Battery Replacement Assistance
I am ready to replace my travel trailers factory installed group 24 rv/marine battery. I briefly searched the forum/internet and found a lot of good info but still wanted to post the question with my ...
Forum Discussion
I'm getting a multimeter to troubleshoot possible parasitic draw. How do I go about doing this? Is there a good resource to use?
opnspaces wrote:jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:
If I went with the 2 6v is there anything else that needs to be done to accommodate other than wiring them in tandem?
You need one additional wire to hook the 6 volts in series. Icing on the cake but not required are 2 new 6 volt battery boxes and POSSIBLY a new charger.
Link to 6 volt battery box
Link to a battery cable
And a strap to make adding and removing the 6 volts a heck of a lot easier.
Linkjawsthemeswimming428 wrote:
Our current setup lasts less than 24 hours with the fridge, on demand water pump, and minimal lights. I think we were given a bum battery by the dealer when we originally purchased. It tested fine but we’ve had nothing but issues.
Maybe it is parasitic draw? Or something else? I’m not too handy with electrical. Is there an easy way to troubleshoot this?
You mentioned the fridge, water pump and lights. If that is all the power draw that you are aware of then yes the battery should last a few days and you have something else drawing down the power. If however you are also running the furnace then that is your big draw. Typically people figure one night of furnace for one battery. So if you have two batteries you should get two nights of furnace. Of course the real determining factor in battery longevity is how warm you set the furnace at night. If it's set for 73 degrees your going to drain the battery a lot faster than if it was set to 63 degrees.jawsthemeswimming428 wrote:
The 2 x 6v setup sounds nice, but we only use it once a year. My TT is a 2016 and does have LED lights. We definitely don’t need the furnace on battery.
If your trailer is a 2016 there's a decent chance you already have a 3 stage charger. Did you get any paperwork with the trailer, maybe an owners manual for the power center with all the fuses and circuit breakers in it? that will probably give at least a model number that we can look up to help you out.
As far as troubleshooting your battery draw. The easiest way is with a digital multimeter. Even a cheap one $7.99 from harbor Freight (free with the right coupon) will help. If you have or can borrow a meter we can help you use it.
And here's a link to a recent battery discussion which has diagrams for hooking up 6 and 12 volt batteries. Link
