Battery Question

[Wally26RLS]

I have a 2014 26RLS. When we bought it I didnt realize the parasite draw on the battery and ran it completely dead. Since then we have charged it and used it regularly. When we travel it is very slow to charge but when it is plugged into shore power it eventually comes to a full charge. Seems like when we use it though without shore power it immediately drops to 50% on the control panel. I brought the battery and had it tested and charged it tested fine. My question to you all is ...have you ever run your battery completely down and if so did you have similar problems with it?

[oldmanAZ]

There are folks on this site that are very 'fluent' in 12v and batteries (I'm not one of them, but I read their posts), but 2 quick points:
1) Draining a wet cell battery completely is BAD for it
and 2) the battery status lights on the control panel are virtually worthless.

If your battery was load tested, it may be OK for you.
aA the very least, begin to monitor your trailer's 12v power with a voltmeter. That will be MUCH better than the lights on the control panel.

[Mustang65]

If the TT came with a name brand (Interstate....) and it was a new battery, you can take it in to an approved battery dealer and they should replace it. Just say that it does not hold a charge for reasons unknown. It may be a pro-rated replacement, but it is cheaper than buying a new one.

Don

[DanNJanice]

Originally Posted by Wally26RLS

I have a 2014 26RLS. When we bought it I didnt realize the parasite draw on the battery and ran it completely dead. Since then we have charged it and used it regularly. When we travel it is very slow to charge but when it is plugged into shore power it eventually comes to a full charge. Seems like when we use it though without shore power it immediately drops to 50% on the control panel. I brought the battery and had it tested and charged it tested fine. My question to you all is ...have you ever run your battery completely down and if so did you have similar problems with it?

There could be quite a few things causing your issue.
First off, for the trailer's built in meter to read with any kind of accuracy you need everything turned off. Otherwise you will get a voltage drop through the wiring as well as a voltage drop from the batteries internal resistance. My 2015's built in meter is actually fairly accurate as long as I have everything turned off.
So the first thing you need to do is figure out how much load is being applied to your batteries, both parasitic and when in use. For example on my trailer, if everything is turned off my parasitic draw is about 1/3 amp. If I turn on the refrig and water heater (both on propane) that draw increases to about 1 - 1.5 amps.
The best way to measure this stuff is to get a clamp on DC meter like this.
Sears.com
Alternatively, you could install a dedicated battery monitor like the Trimetric 2030-RV here:
home - Bogart Engineering
If you do not have a meter yet, I suggest going that route, as it is something that should be in everyones toolkit.
Once you can accurately measure current draw and voltage on your trailer, you can get to the bottom of your issue fairly fast.

[Big Sky]

X2 on the battery monitor. I also use the Trimetric, however there are plenty of choices out there. You will need to install a Shunt, but it is very easy to do. The battery monitor is something I wish came stock, as everyone would benefit unless all they do is RV park camping and always have access to shore power.

[SmokerBill]

All I use to monitor my batteries is my 800 watt modified sine wave inverter. When I'm off the electrical grid and using my generator to charge the batteries, I leave the inverter readout set to show the DC voltage of the batteries. There's a small voltage drop between the battery posts and the inverter, especially if I'm using the fan, lights, or other DC draws. Typically, my morning battery voltage, after using the batt's all night, is 12.3-12.4 volts. Then it's generator time.

[Wally26RLS]

Thank you all for your replys. It looks like it was the battery. It won't hold the charge. Ihad the battery fully charged and put the slide out, ran the lights inside for about 15 min and when I went to run the slide in there was not enough charge in the battery to do it. I replaced the generic battery with a new interstate one and its holding the charge with no problem now
Thank you again....I love this forum, so glad I found it!!!!