Electric steps and battery draw

[ericsmith32]

Anyone else have this issue? It's been over a month since our last trip in our Class C. We have to close the step due to how much space it takes up on our driveway. I'd say on average it's used twice a week. Went to open it today and nothing. Checked the battery and it was only putting out 4.5 volts. Got it recharged and tested and it's ok.. it was new this year. Checked for parasitic draw and nothing.. maybe .06 amps on occasion. The steps took 5-7 amps whenever it was used. Of course the start from the rear battery didn't work.. doesn't surprise me with how screwed up everything else has been.

Has anyone rewired electric steps to the rear battery? Doesn't seem like a hard task... I'll probably put it out a switch so I could run it from either. It's seem like it is getting some power from the rear battery because it won't work when that battery is removed also. Anything I'm not thinking of?

[Beverley_Ken]

A simpler solution would be to add a trik-l-start or similar battery maintainer on the chassis battery. That would compensate for the the occasional use of the step and the usual draw (radio memory etc) on the chassis battery. Ours is permanently wired in and plugged in to a MH 120v circuit, keeping the battery charged when camping as well.

This cured our problem of a dead chassis battery after two weeks similar parked/stored usage like yours. Our c-class is plugged in 24/7 when it stored a home.

Beverley and Ken

edit to correct grammer/spelling