drained battery

racpat

After our last trip I fully charged the battery and left the T@G sitting in our driveway without disconnecting the battery or plugging it in shore power. The fridge was turned to off; to my knowledge the only items drawing power were the clock on the entertainment system and the power meter plugged into one of the 12v outlets. Yesterday, about two weeks later, I found that the battery was completely empty.
What did I do wrong? Is it necessary to disconnect the battery with the main switch whenever you are not using the trailer? I did not want to have to reset the time on the entertainment system every time I take the trailer out. Should I leave the trailer plugged in to shore power when parked? What could have drained the battery?

We had our 15 minute introduction to this trailer at the dealer outside during a snowstorm so there are a lot of items on it that I still have to figure out. This forum is great.

Thanks, Patrick

beaky

yes, you need to turn off the battery power switch

LuckyJ

And yes, you will have to reset the clock on the jensen entertainment system.

Now, about phantom power drain, you have more than you think.

To begin with, the entertainment system might be off, but it is in standby mode. Not fully off.

The Television is in standby mode as well.

Surely some power goes in the fuse panel system as well, since if a fuse is blown, a red light will turn on right beside the fuse to let you know witch one is burned.

All the USB charger have a small transfo in them and they drain power even when not charging anything. Foumd that the hard way when I installed seperate USB charger in my vehicule. They now each as a switch.

It seems that the safety switch for the gas propane as some power draw as well.

So either a small trickle charger of battery switch to off.

Btw, I did not know that their was a clock on the entertainment system, got our in spring of 2017.

And did you know that you can turn the back light off for the Jensen? And some of us have installed an inline switch to really turn the Television off so that darn blue light goes off when you do not use the Tv. In my book, way worst than the rising sun in the morning. Lol

racpat

Thanks for your detailed explanation LuckyJ. I am installing an outside receptacle in my backyard where I plan to park the trailer. Would it be best to plug the trailer directly into shore power while parked, or would it be better to put a trickle charger or tender onto the battery?
Hope I did not kill the battery by letting it drain.....

LuckyJ

@racpat said:
Thanks for your detailed explanation LuckyJ. I am installing an outside receptacle in my backyard where I plan to park the trailer. Would it be best to plug the trailer directly into shore power while parked, or would it be better to put a trickle charger or tender onto the battery?
Hope I did not kill the battery by letting it drain.....

About your possible dead battery, for sure, it will not like that. As for killing it, do not think so. But don't do this to Often cause you probably got some life out of it, but stay calm, take a deep breath and don't panic.

But if this can help, I left my car at an airport parking lot one winter night, just before taking a flight. Can back 2 weeks later still in a quebec's winter night, and battery was dead. Called CAA (your AAA) to jumps start my wrangler, found out that my dome light was on ( and I am talking regular light bulb from the pre led era) that had been on for well, 2 weeks. Could not really fully charge the battery, only could drive for the hour that would take me back home. Well, that battery worked for 2 more years w/o any incident. I only changed it cause I was installing a 9500 lbs winch on the jeep and wanted a 1000 CCA battery for winching duty.

Of course I should have rechared it with a charger ASAP, but I did not have any at the time.

So, I would say, put a charger on it, not the converter (maybe they are good. I am just not sure how bright they are (see intelligent charger here)) and see how it goes.

Oh, and that battery meter is also pulling a bit of juice to. I will have mine with a momentary on switch, but permenant install.

Have fun outhere!

BBsGarage

@racpat said:
Thanks for your detailed explanation LuckyJ. I am installing an outside receptacle in my backyard where I plan to park the trailer. Would it be best to plug the trailer directly into shore power while parked, or would it be better to put a trickle charger or tender onto the battery?
Hope I did not kill the battery by letting it drain.....

I would, and do, use the battery tender. Why power up everything in the trailer by connecting to shore power when its only the battery you need?

racpat

So you would hook a tender to the battery, but leave the main power switch off? Then to get ready for a trip would I plug in the power cord and disconnect the tender a couple of days before to cool down the fridge?
Thanks all!

BBsGarage

When the battery died, was the battery switch on of off? with it off there should be no power going to the trailer from the battery.
Also, You really dont need days to cool the fridge. If im leaving for a trip after work, I plug in that morning to cool it down.

LuckyJ

From his first post:

@racpat said:
After our last trip I fully charged the battery and left the T@G sitting in our driveway without disconnecting the battery or plugging it in shore power.

And I agree with @BBsGarage the fridge do not take that long to ccol down and what we uselly put in them is often cool as well, unless you gor a case of liquid that was on the shelf or the floor of the store.

Perso, tender or converter would not make to much difference for such a short time, but converter should be more power full. I think, do not know the numbers.

A tender should be about 1-2 amps. That is what mine is anyway.

Sharon_is_SAM

@racpat, when the battery cut off switch is off, you have isolated the battery from any phantom drain from your trailer and your battery tender will maintain the charge. It sounds like your cut off switch was in the “on” position, hence the discharge of your battery.
If you choose to connect to shore power just to keep your battery charged, you are adding unnecessary wear and tear on your converter. As BBsGarage mentioned, just hook up to shore-power no more than a day in advance to cool your frig. Before you do that, it would be a good time to check your battery to see if it needs further charge. Then just turn your cut off switch on to complete your battery charge.

racpat

Thanks Sharon, that is good advice.
I'll be shopping for a battery tender.
Patrick

OutdoorEd

When cooling our Norcold in advance of a trip, I also typically turn it on in the morning before work, but even just a couple hours is good. It doesn't take it long to reach your programmed temp. While doing that, I just leave the battery on the tender instead of plugging in.

Michigan_Mike

A couple of ways I’ve addressed the above issue prior to the factory installing the battery disconnect switch were as follows.

I bought a 50W Renogy solar panel, built some mounting brackets on the south side of my garage and installed a solar controller. I used a quick disconnect cable and ran it from the controller to the trailer, installed a Zamp solar port on the trailer and plugged the trailer into the panel and let that float the charge on the battery. Since I can no longer use it for my 400 (which now sits in the barn) it comes in handy for the riding mower.

I also like the battery tenders and currently use two of them to keep both riding mowers charged up nicely. A nice product and very handy during the winter months when we are in Arizona, etc.

kevineso1

@Michigan_Mike I think it's either you or @WilliamA sometimes talking about the Zamp solar port. If i want to use a Renogy solar panel, I need to reverse the polarity to the battery? thanks for all the info you guys share here, it's always very helpful!!!

Sharon_is_SAM

@kevineso1, yes, reverse the solar port wires on the battery terminals and remove your Zamp sticker. Of course, it is always a good idea to trace the wires back to the battery to make sure positive is positive etc. If you are using the MC4 connectors for your solar wires, you will need an MC4 to SAE adapter to hook up to the port.