Bedroom radio battery drain?

[Boise Jamo]

Hello :-) I have a 2017 Thor ace 27.2 and I keep having issues with the chassis battery slowly being drained over a couple weeks. I have researched this quite a bit but could not figure anything out. This last week I noticed after I have everything off including the coach battery that the radio in the bedroom back light is still on. I can also go turn on that radio and it turns on. So my coach battery is off but that radio still works so it must be getting power from the chassis battery. With that radio off and just the backlight on is that enough to drain my chassis battery? I'm about ready to pull that fuse on the radio and just put it back in when I want to use it. Thoughts? Thank you

[chunker21]

There will be several parasitic 12vdc sources in the RV and all have the potential to kill a battery if not disconnected. Smoke and propane detectors MAY both draw power plus and as you found, some radios. So yes if you can't plug in or get a charging source for the batteries, then disconnecting the batteries or disabling the "offenders" is necessary. If you are talking a long time, months over winter for example, removing and taking inside a warmer area might be desirable.

[bevedfelker]

So all RVs have some kind of battery disconnect on the house batteries. You could disconnect power from the radio and the radio would not turn on. But you would loose all your radio station preselects and the clock in the radio would go to 12:00. So how do those preselects and clock keep their settings?

In my 2015 Vegas the radio is connected to both the house and chassis batteries. The house batteries provide the main power for the radio; but the chassis battery provides the power for the radio preselects and clock.

That will be one source for your chassis drain. I recently had my RV service man install knife switches on my chassis battery and house batteries. Now when I put my Vegas in winter storage I physically can disconnect both sets of batteries thus eliminating any parasitic drains.

[happy]

This seems to be the best solution.

Bevedfelker, where did your service man locate the chassis battery knife switch?
I plan to install a knife switch also. An easy toget to location is a plus.

[Boise Jamo]

Thank you! That is great advice. I use a knife switch on one of my other vehicles and yes that is probably what I'm going to do for the ace. You can get those knife switches that fits on a battery terminal at any auto parts store. I think that would be much easier than finding a spot somewhere in line to add it and mount it

[happy]

Probably the safest also. It is that the Axis battery is in an inconvenient location. But then, the disconnect process is not a everyday, spur ofthe moment item.