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Wshiley · 09-13-2014, 03:49 PM

I have a 2003 Southwind 36 on a Workhorse chassis. I disconnect the house and chassis with the disconnect switches but unless I also disconnect the chassis battery at the battery it is drained after a couple of days. Any ideas or help pointing to what would be still connected? Thanks

Dr4Film · 09-13-2014, 04:00 PM

These are commonly called "Phantom Loads" and are hard to trace down. The easiest thing to do is to disconnect the battery cables until you need them.

No drain on the battery except for normal self-discharging which can be up to 15% per month.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

Winepress · 09-13-2014, 04:50 PM

Could be a bad cell. I would do as Richard suggests, wait a couple of days, reconnect and see if starts up.

Try and live up to your dogs opinion of you.

tompen · 09-13-2014, 04:58 PM

Parasitic draws are common on motorhomes. Many are normal. Search this site and you will find reams of reading. On my 2001 workhorse chassis the battery will go down far enough in a month that it won't start. A couple of days is really short. The first thing I would do is get it charged up and checked for load and specific gravity. The battery may be failing. If you have a .5 to1.5 amp draw it may be hard to get rid of. There are several types of disconnect switches available that are easy to hook up and use. I keep a 1.5 amp battery conditioner on mine when plugged in and the battery stays full charge.
Good luck

Dtwallace · 09-13-2014, 05:08 PM

Sounds like you have at least one bad battery. As suggested above, disconnect all the batteries, each one from the set, and have them load tested to find the weak link in your set.

Now you'll have another hard choice to make, and that's rather to replace just the bad one/ones, or the whole set.

DTW

tompen · 09-13-2014, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dtwallace

Sounds like you have at least one bad battery. As suggested above, disconnect all the batteries, each one from the set, and have them load tested to find the weak link in your set.

Now you'll have another hard choice to make, and that's rather to replace just the bad one/ones, or the whole set.

DTW

2003 Workhorse likely only has one battery for the chassis. So it has to be in pretty good shape to hold up under parasitic draws and still crank over the 8.1 liter engine. It is certainly not an uncommon problem.

GaryKD · 09-14-2014, 08:51 AM

Hi Wshiley,
There are many different types of battery terminal disconnect products. The products save one from having to actually disconnect the battery cable from the battery. A sample is at https://www.google.com/search?q=batt...tm%3B336%3B385

What you choose depends on the battery you have, the space available and the complexity or simplicity of the solution desired.

Wshiley · 09-14-2014, 12:56 PM

I have replaced the chassis battery twice thinking it might be a bad battery but the same discharge happens. I have just installed a disconnect on the ground cable and the problem is taken care of. The problem persists especially when the coach is in for service for a cople of days,,,the battery drains.

Thanks for all the reponses.