Plugging into 110 volt while TM is in garage

Bill, I don't think the radio is anywhere near 1/2 amp draw when turned off, but I could be wrong - I didn't measure it.

The reason I think this is that it looks very similar to a car radio to me, and I've been able to leave cars for weeks and still have them start up - and that is without a deep cycle battery in the car.

But there are plenty of other loads, and I wouldn't doubt that all of them together add up to 1/2 amp or so, and agree that a charger or disconnected battery is a great idea. The one thing I would add: Always connect up the battery before towing the TM anywhere, it powers the emergency braking system.

[Bill]

Joel -

You're probably right - I hope you are. But my Jensen radio measures an incredible half amp when powered down, even with the glowing faceplate removed - just to maintain the station memory. I uncovered this issue the hard way ... hopefully the manufacturers have taken note of the problem since then, and helped us out. As I recall, one of our members (Mike Laupp?) rewired his radio power supply to eliminate this drain.

Good call on the breakaway power hookup. I'm often the one that does the reminding, but I spaced it entirely tonight. Thanks for catching it.

Bill

[mjlaupp]

FYI
Here are 2 of my posts from different threads about radio power drain.

Post #1
Here is a solution to power down the radio antenna if you install a radio in the provided location. I posted this in a thread about battery conservation.
"I found that the radio antenna power lead is spliced to the radio power lead at the back rear of the fridge compartment. Remove the upper fridge vent, remove the two screws holding the plywood panel over the fridge cooling coil to access this area. I removed the splice between the two wires and extended the antenna power lead to the front of the cabinet where I connected it to the power antenna wire coming from the radio. Now the antenna is only powered when the radio is on. My Kenwood radio has a function switch to select radio, tape, CD changer/aux input and standby. The standby selection keeps the clock display running. If I hold this function switch down for several seconds, the power is turned off to the radio except for a very small current required to retain my button and tone settings and the internal clock time. I don't have enough battery drain to worry about and my radio clock is always set."
If you don't have a radio installed, remove the 12 volt fuse for the radio circuit.

Post #2
I installed a Kenwood radio with remote CD changer in my 2720SL. I was concerned about the heat problem since the radio is installed in a small sealed compartment. I did three things to help the problem:

1) I installed a computer CPU fan to the built in heat sink in the rear of the radio. I had to drill the CPU heat sink to allow installation of a screw. It is fastned where the rear support area for the radio would be installed. I powered it from the power antenna leads from the back of the radio. These leads are normally used to raise/lower a power antenna. I also spliced the amplified antenna power lead into this connection so that the only time the antenna is consuming power is when the radio is on.

2) I cut four notches in the front of the refrigerator cabinet under the counter top overhang. I had to remove the counter top to cut the notches. First I had to remove the insulation over the frige heat exchanger including the plywood insulation support. Then I could get to the angle bracket screws that hold the counter top to the cabinet. There are two in the front of the cabinet and two in the back of the cabinet. After the screws are removed, the counter top has to be pried up. It is sealed to the cabinet with silicone sealant. While the top is off you can find the place where the antenna power wire is spliced to the radio power wire. I removed the splice and added a wire extension to the antenna power lead so that I could get the power from the radio. Counter top installation is the reverse of the removal.

3) After the counter is re-installed look through the radio cutout and use a long stick to put the insulation back in place. With the refrigerator outside vents removed you can see daylight wherever the insulation is not in place.

The Kenwood radio has a function switch on the front with three selections, ALL OFF, RADIO & DISC PLAYER. The ALL OFF function turns everything off but keeps the front panel lit since I have the radio light power lead splaced to the radio power lead. However, if I hold the function switch in for 3 seconds it will turn the lights off. The only power consumption is then to hold the button and tuning memory on line. I have not noticed any power drwin on my batteries even when the unit is stored for two months or more. I do have 2 golf cart batteries installed.

The other current drain (propane detector) is disconnected when the rear bath wall is folded down.

The CD changer is sitting on top of the water tank under the sink. I used a piece of the non skid shelf matting to hold it in place.

