How long does your battery last?

[tporter]

We bought a new Solitude and are getting ready to head out on a trip that will take us over 2000 miles. I turned on the fridge to get it cold but the battery seems to be draining quickly. I am getting two days out of it at the most. I have also swapped batteries and get the same results. Is this normal for these trailers to drain the batteries so quickly? I am going to add at least one more battery but want to make sure I don't have something draining my battery that shouldn't be. Again, does your battery drain this quick?

 

[thompsons 369rl]

Do you have only a single battery? If you are getting two days from a single battery (assuming it was fully charged) without a recharge, I'd say that's pretty normal when there is a fairly light demand on power. At a minimum, I would have 2 batteries even if you don't plan on dry camping.

 

[Dave and Monica]

I gather that you don't have the camper plugged into shorepower. Depending on the amount of 12V used, lights, CO detector, radio, 2 days isn't unusual. You mentioned having the fridge on...gas I assume but the control board also uses 12V DC. Camping without electrical hook-up or generator will be a real challenge.

Dave

 

[tporter]

Okay, everything seems to be normal then. Sorry for all of the questions, the trailer is new and new to us. We have had many rv's and each one is of course different. This one only has one battery for now, tomorrow I will add another one. We moved to this trailer from a diesel pusher which had six batteries plus the on board generator. Power was never a concern. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Dave and Monica]

Your diesel pusher probably had a bank of 6V batteries that have a lot higher amp-hour rating than the OEM 12V. I recall that 2 - 6V batteries in series have around 240 amp-hours compared to 80 amp-hours for the 12V.

Dave