Batteries dead in 4 days

[jimj3125]

I bought a 2024 Jay Flight SLX 210QB a week ago today. Within 4 days the batteries were dead.
I called the service dept at the dealer and was told that is normal if not hooked to power.
I was told when I bought it the solar would keep the batteries charged. The fridge is 12 volt only.
I don't know if the batteries are ruined. I will hook to power today and hope they take a charge.
Please advise, thank you

 

[Kevin Cooper]

I bought a 2024 Jay Flight SLX 210QB a week ago today. Within 4 days the batteries were dead.
I called the service dept at the dealer and was told that is normal if not hooked to power.
I was told when I bought it the solar would keep the batteries charged. The fridge is 12 volt only.
I don't know if the batteries are ruined. I will hook to power today and hope they take a charge.
Please advise, thank you

How many watts of solar do you have on the roof? I have a feeling that very little. Like maybe 100 watts or less. And that will keep your battery charged IF you turn Everything Off. what kind and size batteries do you have?

 

[jimj3125]

I’ll have to get back to you. Like I said I’ve only had it for a week. Still checking paperwork.
Thanks

 

[pconroy]

I don't know if the batteries are ruined. I will hook to power today and hope they take a charge.
Please advise, thank you

Probably not. Running them to zero ain't good. But most batteries can take it a few times. I wouldn't replace them just yet.

Yeah - get familiar with the solar on your unit. How many watts up top, how to see if the batteries are being charged from the controller's display, etc.

Also, if you're going to do a lot of dry camping, you might want to spend the $20-30 for a Kill-A-Watt monitor. Hook it up and then you can see how many watts each appliance draws.

I was very surprised to see our 'fridge would draw 300ish watts at times. It was kind of surprising to see how much power some of these appliances take. Even the TVs draw some power when off.

 

[jimj3125]

Thanks

 

[Taftcoach]

A couple other things to check. Is the solar even connected and actually charging the battery would be at the top of my list.

If you are just in storage mode and not using it, turning off the refrigerator is helpful.

That battery may have been abused at the dealer. Check the manufacture date.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Right out of the gate I can attest that your dealer probably added the least amount of AH battery that they could get by with and claim you have a 12 volt battery. While I know better my brand new 29 foot was rigged with a group 24 80 ah deep cycle battery and a single 200 watt panel.

Of course they, dealers and manufacturers I guess too also profess to everyone that the tiny 200 watt solar panel and a PVM controller will keep things hunky dory. Not! But you can also reset the controllers so that your float and flood is greater, which will help a bit. But it will not cure your problem long term.

So when buying new I tell everyone that if your equipment is stock, the battery is the first thing that you need to upgrade. And yes even with a 100 AH battery and you have not plugged your camper in for four to five days or you have not turned off your 12 volt main breaker, if you have one built in, your battery will not have much left, as a rule.

If nothing else and you have your camper at your house and not plugged in, I would look into a portable suit case type solar panel to trickle charge your battery. They are sold with alligator clips too, if you do not have a solar plug
for a portable panel set up on the side or your hitch.

If you plan on doing some extended camping off the grid, by all means look into upgrading your roof solar panels while upgrading your battery.
I will add that Walmart has a 29DC MAXX thats 114 AH , for a single setup and reasonably priced for that sized deep cycle. And your warranty is good across the states.

 

[jimj3125]

Thank you

 

[Shenandoah-JAY]

I had issues with my battery dying within a week or so. Discharging so completely as to require replacement. This got old quick.

This baffled me as I used the disconnect switch for the 12VDC, which I assumed would cut the power to the trailer.

A bit of troubleshooting later I discovered parasitic loads that bypassed the disconnect switch (why?).

I ended up replacing the AGM battery with a pair of lithium ones, added a 100W solar panel and added a dedicated cutout switch to completely remove power from the trailer leaving only my solar charge system in place. I haven't had a dead battery since.

 

[pconroy]

Since we're spending your money, Jim...

The >best< investment I've made after the solar install was dumping the lead acid battery for two 100AH Lithiums. I'm astonished at how much more capacity they have. Like four times...

 

[Kim Gass]

The battery died overnight on our 212 qb the first camping trip. We got a second battery and it does better but never four days. We have the solar panel on the roof and as we usually are under forest canopy it is not very helpful. Once we were under a long daytime cloudless and tree coverless site in Newfoundland during their long light summers and we used the generator very sparingly and the 12 v refrigerator was happy.

