12V Quick Drain or ???

[Holy_Roller]

I have a 2006 R Vision TRAIL SPORT 22QB with the Atwood TP3 SS Convertor/charger

I too have a Battery Drain/Open Circuit somewhere. When I attach the battery cable it sparks, telling me something is drawing power. It alos does this at the Power Cord plugging into the 110 outlet by my garage, however it doesn't spark at the battery when plugged into shore power. Anyway, I went through ALL the fuses, one at a time pulling them and discovered one that power the radio and a light, and one that powers the furnace, gave a spark at the fuse itself when I put it back in. Even with these fuses pulled AND the breakers off (110 only right?), it still sparks at the battery post when connecting the battery. Even if I pull ALL the fuses, even the one in the Propane sniffer (1v)
I fully charged my battery, left it disconnected for a day or so and it still registered 12v. After I attached it to the trailer (with all fuses back in)it drained a little but seemed to stabilize about 11.79. An hour and a half latter is was at 3.75 The charger seems to be working because when it was at 12v I plugged it into the 110 and it went up to about 13.75
I can't figure out what to do. There is no fuses blowing and I even checked the ground cable on the frame. Any suggestions?

[Holy_Roller]

Thanx folks. I was suspicious of the battery and will take into account all of the above advice. I have also tried more than one "touch" on the post and even connecting positive first, bth with the same results. If the inverter is separate from the Fuse box, where would it be located? It seems to be working OK because the interior lights get brighter when I plug in the 110 I may have to just get another battery, but don't want to spend the money if that's not the problem. I think this battery is only 2 yrs old or so, but, even though I believe its a deep cycle, I think its only 450CCA I'd like to get a Monster from a Tractor Trailer Truck but they're BIG Bucks 🙂
Thanx again!

[wa8yxm]

First: the Radio has a "Memory" feature that needs power all the time, Else it forgets it's presets.

The furance may, as the major propane sucker in the house, share power with the propane detector. Which needs to draw power all the time.

Now the "Even with every fuse pulled" the converter.. Yup the Converter, in many rigs if it is NOT part of the power panel (like a Parallex 7300) but rather a stand alone device (Progressive Industries 9100 or 9200) then it has its own fuses on the board.

IT also has a device called a Filter Capacitor or Condenser.

This is kind of like a "Mini-battery" may only have an capacity rating of an amp second (each Farad is one amp second in case you wonder) but it will "power" stuff for a very short period of time as it runs all the way down (This is normal and does not harm it) and then when you reconnect, there is a spark as it charges back up.

[Chris_Bryant]

It is not uncommon to have a spark when you connect the battery- there are capacitors in the converter which will charge up quickly. Try touching the cable twice- the first time you will get a spark, usually the second time you will not.
Large inverters give really big sparks :).

[YC_1]

mbopp wrote:
Charge the battery and leave it disconnected for several days, it should still read 12.6V or so. But if it's been run down to 3V it's probably toast.
Your break-away plunger isn't pulled, is it?
To find out if you have a current draw with all the fuses out you'll need an ammeter in line between the battery and trailer lead.

Totally forgot about the breakaway. Someone know the current draw for future reference?

[mbopp]

Charge the battery and leave it disconnected for several days, it should still read 12.6V or so. But if it's been run down to 3V it's probably toast.
Your break-away plunger isn't pulled, is it?
To find out if you have a current draw with all the fuses out you'll need an ammeter in line between the battery and trailer lead.

[dougrainer]

A GOOD fully charged battery will read 12.6 to 12.9 volts. Anything less is a defective battery. Even a fully charged GOOD battery will not drain in an RV, with 50% of the 12 volt systems on in less than a day. You have a BAD battery. You may still have a draw, but a draw does NOT blow fuses. A DRAW just drains the battery. Doug

[skipnchar]

Sound like a bad battery if it read only 12 volts after being disconnected for only a couple of days. This ifs assuming it was fully charged when it was disconnected. May be a short in battery. With an internal short it would be trying to charge as you plug into ac power to explain sparks when plugging ky in.

[jjwms]

Sounds like the battery has gone bad. In addition when you connect the battery to the cables are you connecting the positive first and then the negative to the ground. If you do it in that order you normally don't get the spark. Be sure the negative goes to ground not the other way around. You also didn't mention if you had two batteries. If so, the positive posts must be connected to each other and the negative to each other. If you connect positive on one battery to negative on the other you will double the output to 24V instead of 12V unless you are using 6V batteries to get them to 12V output.

[pugslyyy]

How old are the batteries?

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[YC_1]

Your battery is shot. It should never get that low in voltage. Replace it and then make sure it is getting fully charged. You should see 13.5 volts or more across it when charged.

Even with a fully functional battery there can be a small spark when connecting. Things like converter/chargers have filters that will take a bit of current charging up when first connected. Radios have similar components.

[Mandalay_Parr]

Sounds like your battery may be bad. The sparks might be the current going into your battery.
The voltage reading you gave us sounds like your battery is shot.
I would have it tested at an auto parts store first of all.