.20 amp leak?

[campbellVT]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and looking forward to the knowledge I can gain from this site.

I have a 2003 Gulfstream, Class C, 22’, Ford E350 chassis, bought used from a rental dealer about a year ago.

There’s a .20 amp leak from the house battery and/or the truck battery. I don’t know exactly how the batteries are tied together but it would seem that they are connected without any isolator, not sure how to confirm this or if it’s pertinent to this issue. I can start/run the truck without the truck battery attached, the alt charges the both batteries with about 14.7 v, inverter and generator charge both batteries with 13.7v. With house battery disconnected, there’s a standing .65 amp draw on the truck battery. With the truck battery disconnected, there’s a standing .20 amp draw on the house battery.

The leak persists If I shutoff the master power to the house and if I pull uses one at a time from the truck.

Looking for troubleshooting tips to try next as well as general advice on electrical system. I suspect that the rig is not setup for extended gunk-holing or whatever it’s called, and that I may need to add a multistage charger powered by the shore-power and/or the generator.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Guest]

RE: .20 amp leak?

well first off ,, welcome ,, and by leak do u mean a draw??? which i think u do ,, anyway ,, first off ,, what is on inside the rv ,, even with everything off ,, some of the boards on the appliances still pull batt ,, power ,, and also an lp dector will as will the smoke detector ,,, as far as the charger ,, u have one ,, anytime shore power is plugged in or genset is running ,, u'r charging the batts ,, but a little more info might help us out to find u'r prob ,, are u'r batts going dead?? or what ??? :approve: :approve:

 

[campbellVT]

RE: .20 amp leak?

Thanks very much, thanks for the quick reply, and yes, I do mean draw. The smoke detector/lp detector do not show that they're powered up when the master switch is off, but it's a good question, and I'll check those with a MM next time I'm working on it.

As far the charging goes, I'm aware that there is a charger running off the shore-power/genset, but I fear that it's a single-stage/float charger, since it's only producing 13.7 v, though that could be due to the fact that the batteries are currently charged, I'll have to check it again when the house battery is low and see if it charges at a higher voltage. My other concern is that the batteries are tied together and that the truck battery is being used in a "bank" with the house battery, I need to do some more test to ascertain this, and then see what I may need to do if this is the case. As I said, the rig was setup for renting, which I assume meant a lot of driving without too much use off the grid. My use tends to be a week unplugged, a day of driving, then a week unplugged, repeated six to eight times during the early summer. This genrally results in the bateries not getting charged very well. The whole topic is new to me and I've done enough reading and poking around to be dangerous.

 

[Guest]

RE: .20 amp leak?

well ck the state of charge on the house battery ,, not just with a volt meter ,, but with a hydrometer ,, that will tell the whole story ,, it should have an isolator somewhere ,, the manfact. know not to use the engine battery and the house batteries at the same time ,, no matter what ,, but u may be right on the charge rate ,, but sounds to me like u don't have a float charger ,, jsut one that is wide open al the time ,, ck out what u said ,, and see what else u find ,, btw a .20 draw ,, is not that bad on an rv

 

[campbellVT]

Re: .20 amp leak?

I'll do some more research and see what I find. I suspect the rental dealer tied the batteries together based on a comment they made like "sometimes we tie the batteries together".........In any case, I can verify that easly, but I wanted to verify that they shouldn't be used as a bank.

I'll do some more poking around tomorrow and see what I find, thanks again!