Do mind the night mode on the refrig. It makes a difference but will turn itself onto power gobbler at the end of 8 hours.

I am leery of lithium batteries perhaps unwarranted but our neighbors home had a li ion battery on trickle charge for months and a power surge and power outage set their home on fire and it burned to the ground. They probably are safe if you regard them as potentially dangerous.

We are staying in the gas guzzling genny mode.
A customer called the campground we were staying at and asked if the campground had a Tesla charger. The owner burst out laughing and told them they could perhaps spend a few days charging on the diesel generator output but it was slow.

 

[billcf7]

The battery died overnight on our 212 qb the first camping trip. We got a second battery and it does better but never four days. We have the solar panel on the roof and as we usually are under forest canopy it is not very helpful. Once we were under a long daytime cloudless and tree coverless site in Newfoundland during their long light summers and we used the generator very sparingly and the 12 v refrigerator was happy.

Do mind the night mode on the refrig. It makes a difference but will turn itself onto power gobbler at the end of 8 hours.

I am leery of lithium batteries perhaps unwarranted but our neighbors home had a li ion battery on trickle charge for months and a power surge and power outage set their home on fire and it burned to the ground. They probably are safe if you regard them as potentially dangerous.

We are staying in the gas guzzling genny mode.
A customer called the campground we were staying at and asked if the campground had a Tesla charger. The owner burst out laughing and told them they could perhaps spend a few days charging on the diesel generator output but it was slow.

When you say your neighbor had a li ion fire there are multiple chemistries of lithium batteries. The chemistry used in rvs is lithium iron phosphate which is very safe. The prices have come down to make them cheaper in the long run than lead acid or AGM batteries and you are not limited to 50% capacity. All new rvs are equipped with convertor/chargers for lithium

 

[Calicajun-JAY]

Who installed your Solar? The factory, dealer or after market RV repair shop (some dealers out source some work) and was it install correctly?

I ask this because there is 6,000 watts of Solar installed on our 38' 5er. Though because it was not wired correctly, I'm only getting 3,000 watts of power. Figured out our wiring problem so will be taking it back to the RV shop for correction.

 

[Retired mountain folk]

I bought a 2024 Jay Flight SLX 210QB a week ago today. Within 4 days the batteries were dead.
I called the service dept at the dealer and was told that is normal if not hooked to power.
I was told when I bought it the solar would keep the batteries charged. The fridge is 12 volt only.
I don't know if the batteries are ruined. I will hook to power today and hope they take a charge.
Please advise, thank you

A few things. The stock 12 v battery won’t keep things running. This may sound weird to some but two 6 volt batteries in line will give you much more power. Make sure you have all LED lights in the coach. We have 250 watts on the roof running a propane fridge, but with a 12 v fridge I’d go more than that.

My question too, already saw someone replied, was to check your solar panel readout and make sure it’s charging.

Sounds like they put the minimum on your coach just to say, we put solar on it. Good luck.

 

[jimmoore13]

You are in the middle of learning some hard lessons about batteries, solar, and dealers.

First: You have a 12 volt compressor fridge. Routinely, they eat at least 35 amp hours (AH) per day. As luck would have it and others have mentioned, the dealer probably installed the bare minimum (every word of this is important) "Group 24 lead acid marine battery." A group 24 can be laughingly rated for 80 AH, but most are really, truly about 70 AH. In the world of lead acid batteries, you get to use half...35 AH...which your fridge eagerly consumed on day 1...it probably ate significantly more than that as it cooled itself off.

Second: You have solar. If it came with "factory" solar, it won't be much. For giggles, let's assume you have 200 watts of solar on the roof. During the peak sun of the day - from roughly 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM - in full sun, your solar can produce as much as 10 AH/hour...40 AH peak. If it's a nice day, you might get another 30 AH out of it in June...under perfect conditions. Meanwhile, that fridge is inhaling 35+ AH, and your battery can't hold much more than that in usable power. So IN THEORY your solar might/oughta keep up kinda sorta. Overnight's another story, however, and that fridge just keeps sucking power, night and day.

Now some unpleasant news. You have a nice new rig. But it's an economy rig all the way. You didn't buy the Taj Mahal of RVs, so I imagine my assumptions are all correct: Group 24 battery, 200 watts of solar if you're lucky (perhaps just 100), and lots of other loads to consider. That's not a criticism. I have an "inexpensive" rig, too. That's how many of us roll.

