2020 TAB400 electrical and audio

rh5555 · July 2019

We picked up our new 2020 TAB400 a couple of weeks back, and I have been doing some initial modifications (fan, solar and battery monitor) which I'll write about later. In preparation for this, I measured the TAB's current draw from the battery to see how long the battery would last when nothing is turned on but the battery is not isolated with the big red switch. In these circumstances, the draw is about 420mA. So in about 11 days the battery would be half depleted. I then dove in to see where all this current was going, and the answer is that most of it (250mA) is going to the radio and the TV - presumably so they can sense if you've pressed a button on one of your remote controls. This seems to me to be somewhat idiotic and a complete waste of power. Disconnecting the TV is easy - just unplug the power cord, but the radio was a bit more involved: I opened up the cabinet behind the radio (we have the 2-way fridge and the wardrobe, so this was comparatively easy) and installed an on/off push button switch:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/bw/b6ohqydccjte.jpg

With radio and TV turned off, the quiescent current draw is reduced to 170mA and the battery will last almost 3 times as long.

While I had the back of the radio exposed, I also rewired the speakers. The Jensen radio allows control of 3 sets of speakers (called zones), but the 4 speakers in the TAB are all wired to zone A (as front and rear, left and right). There is no documentation about what comes out of the "rear" speakers (which are the ones near the bed), but I fear it might be something bizarre when watching appropriately encoded DVDs. Anyway, I connected the bed speakers to zone B instead, and now have full control where the music is delivered.

pthomas745 · July 2019

In the "manuals" section, owner @Awca12a wrote a magnum opus on things 400, and has a spreadsheet with amp hour usage of the various parts of the trailer on page 53

Look under "Tab 400 Resource Guide."

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/6371/t-b-owners-manuals#latest

Not sure what the back of your TV looks like, but on my 320 I took out the Tv's drain with one of these switches.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D66D9PM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

rh5555 · July 2019

The @Awca12a manual states that the radio draw is 580mA, and implies that this is the additional current draw when it is turned on. The radio and TV's quiescent current is lumped in to his "Always Running" entry, which was 350mA on his trailer, but is now inflated to 420mA. Cutting 250mA from this value is a significant saving.

JEB · July 2019

This is a pretty elegant solution. When I boondock, I just pull the fuse from the panel. Both the TV and the head unit are on the same 15A circuit. Clumsy, but it works. This is slicker.

2020 TAB400 electrical and audio

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