Travel trailer drained RAM battery??

[BadHemi2014]

So do travel trailers not have battery isolators? Our truck camper had one, they are designed so that the camper batteries cannot pull from the truck battery if the truck battery drops below X voltage. Essentially the truck battery will charge the camper battery while you are driving but not once you stop. Of course truck campers are plugged into the truck at all times unlike most trailers.
If you're hooked up to the trailer for longer periods while parked it seems like it would be handy.

 

[alkey]

Left our 2017 T@B 320 trailer plugged into 7 pin trailer socket on 2018 RAM 1500 overnight while charging the TRAILER battery from 110v connection.

Went to move truck and trailer this AM... battery stone cold dead. Trying to jump it from Camry hybrid, still seems quite dead as in NO dome lights, idiot lights etc. Zero. Yes, I tried the other key fob - same result, zilch.

Had the OEM battery replaced under 36K warranty a couple of months after purchasing as Certified Preowned, no electrical problems until this.

1) Did I somehow drain the RAM battery by leaving the trailer connected?

2) Do OEM RAM batteries just suck? Bought extended warranty, will be reading the fine print (again).

Will be checking again after the Camry runs another half hour, but sure don't want to feed this otherwise wonderful truck a new battery every year.

**

Still nothing. Checking the trailer battery condition next.

 

[Elkman]

The factory trailer connector on a truck is designed to power the lights of the trailer. For more power hungry devices, like the battery charger in a camper, a 10 gauge wire is run from a battery isolator relay attached to the battery terminal. The isolator prevents the trailer from drawing power from the truck battery when the engine is turned off. An RV service shop should be able to help with the wiring of your truck to make it ready for use with a travel trailer.

 

[Matt ott]

Mopar batteries are good stuff, i think made by interstate batteries

 

[mgr1001]

Had a similar problem with my travel trailer. Was camping and both batteries in my trailer went completely dead. I did not leave my truck connected because I realized that the trailer was pulling electricity from my truck. I discovered the culprit when attempting to leave the campsite and the trailer wouldn't move.

The trailer breakaway brake safety switch was malfunctioning and sending all the available juice to the trailer brakes. Needless to say that if I had left my truck connected I would have had 4 dead batteries (my truck is a diesel with two batteries). I simply cut the wires to my safety switch, and towed the trailer home so I could repair it at my convenience. (When I cut the wires, BTW, there was quite an electrical spark as I was connected to my truck ready to tow. This is how I realized where the problem was)

As far as being connected to 110v, however, check to see if the power converter on your trailer is functioning correctly. (This is the part that keeps your batteries in the trailer charged when plugged into shore power. Very similar to a standard battery charger.)You can usually find it by tracing your 12v wiring back from the battery. It will normally be the first place the wiring goes inside the trailer. When functioning correctly, plugged into 110vac, you should see about 14v-14.5v (With a fully charged battery) on the battery side of the 12v wiring at the power converter. If you need one, they're pretty inexpensive on eBay.

Hope this helps

 

[HeyTheresTony]

Having worked in the RV business I can tell you this is not uncommon at all. If you're parked for any length of time, including over night, it's best to unplug the seven pin from the truck.

Modern travel trailers have a lot of parasitic loads on them with plenty of little power thieves in the circuit boards on refrigerators, heaters, water heaters and more. Your trailer likely drained the truck battery and killed the cells.

Since you wrote that the trailer was plugged into shore power it sounds like something is amiss there so you might have an RV electricity expert see if there's a failure in the converter in the trailer somewhere. T@B trailers have a lot of little electronic pieces in them and feature some pretty advanced tech, relatively speaking.

 

[csuder99]

Mopar batteries are good stuff, i think made by interstate batteries

Interstate doesn't make any batteries, they are a marketing and distribution company. There are three major battery manufacturers based in the US (not everything is made in the US though): Johnson Controls/Clarios, East Penn and Exide. I've seen references that East Penn makes the Mopar batteries but don't take my word for it.

 

[Gtonram]

www.batterytender.com/Battery-TenderR-Plus

I have one of these and it works great. I use it on my car when I'm working out of town and take the truck and vice versa when I'm working close to home and take the car.

Battery tender is awesome I started using it on my 03 ram 3500 Hotd(bought dec 02) was using 1 battery tender for both batteries ,around 07, well here it is19 years 8 months later ,and believe it or not still original batteries ,still going strong but was cranking a lil slow couple times In winter when we had really cold days, so not sure how much life is left in them but i will use them till they dont work, also use on my mower n tractor tractor battery 8 years old now old mower battery was good for around 15 years but the kid forgot to plug in battery tender for winter so it died

 

[White six four]

Battery tender is awesome I started using it on my 03 ram 3500 Hotd(bought dec 02) was using 1 battery tender for both batteries ,around 07, well here it is19 years 8 months later ,and believe it or not still original batteries ,still going strong but was cranking a lil slow couple times In winter when we had really cold days, so not sure how much life is left in them but i will use them till they dont work, also use on my mower n tractor tractor battery 8 years old now old mower battery was good for around 15 years but the kid forgot to plug in battery tender for winter so it died

Those have to be the longest lasting original batteries! I need to pickup 2 more battery tenders for the camper and atv.

 

[Gtonram]

I've never heard of any lasting anywhere near that long

 

[2003F350]

I've never heard of any lasting anywhere near that long

Best I've ever seen out of factory batteries was my dad's last dually. He had a '94 GMC and he finally replaced the batteries in like...'03 I think? So a good 9 years.

 

[Gtonram]

My jeep has around 11 years on the battery right now

 

[CaptOchs]

If your vehicle has a true factory tow package, this shouldn't happen. There's a relay, solenoid, or isolator to prevent that from happening. If someone added a 7-pin plug afterwards, they probably just hooked it up to any positive they could find. This would drain the battery.

You can test this with a checking the voltage. With your truck off, you shouldn't have any voltage on that plug for 12+ pin. Start it up and you might see voltage. My dad's F150 only charges if the truck is moving faster than 5 mph. If you always have 12v, then it's not wired correctly.

"Factory tow package" is subjective depending on the dealer or make. While shopping for a truck some dealers said "it has a tow package because it has a hitch." Ford uses the term Heavy Duty Tow Package and puts it only on the highest trim models. You could have a RAM with the tow package on anything (Tradesman to Limited.)

 

[CaptOchs]

Also, recent experience in batteries has made me turn away from Interstate. They used to be really good, but not so much the last few years. I had a RV battery die in under 3 years and they wouldn't warranty it. It's a "seasonal battery" and only good for 1 year. Given how long our summers are that may as well be 5 months. They told me it was always that way, but I have an Interstate deep cycle battery that still works that's over 5 years old! I have been buying Die Hards at Advanced Auto. Those batteries are heavy! Have a lot of weight to them. They have seem to perform really well. I have struggled to find a good battery for my lawn tractor, until I bought a Die Hard. You can usually get 10% off them too at Advance Auto.

 

[BlueGuyRedState]

Quick update - T@B electric brake controller module replaced, now factory RAM trailer brake controller works properly. Towed trailer back to Interstate 25 down a mountain two lane in the dark w/o fear, since braking system all happy. (Also figured out dropping adjustable hitch one hole leveled trailer out so wind resistance improved. Learning!)

So... now both trailer and RAM have new batteries, trailer's electric brakes talking to RAM brake controller, also had T@B winterized by Holiday RV in Poncho Springs CO. All's well that ends well!