2019 303rls - battery disconnect doesn’t actually disconnect the battery?

[Troutd0g]

I set the battery disconnect to OFF and yet compartment lights and landing gear still had power. This explains draining my battery while in storage. Is this by design or do I have a bad switch?

[FT4NOW]

By design. If you want a true disconnect, add one yourself or remove the battery cables. There doesnt seem to be a standard of what remains connected when the switch is off. Mainly it is CO and propane detector, radio memory, sometimes lights, landing gear.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Canyonlight]

Wiring has evolved in GDRV build overs the years. Whether this has been due to code oversights/changes and/or build features and options and/or build design, we have not been able to fully determine over the years on the forum.

2014 303s (and other 2013/2014 models as I recall) battery switch was wired to actually disconnect from any parasitic drain. The only areas with power were the front cap light and front landing gear but these do not result in a parasitic drain and thus do not drain the battery. Even our radio memory does not have a parasitic drain. We have to re-set station memory and other settings each time after we turned off our battery switch.

We store out 303 every winter for 7 or so months indoors. When we return to get our RV, the battery still shows about 75% charge (the normal discharge rate for a traditional wet cell battery) for that time period. We still have plenty of battery reserve to power the front jacks, use lights, etc.

Mark - I think your situation is as it s/b for current builds with the drain coming from the CO, propane, radio, and possibly other areas as FT4NOW addressed. The front landing gear and compartment lights should not have any parasitic drain (along with front cap light) should not be the reasons for any battery drain.

When not plugged into AC, most folks seem to report about a 2-3 week period before the battery has discharged when the battery switch is off due to the parastic drains referenced above . Disconnecting the negative battery cable or installing a true disconnect switch has also been done by many.

You can call GDRV Customer Service (574 825 9679) with your VIN and they can share with you what items will drain your battery when the switch is off.

Dan

[beaumark]

Battery disconnect is configured behind the battery. Depending on the layout. Bay lights, Ground Control Leveling power doesn’t go through the switch. I reconfigured it how I see it to work.

[RickLight]

One of the first things I did after getting my rig home. Set the disconnect switch and tested everything to see what still worked.

Knowing is much more than half the battle.

[Canyonlight]

Battery disconnect is configured behind the battery. Depending on the layout. Bay lights, Ground Control Leveling power doesn’t go through the switch. I reconfigured it how I see it to work.

Well done.

Dan

[hds9995]

Hi All,
I've been reading about challenges RV'ers are faced with regarding batteries and maintaining a charge. I as well have a challenge that I can not find information on through searches.
I have a 2015 Solitude 379FL with 2 brand new batteries installed this past spring. I'm on AC power while camping and AC power while the RV is sitting in the driveway to keep batteries charged. My issue comes in occasionally when I have low voltage on my batteries due to not being connected to AC power. I can not operate my landing gear to raise the nose of my FW.
Situation: I had my RV at the dealer for about 3 weeks and as Canyonlight mentioned you get about 2-3 weeks before batteries become drained, my experience so far is that is a true statement, even with my new batteries. I go to hook up my vehicle and can not raise the nose enough to hook up to the hitch, the batteries do not have enough charge in them. I hook up the RV cable to my truck thinking that should supply the power to run the landing gear... Nope...

So here are my questions: Does my vehicle supply its power to the converter, then converter charges the RV batteries?
The landing gear will not operate until RV batteries are charged to a certain voltage even though my RV is connected to my tow vehicle?
I noticed when I supply AC to the RV I do not have a problem with operating landing gear at all.
I understand the OEM disconnect switch does not disconnect the battery 100% and there is still a draw. I plan on fixing that shortly. But sure would be nice if I can draw power from my truck to operate the hydraulics when these rare situations occur, if it is even possible to do.

I look forward to getting a better understanding of how this system works and possible re configurations.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions..
Chris

[RickLight]

Your truck can supply some power, but not much. The main issue is wire size, you just can't send that much power to the rig. It would take a long time to charge dead batteries that way. For an emergency charge use jumper cables!

Obviously your batteries may be worse than discharged by now. My auto parts store does battery testing, maybe yours does too.

Your charger/converter may have a problem. I've also heard some trucks don't have the fuse for that installed or something. Could also be a wiring problem. A cheap multimeter will tell you a lot!

[beaumark]

The converter is a glorified AC battery charger. It gets it power only from shore power. It is a 3 stage charger and is the best way to charge a battery. First it charges the battery to 14.4 volts, the holds it there while it pushes the amperage (absorption) into the battery until the internal resistance of the battery to cause it to drop to near zero, then the third stage is float which maintains a fully charged battery. Battery, charge, drain. Possible issue is quiescent draw or parasitic draw, 3 stage charger not working or failed battery.

The vehicle only sends a charge voltage to the battery while it is running. And would take a long time to fill battery to any acceptable level to get your landing gear to work. A dead battery reads 11.8 volts and a fully charged battery reads 12.7 volts. If you use a meter to check voltage you can tell how full it is. Checking draw is a little harder because a induction amp gauge is the best way to look for a draw.

Mark Beaudrow

[gbkims]

So here are my questions:
Does my vehicle supply its power to the converter, then converter charges the RV batteries?
The landing gear will not operate until RV batteries are charged to a certain voltage even though my RV is connected to my tow vehicle?
I noticed when I supply AC to the RV I do not have a problem with operating landing gear at all.

The truck doesn't power the converter. The converter only works with 120VAC on shore or generator.
The hydraulic pump seems to pull a lot of amps, and seems to work best with fully charged RV batteries.
Some of the hydraulic pumps have 50A circuit breakers. Some have 80A to fix the 50A ones tripping when opening slides.
The truck's 12V charge wire is small (14 Awg or 12 Awg) compared to the converter's 6 Awg, so can't provide as much voltage and amps to charge the RV batteries.
Two discharged RV batteries take several hours to recharge even charging with the converter.
Here's where howson measured his truck's amps to the RV with an idling truck and fully charged lithium batteries:
https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...l=1#post232201