator
Aug 27, 2021
dave from mesa if you have a voltmeter you can test it (if you are comfortable doing it) if there is no power there are a couple things it may take; either running a line back there or it could be a fuse. I know on some Ford Trucks they didn't ship with the fuse for charging (cheap move on Fords part) but I am unsure if that could be an issue on your rig or not.

Not knowing your electrical knowledge or if you have a voltmeter I'll share that you would want to test the 12V Power pin and the Ground pin.

You could visit and RV show or mobile tech and they can check things out and give you a quote for a new line.

Or as mentioned above and just get a charge box, the problem is that you're probably going to kill the battery faster with frequent complete drains.
Sandia_Man
Explorer II
Aug 27, 2021
On our GMC Terrain we have the same issues, no biggie as we went to Samsclub and picked up a battery jump box, does double duty as it came with a compressor as well for topping off toad tires. If we happen to go far enough where it does not have enough juice to kick over starter, we simply pop hood and a couple of minutes later we are good to go. From our terrain's owners manual there is a fuse we can pull to alleviate this issue, we still prefer to utilize multifunction battery jump box as needed, too old to be digging out and reinstalling fuse each and every trip we take.
dave_from_mesa
Explorer
Aug 27, 2021
Y-Guy wrote:
dave have you tested the 7-pin connector on the back of the coach to make sure there is power there? I am assuming you have a 7-pin connector, either way etrailer has some good info on the wiring setup, Trailer Wiring Diagrams scroll down for the Vehicle Side 7-Way

The 7 pin works on all the lights ( blinkers, brake, running lights.) but I don't think it works for charging the battery.
Scottiemom
Nomad
Aug 27, 2021
Towed our Ford Flex according to specs and it always went dead. Ford says it shouldn't happen. Shows how much they tow. So DH put a battery disconnect (knife blade type) on the battery and we always disconnected. Worked perfectly. It even retains all the pre-sets, etc. He wired the lights directly to the battery so everything still worked, just didn't have a dead battery at the end of the day.

Dale