Battery Dies under Oregon Sky

ELK

Oh no!!! My battery died. I put the solar trickler up (10 amps)...but it's clearly not enough...Can I plug the trailer into the house and recharge it and will it live!!!????? ANd why isn't the solar panel working!????

mash2

Do you know how low the battery got?   Plug it in and charge up the battery to full.  Did you have something working when the solar triller was running.  (Its pretty small but should certainly stop the battery from draining.  Sounds like you either have a parasitic drain on the battery or something was left on.  

If you don't have a voltmeter, get one to allow you to monitor the battery health.  There are cheap ones online that would be good enough to get an indication.  Something like this would give you a sense of power remaining.  If you have one, what is the voltage showing?  
  

ELK

I actually went out to check my volt meter and it was blank. No lights, no info. I think the last time I was in it was a week ago....and I may have left something on...but I don't think so. It's a brand new T@B.

jkjenn

ELK said:

Oh no!!! My battery died. I put the solar trickler up (10 amps)...but it's clearly not enough...Can I plug the trailer into the house and recharge it and will it live!!!????? ANd why isn't the solar panel working!????

The solar trickle charge is meant to maintain an already fully charged battery. If there was already some depletion, it would likely not have been enough to keep it charged. Also, Oregon gets a lot of cloud cover, correct? You might need to monitor your actual solar charging until you get a feel for whether it will work. Lastly, call me captain obvious, but did you leave the trickle charger facing southward?

mash2

ow...something must have been on.  I assume that you mean a 10 watt trickle charger...they only add about .5 amps hourly in the best of conditions.   Might want to pull fuses for appliances when using to limit potential draw on the battery.

ELK

I plugged her into the house and when I went inside there was a distinct fan sound and warmish air blowing out from under the driver's side bench.  Alde is off. AC is off. Top fan is off. I suspect that may have run the batt down. But what is it ???
Jenn: It faces east.

Nomad

The converter is under the driver's side bench. It has a cooling fan. I believe it runs when the converter is taking your AC current and converting to 12v to charge the battery.

Nomad

Seems strange that those little night light switches would even come close to drawing enough for a big drop like that.

jdargis

Remember, if the led lights are on, so are the detectors.

ELK

PXL is right. It was the fan turned on because the battery was charging.  But why did the battery run ALL the way down so that even the volt meter was off....?  Maybe the answer is in my question.  If I put the solar charger facing south, the light will be blocked by trees....   Clouds. Trees. Oregon.

ELK

Is a battery cut off switch hard to install? I think I need to do that... Will the solar trickle still feed the battery if it's off?

jkjenn

ELK said:

If I put the solar charger facing south, the light will be blocked by trees....   Clouds. Trees. Oregon.

If you aren't tracking the sun (which you really wouldn't do with a trickle charger, and you don't face the south, you are really only getting ambient light. That probably won't be enough to maintain a charge with 10 watts.

mickietucs

After having my battery charged (at the rv place next to the storage lot) and reconnected the 6w solar trickle charger, I just got back from checking on whether the battery held the charge. Pleased to say when I flipped the battery cut-off switch on (to check the meter inside), the battery was reading 12.65. I know come winter I'll have to change where it's sitting for a better angle but it seems all is well (and our monsoons are just about over so we are back to our mostly sunny days). First trip coming up the middle of Oct - then I'll see all checks out since I'll have elec/water at the state park.

jkjenn

mickietucs said:

After having my battery charged (at the rv place next to the storage lot) and reconnected the 6w solar trickle charger, I just got back from checking on whether the battery held the charge. Pleased to say when I flipped the battery cut-off switch on (to check the meter inside), the battery was reading 12.65. I know come winter I'll have to change where it's sitting for a better angle but it seems all is well (and our monsoons are just about over so we are back to our mostly sunny days). First trip coming up the middle of Oct - then I'll see all checks out since I'll have elec/water at the state park.

Really glad to hear it all worked out for you. For me, the battery was the hardest part of being a new RV owner.

ELK

Thanks all!     ( Jenn...I'll have to work on finding a clear path south !! )