Dead Battery

Brooky

I used my New TaB Max CS S once now. Love it!!! When it sitting in the yard now, the battery goes dead after a few days. I've made sure all switches are off. Looking for some input on if this, is it common, or is something wrong. What should I do?

Nomad

There's several threads about battery life (some very recent) you may search for but basically, there are several things that will still draw power and over time drain your battery. Things like the CO detector, the Jensen radio, etc. The only way to avoid this is to add a battery cut-off switch (search forums), pull the fuse at the battery (small little black fuse thingy in the battery box), or use a trickle charger connected to your house current (this could be a solar charger instead).

Battery management is something we all struggle with at first and have to learn when we first get campers.

JandJ92010

The smoke detector, CO detector, and the converter all draw a small amount of current all the time, did you pull the fuse on the battery? That will stop all current draw. I always pull my batteries out when we aren't camping. You can try to recharge it using the charger in the trailer or an external charger if you have one.

Playc

PXLated said:

There's several threads about battery life (some very recent) you may search for but basically, there are several things that will still draw power and over time drain your battery. Things like the CO detector, the Jensen radio, etc. The only way to avoid this is to add a battery cut-off switch (search forums), pull the fuse at the battery (small little black fuse thingy in the battery box), or use a trickle charger connected to your house current (this could be a solar charger instead).

Battery management is something we all struggle with at first and have to learn when we first get campers.

Hi PXL - my dealer said to just disconnect the battery positive cable end from the nut.  And use 110 AC to recharge the day prior to the new trip.

I do not have fuse on my battery like you guys do ( not know why it's not LG standard).  The above process seems to be easy to do.  Does it make sense?  TIA

JandJ92010

Yep! A disconnect works just as good as anything else. Whatever works for you.

Brooky

Thanks for the input. I'm going to install a cut off switch in the morning, and charge the battery for it will be ready when I want to go. Eventually I'm going to buy a Goal Zero Maintainer 10 solar battery trickle charger. 

vito

I've only owned my T@b a short time, but so far I have been hooking up to 110 power from my garage the night before we leave with the T@b. This makes sure my battery is at a full charge, and that my refrigerator is nice and cold for loading of food in the morning before we depart. Seems to work. At first I noticed that the small draws of power from the detectors and the Jensen blue screen ran the battery down in about a week, but last week I turned the Jensen screen to "off" so it appears the only draws are from the CO2 and CO detectors, which seem to not draw enough to yet deplete the battery (its been about 10 days now). I may look into an on/off switch on the battery but only if I find someone qualified to install it; I don't do anything electrical myself. 

JandJ92010

Could you just remove the positive wire off the battery?

NomadPilgrim

I had to buy a new battery yesterday for my 14 day old CS S, which I'm in 14 days now but day 1 of dry camping found my original battery completely dead. I don't know if it was the bad lead VW installed on my TV or a bad battery from my dealer. I'm leaving the fridge off this week, it draws too much.   

Nomad

Which fridge do you have, the 2-way?
Did you confirm it was a bad lead on the TV?

Normfun

CSS would be 2 way. And yes it draws a lot of power. We won't use the fridge unless we have shore power. 

Nomad

Hmmmm - For some reason I was under the impression that the 2-way on battery was more efficient than the 3-way.

Normfun

On battery it does draw less but still draws about 4 amps per hour. That will drain a normal battery in a day of boon docking without solar. Mines ok if we use solar. When I finish my solar setup shouldn't be a problem. Ever  . Unless it rains. 

mawebb

It seems to me that Pleasant Valley / LG needs to get feedback from T@B owners that a battery disconnect switch should be part of the standard build. There was a day that not having one was not an issue, but we didn't have the electronics that are now prevalent in our units today. It's not a big tcket item and would make T@B ownership easier, particularly for those that are not so tech savvy. 

Nomad

Curious - Do you know of any other mfg that installs one?

ChanW

Sandra said:

Yikes - don't remove the positive wire on your battery as it would still be live - instead remove the ground wire and everything inside will shut off and you won't shock yourself on the red wire end.

I have my battery in the marine box with the strap across the battery and the lid just sitting on top - it won't blow off when you're traveling. So when I'm not camping, its very easy to just disconnect the ground (black) wire from the battery.

Sandra, thanks for setting me straight on that battery disconnect thing. I'd completely missed that the positive wire would still be hot in that case, and I'd forgotten that disconnecting the negative first is the correct way with any vehicle. 

jkjenn

PXLated said:

Curious - Do you know of any other mfg that installs one?

Some do. The newer Airstream have one installed.

Nomad

Airstream - For what they charge, they should include everything, and more ;-)

jkjenn

PXLated said:

Airstream - For what they charge, they should include everything, and more ;-)

I agree, but truthfully, this would be neither  difficult, nor expensive.

SweetlyHome

Every time these electrical topics comes up I wish we had a proper schematic of how the T@B is wired.  Then one could properly evaluate where to put cut off switches for a desired purpose or connect a new electrical accessory etc.