Battery!

[mitch5252]

MY BRAND NEW battery did not make it through its first night of dry camping! One of us is having battery issues so we checked it with my meter. I thought I would check mine...fully charged at 12.6 or 12.7 late yesterday afternoon.

Fridge is on propane. Ran the maxxfan about an hour during the day. Used the pump maybe 90 seconds.

This morning at 6:00, was 10.5. I ran the generator for about 30minutes and it is now at 11.64.

Any words of wisdom? This does not bode well for a week of dry camping at Denal, she said with a sad face....



Mitch & Abby

[retiredhappy]

Maybe a battery operated fan? I bought one at Walmart that takes 8 D batteries and will run for 8 hours. I only used it at night tho. Maybe run your generator am and pm for a while to charge the battery. I was spoiled cause my rig had three aux batteries.

[sharon]

Hmmm...shouldn't have gone down that far...nothing else running? No electronics charging? The controls on the fridge shouldn't have pulled it down that far. Altho if it's hot there, the battery will discharge faster than in cold weather. I know you're pretty smart about what's running and not running. Good luck in figuring it out!

[Bethers]

Something has to be pulling amps - the tv even if off can. I have mine plugged into a power strip which does not allow it to pull. I learned the hard way that the little electric heaters pull big time if plugged into an outlet and not on. Best thing is to not have anything plugged in - even if you think it's "off".

You didn't have any reason to run your furnace to warm the place up this morning did you? That would be the first thing I could think of that would do that (other than my little electric heater ... hahaha).

Good luck figuring it out. And don't be afraid to run that generator an hour or so every night, then every morning. That's what I did when boondocking for all those years with just one battery - last hour I could at night, then first hour in the morning.

[WickedLady]

Beth is right; you would be surprised at all the things that have a phantom load that will drain your battery. Unplug anything you can when not in use.
But even a new battery can be a dud. Good luck.

[mitch5252]

My 110 outlets don't work on battery, so it can't be the tv or receiver...

It was fully charged this morning. I'm going out to check it now. Too bad it's so danged cold and miserable, and G's birthday, to boot. All in all, a sucko day.

[sharon]

((((((HUGS))))))) Mitch....

[mitch5252]

Oh I'm just having a pity party! But we had ice cream and fruit for his g'day. The girls made me laugh!! And the battery seems to be holding its own tonight!

[Bethers]

My 110 outlets don't work on battery, so it can't be the tv or receiver...

It was fully charged this morning. I'm going out to check it now. Too bad it's so danged cold and miserable, and G's birthday, to boot. All in all, a sucko day.

None of our 110 outlets work on battery - BUT they drain the battery if the wrong thing is plugged into them. Cannot explain it other than tell you it is so. It's why I didn't think anything of leaving my heater plugged into one - wasn't hooked to electric. Ha, tell my battery that - which drained rediculously - and the service guy told me that was what did it. So, unplug, seriously - things have a way of causing trouble.

Glad it was charged this morning!

And feel free to have pity parties whenever you want. Sometimes we'll kick your butt - other times we'll join right in.

[VickieP]

Sometimes we'll kick your butt -

(raising my hand) Um, I'll volunteer for that.