The Joshua Jinx Revisited

[JudyJB]

Anyone else have a place that seems jinxed?

A few weeks ago, I stopped at Cottonwood Visitor Center in Joshua National Park and left my keys in my vehicle. Since there is no cell phone service, the rangers had to radio to have someone call CoachNet, and then it took two hours for someone to come, mainly because they sent someone from the north end or the park, and it is 40 miles at 35-45 MPH speed limit to get to the south end where I was. (I got to know the rangers well sitting on a bench for three hours.)

So, I completely forgot it was MLKs birthday and a three-day weekend, so after I got my tires, barely got a campsite at north end of Joshua--tons of families out for the weekend. Dry camping, but did OK. Then yesterday, I had to drive the 40 miles to the Cottonwood campground, where I got one of the last spots (very tight) and paid for two days. Almost no other campgrounds on north end of park before Lake Havasu City, which is a long drive through a lot of nothing. The rangers recognized me when I checked in.

So this morning, when I tried to start my vehicle to do some sightseeing in the park, it would not start. Had to run the generator for 20 minutes before even my emergency start would work. I had to run furnaces all night because it was really cold, but that should not run my vehicle battery down, which it has done twice before, so a trip to a Ford dealer is in order since vehicle part is still under warranty.

Anyway, I figured twice is enough in one national park, so I bailed out and drove 180 miles to Big Bend of the Colorado State Park just north of Needles. I did NOT want to have to have the rangers call road service a second time!! VERY nice campground here, however! Will post review when I get rested up.

Think I will stay away from Joshua in the future.

[BarbaraRose]

That is too bad. Joshua Tree is such a nice place. But I guess it is not meant to be for you Hopefully, you will have better luck where you are now.

[Bethers]

Were you using a port from the engine to charge anything? I know you said you have in the past - and that will run the engine battery down quickly. Otherwise, it makes no sense. Good thing you have the emergency start and your aux battery was strong to start your generator and get charged more to be able to use the emergency start. Sounds like the aux battery didn't have enough oomph left to do it until charged more.

Hope they can straighten out whatever is pulling on your battery. I know that one other forum member had a problem and always puts a trickle charger on her battery when stopped because no one could ever find what was doing it. She decided the trickle charger was easier and cheaper than continually having it drain and the engine not start and continually having people look at it.

[JudyJB]

Beth, the only thing was that I noticed the night before I had left my GPS plugged in for about two hours. It was left on, but that should not pull much from the battery anyway. Something is pulling power or my battery is not working right. Will get it checked, but getting tired of these maintenance things.

[daibraik]

Hey Judy,

Did you get it looked at/diagnosed/resolved? Such a fabulous looking rig. I hate to think you're having maintenance issues.

Dawn

[JudyJB]

Finally got into a Ford dealer today to have my battery checked. It turns out that the refrigerator is pulling a small amount of power from the vehicle battery instead of the more logical coach batteries while I am parked without power.

That is apparently at least one contributing factor to why my vehicle battery has been dead in the morning when I dry camp. Works fine obviously when I am plugged into electric and when I am driving because it is getting recharged. So my next stop is going to be with the Fleetwood factory when I drive past Decatur in late May. I am going to ask them to rewire it and explain how all this works, because it does not seem logical that the refrigerator is draining the vehicle battery when there are two good coach batteries that almost never get drained.

Nice dealer, by the way. They had a special free lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers. Plus the customer waiting room has an attendant who serves snacks, coffee, and soft drinks and juice. Nice extras and a nicer than usual waiting room. They had small donuts and things like granola bars all day, every day. In addition, they changed my oil for only $47, which is a lot less than I have paid at Camping World or other dealers and repair facilities. They handle a lot of fleet repairs, which mostly means trucks and also motorhomes, and have a service person specifically dedicated to this. Check out Bell Ford in Phoenix.

[bluepinecones]

Judy, think it was Tina who had problem with her battery for first couple of years and no one could figure out why. Turned out to be a fuse or something to power seats which she did not have. A little out of the way garage person found and fixed it for her - no problem since.
Hope yours is an easy fix.

[Readytogo]

yes Judy. my dad had a car that we could not drive thru a certain city in Calif (Red Bluff) when i was growing up!

[Pooker]

Sorry you have a Joshua Jinx, but good that you are on the way again.

I have had some sort of battery drain on the chassis battery ever since I bought Flitter (battery was deader than a doornail when I picked her up!). At least 5 or 6 RV techs, my son, and numerous guys from my camping club have had a crack at figuring it out. No one has ever been able to trace what is draining the battery. Took me 'til the 3rd replacement battery to say the heck with it and now I have one of those battery shut-off things on the negative post. They are cheap and available just about anyplace they sell auto supplies. Whenever I stop for more than a few hours I pop the hood and shut the battery off. When I'm ready to drive again I just screw it back tight. Works like a charm!

I've given up trying to find the source!

Pooker

[gingerK]

My goodness Judy you certainly have had more than your share of troubles lately! Glad you found such a great dealer to help you get back up and running! How's your headaches, btw? Better too, I'm hoping.

[daibraik]

Ah! I know you like visiting the factory, Judy! Thanks for the tip on Bell Ford in Phoenix. Always good to hear about service departments that have the capability to work on RV engines as well.

Dawn

[JudyJB]

I am suspicious that there might be other draws I don't know about also, so need to talk to factory service people, who are the only RV service people I really trust after some bad dealer experiences.

Headaches seem to be a little less often. I still am very sensitive to bright lights and do better with shades drawn partway at least when it is bright outside and I am working inside on my laptop.

[MelissaD]

Some medications make you photosensitive. You might check the side effects on any medications you take or check with a pharmacist for drug interactions. HRT for one increases photosensitivity.

[Deeann]

You can trace a drain on the battery by using an amp meter. This is not something that most people can do but here it goes: Put an ammeter in line with the positive battery cable. If there is a drain on the battery you will see a current reading on the meter. Start pulling your fuses one at a time. If the reading drops off, that is the circuit that is draining your battery. Check to see what this circuit serves and start tracing from that point. Once the circuit is fixed there should be very little drain on the battery after that. There will usually be a small drain on the battery all the time to keep clocks working, radios, digital stuff in the car, etc. But anymore of a drain than that needs to be tracked down and repaired. It can be a bit tedious to find the problem but it's doable.

[BirdbyBird]

I can see that just putting a "cut off" switch on the battery wouldn't work i your case because you need the battery power for the frig when you need it..... You got to wonder who was working the day that wiring went in....