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
Yes. Most multimeters have two ports for the red (+) cable and one port for the black (-) cable. You always plug the black cable into the black port for negative. For the red cable you use one red port for measuring amps (draw) and the other red port for all other measurements. Probably the easiest thing to do is you're not sure is measure the voltage of the battery using both ports until you know which one reads around 12 volts. Then disconnect and move to the other red port for measuring draw.
To measure draw you would
One caution, do not turn on the furnace or other high draw devices or you may damage the meter. You should though be able to run the refrigerator and water pump and some lights and see what kind of power you are drawing.
My trailer at idle when boondocking pulls almost a half amp which I think is a bit much.
To measure draw you would
- Get two test leads with alligator clips on them.
- Unplug the trailer from shore power.
- Disconnect all the negative cables from the battery.
- Set your meter to measure amps (draw).
- Using one test lead connect the alligator clips from negative terminal of the battery to the negative terminal of the meter.
- Use the second test lead to connect the all negative wires that you disconnected from the battery to the red lead on the meter.
- You should see how many amps are being drawn from the battery.
One caution, do not turn on the furnace or other high draw devices or you may damage the meter. You should though be able to run the refrigerator and water pump and some lights and see what kind of power you are drawing.
My trailer at idle when boondocking pulls almost a half amp which I think is a bit much.