HTH
Mike

[SCBillandJane]

Bill and mjlaupp , I have the trailer outside next to the garage in the up position. We just got it home Tuesday. It was raining last night (Thursday), so we went out to see if there were any leaks. One drop by the bathroom window that may have been condensation which I think is excellent for a 2003 model. Anyway, I pressed the battery check switch and was surprised to see the battery down 2 lights. The battery had been showing fully charged Tuesday morning as it had been plugged in to a 30 amp shore line if that is the correct word. We towed it home with a 2007 Tundra with factory tow package. All trailer lights were working if that adds any information. We got home late Tuesday night and set it up Wednesday morning.There had been no load from lights for more than a few minutes, and there is no radio installed. I did disconnect the battery Thursday night when I saw the battery lights were down. I will connect the trailer to a ground fault 15 amp exterior plug on the house through an adapter to charge the battery while it is up unless you say this is a bad idea. I don't have a 30 amp power source at this time. When the battery shows full charge, I will disconnect the battery and lower the trailer. I didn't realize that there was so much drain with it just sitting there upright. I asked about the bargeman way of charging because we want to store the trailer in the closed position with a cover in the near future, and by now you can see the extent of my knowledge. Like zero.
I did notice when we arrived home in the darkness that there was something that is attached to the seal on the roof where the front roof is on top of the rear roof. It is the shape and size of a windshield wiper and had a small red light that was on. Would this be the powered radio antenna? I didn't know there was one. Whatever it is, the light was on in the closed trailer position.
My last concern is will this drain be too much for us to run the heater and toilet on one battery for one night without shore power?

SCBillandJane,

The battery was toast when I bought by 2003 last year, so that might be your case, also. That was the 1st thing I had to replace.

The running lites and brake lites use your tow vehicle's electricity to power those.

I would think that a 15 amp receptacle should power the converter only, but hopefully others will chime in if that is not the case. I do that with no problem, but when I did the initial check on my AC using a standard recepticle to see if it would work, I fried the adapter .......but the AC pulls a lot of amps.

I wondered about that little thing with the red lite on the back of the front shell also. And yes, that is the radio antenae.

Chap

15 amps is plenty for the converter. I routinely run mine off of a 2000 watt Honda generator (around 13 amps max). The generator barely seems to notice.

[Bill]

SCBill&Jane -

What you describe is not right, meaning it is not normal. Most likely (and easiest to deal with) is that Chap is right - a 2003 TM may have been built and originally sold in late 2002. At the time of sale, a battery was added, and that battery would have been built in 2002 or 2001. Either way, it is getting up there in age, and batteries don't last forever. First thing you should do is open the battery caps and make sure that water is covering the plates. But I bet you will find that it is OK in that department.

Charge up the battery, disconnect it, disconnect shore power, and close the TM, just as you describe. If the battery is significantly down a week later, it is a bad battery. The radio antenna (the little red light) draws very little power. And of course when you disconnect the battery, it won't draw any power.

And to answer your final question, a weak battery (such as I am guessing you have) might very well not hold you through a night of heating.

Oh, one final note. The little charge indicator in front of the kitchen sink is meaningless when shore power is connected. It will always say FULLY CHARGED, but that's because it is reading the voltage of the charger, not the battery. And it is almost as meaningless during the first hour or two after you stop charging the battery. This is something called "surface charge", the details of which don't really conern us in this thread. But after waiting a couple hours, the indicator should tell you what the state of charge is.

Let us know what happens.

Bill

'Ol Bill has a habit of popping my bubble from time to time. I leave the battery in my TM all year (in Central Illinois) and don't disconnect it. I do religiously plug the TM in every month for a few hours and thought I was properly maintaining the battery. So now I am a bit wiser as to the effect of parasitic loads and understand why I had to replace the battery after two years! The TM Forum has paid for itself again. - camp2canoe

If your battery is mounted on the front exterior of the TM or you can access the terminals posts, a battery tender works fine for keeping the battery topped.

Set up battery tender on TM battery. Left hook up for day in a half. Red light (charging) still on and tender is getting very warm. Battery is registering 12.74 volts so I disconnected tender since I needed to go to work this morning and didn't want to come home to a fried tender or battery. Any suggestions? Think I try again next weekend. I followed all the instructions. Also pulling hot lead off battery did get a spark. No radio in TM. So anyone know where the juice is coming from?

Thank you,

Joe