1984 Fleetwood Tioga (Ford E350 chassis) - battery drains in about a day!

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johnjrod

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Mar 23, 2012
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1
Hello,

Problem: I just bought a 1984 Fleetwood Tioga (Ford Econoline E350 chassis) RV battery drains in about a day or so. Problem still exists after I have done the following:

? Main Battery voltage was 20.18 volts with no cables connected, reading across the terminals

? Placed voltmeter in series between neg terminal and neg cable and read 20.18 volts.

? Placed voltmeter in series between neg terminal and neg cable and meter overloaded while taking an Ammeter reading on the 10A DC position.

? One by one, I removed all of the fuses and checked the voltage reading. For each fuse, the voltmeter read 20.18 volts.

? The auxiliary battery, I discovered was dead. I also discovered that the battery was installed in correctly with the battery cables swapped, pos cable to neg terminal, neg terminal to positive post.

? I removed the auxiliary battery from the RV.

? On the DC/AC power distribution panel, I opened all breakers.

? Note: The park lights do not operate. The left turn signal does not turn on or blink. The right turn signal works fine. The backup lights work fine.

At this point, it seems that their is a ground somewhere. So I am wondering how to proceed next.
 
The first thing I would resolve is your voltage readings. A 12V system should read no more the 12.? volts nominally, the exception being while under charge. (IE up to about 14.5 max.)

BTW, voltmeters are connected in PARALLEL, not in Series.  Ammeters are connected in series.. And connecting across the the battery terminals, as you described, IS connecting in parallel.


Is your system some other voltage other than 12V ? (not likely in a Ford E350!!

It would seem that you have something drawing down the battery based on the overloaded ammeter reading you found. It might be worthwhile getting one of the older add-on ammeters as they will take a much higher current allowing you to leave it in place while troubleshooting and removing fuses.
 
BTW, voltmeters are connected in PARALLEL, not in Series.

A VOM has a shunt built into the voltmeter, so the terminals can be placed in series with the wiring and still get a valid reading. That's why it works ok when measuring across the battery terminals.

As Alfa38 says, something is seriously wrong with the measured voltage. A proper reading in a 12v system would be somewhere between 11.5 and 14.4 volts, depending on the state of charge of the batteries and whether the charger is operating at the time. And a single 12v battery should never show a voltage over 13.7 when at rest (no charging underway).

This wouldn't be a diesel E350, would it?  They normally have a pair of 12v batteries for starting.

When you say "main battery", do you mean the engine starting battery or the house (auxiliary) battery(s)?
 
johnjrod said:
? Main Battery voltage was 20.18 volts with no cables connected, reading across the terminals

Try a different volt meter.

johnjrod said:
? Placed voltmeter in series between neg terminal and neg cable and meter overloaded while taking an Ammeter reading on the 10A DC position.

This explains why your battery lasts a day. Try an amp meter with a larger scale and disconnect circuits until you find the one that's causing the draw.

johnjrod said:
? Note: The park lights do not operate. The left turn signal does not turn on or blink. The right turn signal works fine. The backup lights work fine.

At this point, it seems that their is a ground somewhere. So I am wondering how to proceed next.

Could be a ground, but personally, I would concentrate on finding the other problem first and that might take care of this one. Pull your light fuses and see if your battery problem clears up. If you still think it's a ground after checking it out, clip a test lead on the lamp base of the non working lamps and ground to a known ground.
 
Were the batteries replaced by two 12 volt batteries hooked up in series like the two 6 volts would be instead of parallel?
 
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