House Batteries Losing Charge

[Beachcats]

We have a 2008 BT Cruiser Ford 450 chassis 6.0 L diesel with relatively new batteries. The batteries show a full charge after driving or hooked up to shore power but lose charge within 12 hours with nothing turned on except fridge. Has anyone experienced this problem or have any idea what might be drawing the power we are unaware of? Batteries have been checked out.

Does anyone have a wiring diagram they could share by email.

Thank you.

Wally

[RV Wizard]

Hello Wally and and to the Gulf Stream Owners Forum. We are glad to have you join us and we look forward to reading of your adventures and experiences. I am sure you will enjoy the website and forums. Good luck, stay safe and keep us posted.
Which battery bank are you having trouble with? How was it checked to be sure they were in fact all good? If it is the house side, you can use an amp meter to check each circuit coming out of the distribution panel. If it is the chassis battery you could have a bad diode in the alternator; again check current draw at battery and isolate circuits to verify culprit.

[Senior Chief]

If not done already, make sure your batteries have been properly load-tested before deciding if they are good or not.

Aside from that, there are numerous "parasitic" loads that may be operating- anything which has a memory, like TV's, DVD players, radios, satellite boxes, thermostats or an on/off light.

Make sure you have no basement lights left on.

[Beachcats]

My bad. House batteries. Batteries were properly tested. We have had coach for 1 1/2 years and this is recent problem. Could it be a lp generator issue? We are going to check that out next. Does anyone know if there is preheater on the lp generator?

Thanks for the responses.
Wally

[Beachcats]

Think we have the problem solved. It seems the Dometic refrigerator has a climate control switch that allows 12V heaters to work while boondocking and draws the power down. We have had the switch on and never thought about turning it off when not plugged into shore power. We have not given it a good test yet but will soon and will report back findings.

[elmorc]

You have found the problem it is a common mistake with the Dometic fridge it is to help with humidity inside the fridge. About a 8-10 amp load will run 2 dc 27 batt. down overnight.