Batteries Draining - 2008 Jayco Melbourne 29D

[rkzettler]

Hi - I'm looking for ideas or suggestions.

Go to start the RV today (after 3 weeks of sitting) and both the main and house batteries are completely dead. 2 years old

We have had 2 garages tell us that they cannot find any reason for either battery to drain - nothing to indicate that there is a drain.

Your thoughts? Thanks so much

[craigav]

What you describe is not uncommon. The reasons are that most RV's have power to the CO/LP detectors on all of the time even if you press the battery disconnect switch (and perhaps some other always on components). The other reason is that batteries themselves also have a slow self discharge rate. So with a little power consumption over time along with the self discharge together, will cause low or dead batteries in as little as a few weeks.

The inexpensive answer is to disconnect the battery cables when in storage (one per battery, negative preferred), a better solution would be to have an easy to use disconnect terminal at the batteries, and even better would be to have a small charger on all of the time (or keep the rv plugged in and even then the chassis battery may not receive a charge depending on the setup and may require its own charger), some people use solar for keeping the battery(s) charged when there is no shore power available. ~CA

[Joey55]

Agree with the previous post. To discover what is draining your batteries connect an amp meter between the negative battery post and ground. If you have anything over .1 amp then start disconnecting fuses one at a time until the amperage drops.

[ARoamer]

Originally Posted by rkzettler

Hi - I'm looking for ideas or suggestions.

Go to start the RV today (after 3 weeks of sitting) and both the main and house batteries are completely dead. 2 years old

We have had 2 garages tell us that they cannot find any reason for either battery to drain - nothing to indicate that there is a drain.

Your thoughts? Thanks so much

You asked for it...My thoughts- Your "garages" should stick to oil changes and detailing!
Seriously tho,

Your batteries may be weakened enough as to not be able to supply enough power to your RV systems when sitting idle for some time.

First, have your batteries load tested.
Second, install battery disconnects at each battery. As others stated, there are still power draws when the key is off, even the factory RV battery disconnect if equipped, does not disconnect everything.

I have 2 (non RV) vehicles that get their batteries disconnected when leaving for long trips. Otherwise when arriving home and wanting to use one the battery is dead.

[Vicr]

You need one of these. I have 2 battery banks and can disconnect both with this battery selector switch.