One of those loads is called "parasitic loads". Parasitic loads suck power all the time, and you can't turn them off. Top of the list are the Carbon Monoxide and Propane detectors. Parasitic loads eat about 3 AH per day...every day, all day. That's 10% of your battery every day. In your 4 days, the parasitic loads alone ate 12 AH.

So, the big questions?
1) How ya gonna camp? Boondock or RV park? Parks with hookups are nice, but for many of us, that ain't campin'. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
2) How long do you want to boondock (if you do)?

When you're home, regardless of the answers to those questions, always, Always, ALWAYS plug into shore power or shutoff the fridge. Then the solar can keep up.

If you're gonna camp in RV parks, your battery and your tow vehicle supplying power will keep your fridge cold until you get there. FIRST THINGS FIRST WHEN YOU ARRIVE...BEFORE YOU UNHITCH...PLUG INTO SHORE POWER. Then run the tongue jack and so on...or at least leave the tow vehicle (TV) hooked up to the rig to supply some of the power the tongue jack requires. (I'll bet you ran your tongue jack after disconnecting in the driveway...am I right? )

If you're gonna boondock, you have work to do. You need lots more solar, lots more battery and, wait for it, a generator to take up the slack. Prepare to drop about $2K on your rig and another $700 +/- on a decent generator.

I have 400 watts of solar on my roof, 200 watts of suitcase solar, two 6-volt golf cart batteries (GC-2s) in series on my tongue able to deliver 115 USABLE AH, and I have an absorption fridge that runs on propane. When I bought my GC-2s, LiFePo4 (lithium) batteries were about a Kilobuck per 100 AH rated...80 AH usable. But today, lithium batteries are "cheap" by comparison, and I would buy Lithium today. I also have a decent genny, which I use when the weather stinks.

Other lessons you may soon learn:
A) Freshwater tanks are notorious for falling out of inexpensive rigs unless they are reinforced. Gonna boondock? You're gonna need fresh water.
Blackwater tanks can fill frightfully quickly.
C) Greywater tanks fill incredibly quickly...scary quick. But in the boonies, you can water trees with grey water.
D) You're gonna need to learn to be a good handyman to keep that rig together...it's a long list.
E) Start shopping for a replacement mattress. You'll probably need it by the end of your first season.

A rule of thumb. MOST RVs are assembled to be used in RV parks...not for boondocking. Even the ones designed for boondocking are woefully inadequate to the task unless you get the more specialized rigs that are truly built for boondocking. (Think $60,000 and up.) But the good news is that you can equip your rig for boondocking for under about $3000, and then you will be truly happy with it, and it will serve you well.

BTW, it ain't hard. I was 71 when I installed the solar on my roof. Since you already have some up there, you can probably upgrade to about 400 watts total by tying into what's already there. But you're gonna need

 

[jimmoore13]

P.S. You're gonna need a generator to run that microwave and, perhaps, other countertop appliances like a toaster. In our case, we have an espresso machine, because we aren't savages. All that stuff needs 120 volt power, and without a tractor trailer load of batteries and a zillion watts of solar, you ain't runnin' it on an inverter sucking your battery dry.

And a word on air conditioning. Ya, you got one. If you need to use it when boondocking, guess what? A 2000 watt generator ain't gonna cut it. Yes, you can add a soft start to the AC and your 2KW genny MIGHT run it, but nothing...and I mean NOTHING else. So you'll need a real generator rated for something more like 3500+ watts. And they are heavy. About 105 pounds dry. Add two gallons of gas (13.2 pounds) and a quart of oil (2 more pounds), and the thing weighs 120 pounds. Lifting that into the bed of your pickup might get old quickly.

Don't despair. We all learned these lessons the hard way...and yet, here we are.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Good job, Jim, I feel like I matched my solar with my available battery capacity. The 12 volt frig will certainly suck power and reduce the life of all flooded deep cycle batteries unless you are very mindful of keeping them lively. The really downside of increasing your battery capacity when storing them on your hitch, you are really limited with the room in the rack unless you are creative. Of course everytime you add weight to your tongue, you need to be mindfull and possibly address your rated WDH capacity.

 

[germanry]

Solar issue

Have another party check your solar. Our dealer hooked ours up incorrectly. Also we had to add a second battery

 

[tgundy]

Why not run the fridge on propane when boondocking?

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Why not run the fridge on propane?

He states its 12 volt only.