Electrical Issues

[Chrishall]

I attempted to lower my front jack this morning and found that it was not working, the camper was on shore power. Just out of curiosity I checked both of the house batteries and found them dead. When recharged the jack works fine.

Questions:

With the battery switch, located inside the door, in the store position will the house batteries charge when on shore power.

Shouldn't the shore power run the jack regardless of battery charge status.

What could be draining the battery while the trailer is stored?

2012 25FB Flying Cloud
Thanks in advance
Chris

[Wazbro]

It varies by year and often by trailer for same model and year but, for many AS they do not charge with the switch in the store position.


NO, the jack should not run off of the converter in store mode it is wired directly to the batteries.


There are some things hooked to the battery bypassing the store switch, the propane detector is definitely hooked to the battery along with the jack, the light on the jack and the breakaway switch for the brakes. Other possibilities are the sub-woofer, if you have an inverter (which will draw power when on and not supplying power), and possibly the memory power for the radio.

[Al and Missy]

Q. With the battery switch, located inside the door, in the store position will the house batteries charge when on shore power.
A. No - As far as I know, this is true for all trailers with the electronic USE/STORE switch.

Q. Shouldn't the shore power run the jack regardless of battery charge status.
A. I don't know. It depends on how the trailer is wired and that varied, over the years, models, and maybe the assembly crew. Logic tells me that since the trailer is disconnected from the batteries in STORE mode, that the converter is connected to the trailer all the time. But the jack on my previous trailer jack was wired to the batteries direct and would not work unless the batteries were charged or charging. The jack on my 2002 Classic is wired from the trailer fuse panel and doesn't work unless the KILL switch is on. Did you try putting the trailer in USE to see if the jack would work on shore power? I have read ere that sometimes the USE/STORE switch won't go into USE if the batteries are completely dead. Folks have had to charge p the batteries with an external charger to get the switch to work.

Q. What could be draining the battery while the trailer is stored?
A. Several things, again depending on various factors. Typically the subwoofer, if you have one, is always drawing power. An inverter always draws power unless it is turned OFF on its control panel. The propane detector is typically wired direct to the batteries and draws power always draws power. Maybe other stuff.

For storage longer than a few days, a battery disconnect switch right at the batteries or disconnecting the batteries works best.

Al

[BayouBiker]

As others indicated, Airstream has been inconsistent about which side of the use store switch the converter is wired. Older models with the dumb charge profiles were all wired on load side as yours is. When they use better digital charge controllers, they are generally wired to the battery lead side and will charge the batteries regardless of the switch position.

The loads others mentioned as always connected, especially the inverter will draw about 0.5-1 amp and will drain the batteries as fast as about a week or two. You'll need to come up with a plan to prevent that from happening. The batteries are generally heavily damaged by even one full discharge. If your converter does not have a digital multimode controller, it likely will overcharge your batteries if left on continuously which will accelerate water loss, so you'll have to check water level frequently. There is no good way to manage this situation short of a complete disconnect as others suggested. The alternative is to manually connect for a day then disconnect for a week or two and so on. Only other idea is to consider an upgrade to a high quality modern converter.