# Battery drain



## wildbuckaroo (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi there, I just bought a 97 Beaver Marquis that has a battery drain. I shut both main power switches off under the RF compartment one switch is for the coach battery and one for the engine battery. Now I would think that there should be no drain at all but if it sits overnight or for two days the battery doesn't have enough power to crank the engine to start it. The previous owner used to put it on a trickle charger all the time but I don't want to have to do this all the time. Has anyone had this happen before?    :question:


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## TexasClodhopper (Mar 27, 2010)

Re: Battery drain

Grant, there will always be some battery drain. After all, that's why there's a battery there to begin with.

Now, as to it being excessive, that is a different story. If you completely disconnect the battery from your MH, will it drain down in the same way? That could indicate a bad battery or one that isn't getting an adequate charge during engine operation.

Your MH should have house batteries as well as the engine battery. Do the house batteries drain down, too?

Normally, the engine battery is separate from the house batteries. Assuming that yours is, then there must be something in the engine compartment that is draining your battery.

Need more info.


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## wildbuckaroo (Mar 27, 2010)

Re: Battery drain

Hi there, all the batteries are brand new and if you unhook the engine battery it will not drain the battery and all the house batteries do not drain down either. I was thinking that maybe there is a bad diode in the alternator that is draining the battery. Now I would have assumed that when you turn off the battery switch that it is totally disconnected so nothing can drain it. Why have the switch there if it doesn't disconnect it?


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## TexasClodhopper (Mar 27, 2010)

Re: Battery drain

The battery disconnect switch shouldn't disconnect the engine battery.

You could try disconnecting the charging wire from the alternator to test that theory. Or you could pull the alternator and have it checked.


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## vanole (Mar 27, 2010)

Re: Battery drain

wildbuckaroo,

The Marquis is/was a pretty high end coach.  Do you have 2 chassis baterries and 4 or 6 house batteries?  Not sure if in 97 they had a battery isolator in addition to the chassis and house battery power disconnect switches in the battery compartment.  Just maybe the isolator is defective...  However two days of parasitic loads should not drain the chassis batteries.

V/R
Jeff


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## Francis7Bos (Nov 27, 2020)

Undoubtedly, I had such situations because I used wrong batteries that can't work normally. So I want to tell that you should use something like porter cable batteries in order to have no problems with energy. Good luck and have an incredible day!


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