Another Battery Question

BooRadley · September 2015

Hi all, new to the forum - 2016 Outback, purchased a month ago. We've been reading for months.

On our second trip out, we ran our battery down. Turned out they mis-wired it, and it wasn't charging.

So, we've sorted out the basic issue, we think - and we have a Zamp 120 to keep the battery happy.

Our question is about disconnecting the battery. We bought a kill switch, and know how to connect it (we think!); it's a bit cumbersome, and before we start drilling but we are wondering if it isn't easier to just disconnect the battery altogether while storing it. Although we feel as if I now have a PhD in battery maintenance - who knew! - we wonder if we are not missing something. Currently, it is totally unhooked - we just keep a socket wrench in the TV and rehook the terminals before we leave. Does anyone else do this?

We can't connect it to shore power, and in fact doubt we ever will.

Thanks to everyone on the forum - a tremendous source of information.

Nomad · September 2015

Can't think of anything you'r missing. Should be fine as long as you don't mind the hassle.
A question I have is - Doesn't just pulling the fuse have the same effect as a kill switch? That'd be easier than disconnecting.

JandJ92010 · September 2015

I not only disconnect my batteries, I put them in my garage for security reasons and I see them every day so I don't forget about them. I prefer a total disconnect over just pulling out the fuse because during reconnection, you get a spark, and I think that just reconnecting at the fuse may blow the fuse easier than reconnecting the wires at the battery. I don't see a need for a kill switch myself.

jkjenn · September 2015

BooRadley said:

Hi all, new to the forum - 2016 Outback, purchased a month ago. We've been reading for months.

On our second trip out, we ran our battery down. Turned out they mis-wired it, and it wasn't charging.

So, we've sorted out the basic issue, we think - and we have a Zamp 120 to keep the battery happy.

Our question is about disconnecting the battery. We bought a kill switch, and know how to connect it (we think!); it's a bit cumbersome, and before we start drilling but we are wondering if it isn't easier to just disconnect the battery altogether while storing it. Although we feel as if I now have a PhD in battery maintenance - who knew! - we wonder if we are not missing something. Currently, it is totally unhooked - we just keep a socket wrench in the TV and rehook the terminals before we leave. Does anyone else do this?

We can't connect it to shore power, and in fact doubt we ever will.

Thanks to everyone on the forum - a tremendous source of information.

You can definitely due this. If you do, I recommend putting electrical tape over the ring(s) on the cable(s) to avoid them unintentionally creating a, "shocking" experience.

BooRadley · September 2015

There's more to the story: We actually thought we'd killed the battery, that it was our fault. We spent a couple of nights without any power at all. So we bought a new one en route at a Napa store on our third trip, and it, too, didn't work. After a few more powerless nights - still a lot better than a tent in the pouring Colorado rain - we pulled into an RV place right at closing, and a very friendly guy took one look and told us it was mis-wired. So now we have a spare battery that we keep on a tender and bring along in the TV just in case.

This has probably been raised, but is there an official owner's manual? We have the very helpful one that was posted on one of the threads a while back, and the old one from Little Guy that isn't for the T@Bs, but we never got one from Little Guy specifically for the Outback (just a bunch of individual ones - fridge, heater, sound system). It seems that new owners, without this forum, are pretty much in the dark about a great many things, some of which can be a real problem (who knew about the propane/battery complexity of the 3-way fridge?).

Nomad · September 2015

As far as I know, there's not a new owners manual - doesn't surprise me much, boats and other RVs don't have master manuals either, just component manuals, so LG isn't unique in that respect.

Nomad · September 2015

By the way, what was miswired?

BooRadley · September 2015

Thanks for the confirmation on the manual. I bring it up because when they did the walk through at the dealer with us, we were total newbies and didn't really know how to take all the information in (wait...go through the heater settings again...). So many things we didn't know: we had no idea that the 3-way sucked so much power, or that you couldn't even light it with a dead battery, or that it took so long to cool down, or that if you use the sink with the original faucet it gets water all over the counter, or that we needed a mattress topper of some sort, or that queen sheets don't quite fit.... Steep learning curve! We're about to set out on trip number four, and finally feel at least a little on top of things.

As for the wiring, it seems they put one of the positive wires on the negative terminal when they initially installed the battery. We thought everything was fine because the first few nights we left the T@B hooked to the TV - hate to admit it, but we couldn't get the hitch undone! (hammer and work gloves now part of the routine) - and so we were running the lights and pump off the car battery without knowing it. It seemed that we could draw off the T@B battery, but it wasn't recharging at all, either off the TV or the Zamp. All seems in order now, but I've spent hours and hours reading about battery maintenance since, and still feel pretty much in the dark (pun intended!).

Nomad · September 2015

I feel for ya - I was a total newb also - picked the T@B up at the dealer and hit the road, learned as I went and luckily knew about this forum.
As for the wiring, that's a dealer screw up, the dealer adds the battery and hooks it up. The T@B comes from the factory without either a battery or propane tank. Glad you got that figured out, I wouldn't have figured that out on my own either. Luckily my dealer made the right connections.

DurangoTaB · September 2015

good start but dated and confusing...you're better off surfing this most excellent forum...
http://www.golittleguy.com/download/literature/LG-Owners-Manual.pdf

mash2 · September 2015

Take a look at Rick and Sandy Stevens manual. Should come in handy. http://tab-rv.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/19974/#Comment_19974

TwoRoamers · September 2015

Total newbie here with purchase of first camper just moving up from a tent in the end of my 6th decade. To complicate things, I acquired a 2014 CS Max in a private sale and no battery and NO instructions; just component manuals. This forum has been very helpful, but a tent was much easier to deal with. In the last few days I decided from the great info here to get 2 Trojan 125's and a kill switch. I like Rad's video with the offset batteries, though uncomfortable with no cover. Will work on that. No T@B dealer's nearby, so I'm thinking of getting to a larger local dealer for other RV's in the area to help check out systems and connections. Want to be sure the electrical is up to snuff and the brake controller is properly installed. May check with U-hauls for that. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

BooRadley · September 2015

we decided to go with two batteries, on in the tv. pretty primitive.

BooRadley · September 2015

oh, and no kill switch. just take the fuse out.

mash2 · September 2015

what happens with the one in the TV? You could wire both in parallel and get use out of both (and solar charging to both).

I actually started with two batteries and recharged one in the TV to be always ready if needed. Graduated to parallel recharged by solar. The zamp should be able to charge both in good weather without problems (assuming you are conservative with use). Works well for me (I have 136 watts and two batteries). What is the Amp Capacity of the batteries (hope they are similar age and amperage).

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