Whats draining my batteries?

[Mikey P]

original 3 year old car battery on the C4, under year old battery on the Dodge Ram Van

Both were DEAD this AM.

Van would not take a jump start at all. When Greenie installed the unit for some reason he connected the two batteries
When I unhooked the tether the van Jumped right on with the first try. I had my kid take it to my mechanic buddy to get his opinion...

this is his report..

Main battery tests OK, little weak.
Aux battery dead.
Engine charging good, 14.1 volts.
Replaced aux battery, cleaner engine fired right up, but no charging voltage present.
Restored charging power between main and aux batteries removed by customer and confirm
restored charging to aux battery.
Measure key-off draw on battery in excess of 250 mA. (50 mA is industry max standard) This
will draw a good battery down in 3-5 days, a weak one overnight.
Isolated draw to something in the cleaner engine circuitry, and with auxiliary battery
disconnected, draw is reduced to 4 mA.
Further diagnosis required to pinpoint source of draw, but truck needed back on jobsite
now.
Meantime, disconnect auxiliary battery to eliminate draw during downtime.


So what do you think is creating the draw? Roof vents and fuel pump need the Kohler ignition on..

Could it be the ignition switch gone bad?

 

[dealtimeman]

When one battery is damaged and it is tethered in series or parallel, it will drain and most of the time damage the cells In The good battery quite possible your battery on the unit time has come and needs to be replaced.

Once you have a bad cell in a 12 v car style battery it wil damage other cells. Unless something is shorting or you left something on all night the shouldn't be anything on a Judson that would kill two battery's in one night. Your clutch certainly wouldn't kill two batteries I don't think.

 

[Mikey P]

do all you slide in owners use a full size car battery?

 

[TimM]

Mine has a full size car battery. I have the Boxxer 427

 

[FredC]

Your post indicated that charging voltage was not present when the unit was isolated from the vans charging system. Most likely a bad stator (couldn't remember name on phone). This could also possibly cause the small drain. (also check rectifier)

Assuming everything else is wired through ignition on. ...but a straight wired clutch left on would drain a battery if left on.

and put an isolator/switch on the cable connecting to the van..............that way you can use it in case of failure instead of having two dead batteries.

but it may have also been just a bad aux battery...........and something else causing the drain...you would need to confirm starting voltage

 

[Dolly Llama]

do all you slide in owners use a full size car battery?

Yes
but you don't need tons of cold cranking amps (CCA) like the be$t car batteries have
350-450 CCA is more than enough...and substantially le$$ than the 750+ CCA bat'trees


..L.T.A.

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

Large automotive batteries are generally used for two reasons.

1) Inexpensive. The economics of quantity generally yield a cost on batteries and boxes far lower than smaller "turf" units.
2) Amp-Hour rating. Many intermittent auxiliary components in a TM install can exceed the power capacity of the charging system. Therefore it is important to have a high reserve of amp-hour capacity to power these accessories when they are used for relatively short durations. Examples of high amperage intermittent auxiliary devices are;

• Electric Hose Reels (these can draw 30 amps alone)
• Many APO's
• Aggregate devices running concurrently and intermittently (e.g. auxiliary cooling fans, pump-in pumps, auxiliary lighting)

 

[clean image]

Also would recommend a marine battery over a standard battery for the exact reasons Shawn mentioned

 

[floorguy]

nope...in fact it has a lawn mower battery on it when i bought it.....still does 3.5 yrs later....only time it died, was when i left the key in the "on" position, because i wired a light to it....

oh and thats an everest...with the 4cyl nissan, and a car type alternator

 

[Jerry]

I just had a voltage regulator go bad on my Briggs 35 hp Saffire. It would drain the battery while running in a few hours.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I use exactly the same battery on TM and truck. For many of the reasons listed above, and flexibility.

I recommend a good battery box for the TM battery to extend its life and reduce possible corrosion and fire hazards.

 

[dealtimeman]

So what ended up happening with your battery?

Did you change out both?