Clearly, we know nothing. Battery question - Page 2

Country_Mouse · 03-12-2016, 03:30 PM

Looked on website and it didn't specify. Now I'm anxious to know! Will have to have husband stop by and check or I'll call Jayco.

ttavasc · 03-12-2016, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Country_Mouse

Looked on website and it didn't specify. Now I'm anxious to know! Will have to have husband stop by and check or I'll call Jayco.

I'd look for it on the wall where the TV shows on the layout. On the X254 that looks to be to the right of the sink when facing the sink. It should look similar to this not so great shot:

Eatersmom · 03-12-2016, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIFL19H

Did your dealer not cover this with you during your PDI?

No! Thank heavens for this site!

Eatersmom · 03-12-2016, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassdogs

100 miles should put a good charge on a battery but the hot wire that charges the battery on the TT may not be hot. Many trucks need a fuse added to the fuse location that sends power to that wire. Check your owners manual and it will tell you where that fuse is located. My first 2 trucks did not have the fuse.

I'll have my husband check this! Thanks!

Eatersmom · 03-12-2016, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang65

Hi,
How was that night out in the TT?
To make things a little easier, you should pick up a plug-in volt meter (plugs into your TT's 12VDC outlet) for your TT (there are all kinds on Amazon). This will show you the voltage of your battery(s). The battery rule of thumb is you never let the battery voltage drop below 12.0Volts (50% rule). This will allow your battery to live a long life. When you are not using your TT and you can not plug it in to shore power, you need to remove the main TT fuse that is usually located by the battery. This will stop your battery from discharging. When you discharge a battery to where it is below the 12Volt point, it life is shortened. A lot of members install a battery disconnect switch between the battery and the TT, which makes disconnecting the battery much easier.

Also the heating system fan will run down the battery in one night if it is cold and you are not hooked up to shore power.

Don
EXAMPLE (many different types available):

Thanks! The night out was a lot of fun. The kids especially loved it! I found our lighter outlet today, so I'll add this to the list of things to buy.

Eatersmom · 03-12-2016, 07:32 PM

Thanks so much everyone! I can already tell that I'm going to need your help a lot on this site. So we had the battery tested this morning, and it was fine. We did find a blown fuse. Once we replaced it, everything is working well. Now to figure out why the fuse blew with only running the heater.

Country_Mouse · 03-14-2016, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ttavasc

I'd look for it on the wall where the TV shows on the layout. On the X254 that looks to be to the right of the sink when facing the sink. It should look similar to this not so great shot:

Thanks. Still going to check myself next time at trailer but I did call Jayco today. Our cable connection like in pic is under the kitchen cabinet above the sink. They checked with my vin # and said we did not have that type of charger in our trailer. We do have a USB port but I don't think the voltage is correct to measure the battery through there? Is there any other way?

P.S. I saw on their website that the 2016 Feathers have LED lighting throughout. They checked the build sheet for mine and told me we had it. Our interior lights do not seem like LED. I will have to pop a cover off to check.

Subaru297 · 03-23-2016, 02:58 PM

You can measure the voltage directly from your battery terminals with a digital multimeter.
Etekcity MSR-P600 Digital Multimeter / DMM / Multi Tester with Capacitance Test (Red) - - Amazon.com

Everyone should have one and know how to measure a couple things. Voltage being one of those. DC or AC voltage is easy to measure. One con is that this is not a permanently mounted solution that you can glance at but it is more accurate and more useful.

Also it has been mentioned that your tow vehicle will charge up your battery after a couple of hours. This is not really accurate. And while not all vehicles are the same I would guess that not many vehicles are even capable of fully charging a trailer battery. The voltage at the trailer plug is not sufficient to fully charge and not sufficient to quickly charge a battery either.
Bulk charge voltage is usually around 14.4 volts and should be higher than that according to battery manufacturers (14.8v).
Trailer plugs are most likely around 13volts and will likely put out less than 10 amps.

So in a perfect world it would take 4 hours charging at 10 amps to restore 40Ah which would charge a group 24 battery from its 50% state.
The reality is that you may start charging at 10amps while your battery is low but the amps will taper off quickly as the battery voltage rises. So your tow vehicle can probably get you from 50-80% fairly quickly (~2.5 hours) but it will take days to get the rest of the way on what is essentially maintenance voltage for a battery of around 13.2 volts.

Hope that all makes sense and isn't too far off topic!

Cheers

**norty1** · 03-24-2016, 04:23 AM

Yes directly across the terminals. Set the meter on a DC scale higher than the voltage. Start with the highest scale and work down for better accuracy. A 15-20 Vic scale should be best.

Bridgeengrjim · 03-24-2016, 12:32 PM

Another use for the voltmeter is to check the polarity of the CG connection.

Country_Mouse · 03-27-2016, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Country_Mouse

Thanks. Still going to check myself next time at trailer but I did call Jayco today. Our cable connection like in pic is under the kitchen cabinet above the sink. They checked with my vin # and said we did not have that type of charger in our trailer. We do have a USB port but I don't think the voltage is correct to measure the battery through there? Is there any other way?

P.S. I saw on their website that the 2016 Feathers have LED lighting throughout. They checked the build sheet for mine and told me we had it. Our interior lights do not seem like LED. I will have to pop a cover off to check.

Confirmed that our 2016 Jay Feather X254 DOES have the cigarette type charger AND LED lights throughout. Yay!

Photo of plugs is under the overhead kitchen cabinet looking up.