Electrical issue in brand new 3121RL

[Greg10yes]

Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided. Brought home our new 2022 3121RL, it needed to sit outside waiting for the space to be cleared where we store it. When we brought it home everything appeared to work properly. When we dropped it off in the yard, I turned off the inverter disconnect and the distribution disconnect. It sat outside for 2 weeks and the sun was out so the 200watt solar panel should have charged or kept the batteries (2 deep cycle batteries) When we went to put it in it’s new home the batteries read 8.5 volts and couldn’t move the landing gear. Obviously I have a large parasitic load that I need to find. When you look at the distribution panel there are only 5 wires that you cannot turn off, the battery, the breakaway switch, wire going to hydraulic pump, and 2 wires, (#12) called fused solar connection, and (6) solar breaker optional. I didn’t have time to start tearing into the wire bundles and tracing wires but there is only 1 red wire on the Victron MPPT charge controller. But 2 solar wires on the distribution block.

From what I have read on here, a schematic is like a unicorn so I am SOL on that.

Currently both batteries are on chargers, once charged I will take to an auto parts store to have them load tested.

Did I miss something simple?

Thanks

[Daryles]

There are several parasitic drains that do not go through the "Battery Disconnect" switch in the convenience center.
The CO and Propane detectors, the radio, I don't remember the others...
Over time they will drains your batteries.

[Foldbak]

The new units have the disconnect in the battery compartment as in your picture. There are 2 disconnects as you described. The first is the Giggy box. All 12 volt connections begin there. When the switch is off nothing is receiving 12 volts expect the breakaway switch. If the breakaway switch pin is properly seated there are no parasitic draws. If the pin is not seated 12 volts is sent to your breaks and there are engaged. This would surely be a problem. Dead batteries and possibly burnt magnets. The other switch turns off the inverter. If both are off and the breakaway switch is in the normally open position then something is wired wrong or shorted.

[Carl n Susan]

What Tony wrote ^^^^^^^ The new Giggy box in the 2022's is supposed to eliminate the problem of parasitic battery drains. I would think it will also stop any charge from a solar system in additions to the other electrical draws. But maybe not. I haven't had a chance to examine one yet.

[Lee-CI]

Maybe Tony will jump in here and confirm, but I'm of the understanding that the solar is connected on the Battery side of the Giggy Box switch and therefore is not isolated from the battery when the switch is in the Off position since Solar in an Input vice a load. This would keep the unit's batteries charged up during storage so long as the panels are not under cover.

Greg_10yes is there the possibility that the separate red switch for an inverter was inadvertently left in the On position. If so then the inverter would have drained you batteries, but only down to about 11 vdc

[Greg10yes]

Let me add a few items, I checked the separate disconnect going to the inverter multiple times, I didn’t check with a volt meter to confirm in case the disconnect is bad but I had checked the refrigerator and the light was not on.

Giggly Box, now I know that it has a name….. There are 5 wires attached to the non-switched side (always powered), they are i order counter clockwise:
1-Trailer brake breakaway switch
2-Battery bank feed in
3-power to the hydraulic pump (really don’t understand why this is unswitched)
4-fused solar connection
5-Solar Breaker (Optional) Having trouble getting my head around why you would have solar fused and an optional solar breaker.
They also had the TPMS repeater wired to the always on side, I had forgotten to mention that and had removed that before I took the picture.

Just shocked that the 200 watt solar couldn’t keep up.

The other thing I found interesting was the dc common wire from the solar MPPT charger doesn’t go to a DC bus bar, it was going into an inaccessible space in front of the propane tank (drivers side).

They do design these to be frustrating.

[Foldbak]

Originally Posted by Greg10yes

Let me add a few items, I checked the separate disconnect going to the inverter multiple times, I didn’t check with a volt meter to confirm in case the disconnect is bad but I had checked the refrigerator and the light was not on.

Giggly Box, now I know that it has a name….. There are 5 wires attached to the non-switched side (always powered), they are i order counter clockwise:
1-Trailer brake breakaway switch
2-Battery bank feed in
3-power to the hydraulic pump (really don’t understand why this is unswitched)
4-fused solar connection
5-Solar Breaker (Optional) Having trouble getting my head around why you would have solar fused and an optional solar breaker.
They also had the TPMS repeater wired to the always on side, I had forgotten to mention that and had removed that before I took the picture.

Just shocked that the 200 watt solar couldn’t keep up.

The other thing I found interesting was the dc common wire from the solar MPPT charger doesn’t go to a DC bus bar, it was going into an inaccessible space in front of the propane tank (drivers side).

They do design these to be frustrating.

It looks like you have a slightly new version of the Giggy box however it is configured exactly the same with one exception. They have added a 3rd auxiliary constant hot and solar connections. Your picture is very hard to see but the red pen covers the openings in the bus. According to the wiring diagram.

1. Battery in
2. Direct auxiliary - This is new. I would investigate.
3. Breakaway switch - No drain in the normally open position. (pin in)
12. Fused solar (in) to charge the batteries
6. Solar breaker optional (I'm not sure) This is new
Can you take a picture showing more of the wiring? Does the hyd pump connect to 2. ?


I would connect the batteries and test the load eliminating one at a time until isolated.

[Greg10yes]

Got back to the camper today before it started snowing. I am attaching hopefully a clearer picture and what I found. 1st, the root cause of the solar panels not charging the batteries was they were severely discharged per the local Interstate battery dealer. He was kind enough to charge them up (took about 20 hours on his charger) and it appears my issues went away from the fast discharging. Ram a number of loads for a couple of hours and no significant discharge. The camper is under a roof so I couldn’t test/verify the solar output. I also did figure out what the extra wires were for. The extra always hot wire was for the solar input in the wet bay. So the circuits that are always hot are:
1. Landing gear hydraulic pump
2. Battery connection
3. Breakaway switch
6. Solar MPPT charger
12. Extra solar input in wet bay