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rfg9585 · 11-18-2020, 09:57 AM

I am having some electrical issues of some kind, not sure if its bad batteries, etc, but my batteries went from full charged to 12.2Vs is less than 2hrs. I noticed a 7amp load in the magnum RC. Its turns out to be the control unit for the new Winegard Traveler I just had installed. Even though its not turned on when I unplug it the load goes to 0. So maybe its using something internally I just can't see.

I guess my main question for now, is a 7amp load enough to pull batteries from 12.7v to 12.2v in <2hrs. I have 4 6v interstate GC2 Extremes(225ah), nearing 5 years old(water full). This makes me think I will have a "REAL" hard time boondocking.

Side note: when the installer of the Winegard finished with my coach, he left items on and ran batteries down to 7v.

Unplanned Tourist · 11-18-2020, 11:59 AM

7 amps for 2 hours at 12.5 volts would be 7X2 divided by 12= 14 amp/hours, and 1.1666 watt-hours.

14 amp/hours isn't that much, so it sounds like your batteries are in poor shape, or one is bad and drawing the others down.

twinboat · 11-18-2020, 02:41 PM

Yes, 14 AH If the 7 amp draw was at 12 volts.

If it was thru the inverter and at 120 volts then its 140 AH from your battery bank.

Jkwilson1989 · 11-18-2020, 02:46 PM

Did you let the batteries rest before making that measurement? The loaded reading takes a while to rebound to full OCV and can mislead you.

rfg9585 · 11-18-2020, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

Yes, 14 AH If the 7 amp draw was at 12 volts.

If it was thru the inverter and at 120 volts then its 140 AH from your battery bank.

It was the control unit fo the Winegard which is plugged into 120 circuit via inverter. When I unplugged it the reading went to 0.

My neighbor came by with his battery load tester, and checked all the batteries and he thinks they are good, but he didn't disconnect battery cables. he tested while they were still connected in 2p2s mode. Does that matter?

rfg9585 · 11-18-2020, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jkwilson1989

Did you let the batteries rest before making that measurement? The loaded reading takes a while to rebound to full OCV and can mislead you.

Not sure how long to "let them rest". This down trend in the volts was over a 2 hr period, and the 7amp draw was consistent.

twinboat · 11-18-2020, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfg9585

It was the control unit fo the Winegard which is plugged into 120 circuit via inverter. When I unplugged it the reading went to 0.

My neighbor came by with his battery load tester, and checked all the batteries and he thinks they are good, but he didn't disconnect battery cables. he tested while they were still connected in 2p2s mode. Does that matter?

Is the Amp reading at 12 volts DC or 120 volts AC ?

The screen should tell you that.

If its was at 12 volts, 7 amps @12 volts DC equates to less then a 1 amp draw @120 volts AC, from the power brick. That makes sense.

A battery tester is for starting batteries and will show a bad battery but not capacity of a deep cycle battery. They would need to be seperated for that anyway.

Let the batteries charge overnight and then plug the antenna in again for 2 hours and see what happens.

You have 400+ AH to play with, so a 7 amp per hour ( 7AH ) isn't to bad. 6 hours of TV at night will cost you 42 AH plus the TV and receiver.

chunker · 11-18-2020, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfg9585

It was the control unit fo the Winegard which is plugged into 120 circuit via inverter. When I unplugged it the reading went to 0.

My neighbor came by with his battery load tester, and checked all the batteries and he thinks they are good, but he didn't disconnect battery cables. he tested while they were still connected in 2p2s mode. Does that matter?

Yes basically he "load tested" all of them together. It requires separating them and testing individually.

Unplanned Tourist · 11-18-2020, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twinboat

Yes, 14 AH If the 7 amp draw was at 12 volts.

If it was thru the inverter and at 120 volts then its 140 AH from your battery bank.

I can't see a Winegard Traveller pulling 140 AH. But who knows. It should be getting cooking hot if it is.

richard5933 · 11-18-2020, 07:17 PM

I couldn't see the image clearly, but the main power supply for the Winegard Trav'ler looks like it has a rated input of 1.5A @ 120v. That would equate to about 15 amps @ 12vdc being pulled from the batteries by the inverter if was ever asked to provide its full power capacity.

Looks like some of the Winegard units also have a separate power inserter which draws another bit of power @ 120v. Can't make out the label, but it looks like it could be 0.6A @ 120v, which would be about 6 amps from the batteries going to the inverter to power this.

Check the power supply (supplies) which are needed to run the Winegard. They will have the input specs on the back of them. If they draw as much as it looks from what I've seen, it's not hard to imagine them draining the batteries if they are both plugged in and running. I imagine that the system will draw more current while searching for signals or in a weak signal area as well, so that's something to consider.

rfg9585 · 11-19-2020, 09:46 AM

Test Update:

Charged overnight, then this am checked and batteries were 12.8 or so.

I unplugged shore and turned on inverter and 7amps(looks like DC) show up in 1st pic below. Turns out all the items plugged into the front overhead console was drawing the 7amps, which are the TV, Traveler, and the Receiver power supply. I found the breaker for these and flipped off(2nd pic), and let set for 2 hrs drawing 0 amps on Magnum monitor. After 2.5 hrs the battery monitor read out 12.3 which is about 65-70%. To me this seems like way to low for short a period of time. Does it point to failing batteries? Thoughts......

Note: notice the lights have gone out on my inverter between the 2 pics....

Alpine36 · 11-19-2020, 09:58 AM

Yea, might be time to replace those batteries if they were indeed fully charged before they dropped to 12.3 in 2.5 hours with minimal load.
How old are they?

twinboat · 11-19-2020, 10:23 AM

Thats a big drop in a few hours. If they have caps, check the water, if not looks like time for new ones.

One last check, the inverter amp draw is only what the inverter is drawing.

If you have 12 volt tank heaters or anything 12 volts, running, you won't know thru the inverter panel.

May need to test again with the house battery disconnect switch off.

rfg9585 · 11-19-2020, 10:40 AM

After 4 hrs now down to 12.2v (60%). I don't think anything is running, but will try again tomorrow after I charge overnight.

Just filled batteries with water and they are Interstate gc2 extremes 225ah, dated 2016.

Do I need to be concerned about the inverter lights going out as shown in the pics?