# 2011 210Rs Battery Drain Problem



## outdoors4me (May 8, 2012)

We recently bought a 2011 210RS and made our first trip this weekend. I had the camper plugged in to AC at the house for 3 days before we left and had turned the refrigerator on a day before we left to let it cool down. When getting ready to leave, I unplugged and opened of the propane (fridge was on Auto). I could hear the fridge trying to light a few times but eventually started and everything seemed fine. When I arrived at the campground (no electric) about 3 hours later, I ran out the slide, turned on the water pump so the family could use the bathroom and then checked the battery indicator and found that it was already reading 2/3. After another 3 hours, the LP alarm was warning of low battery and an hour after that it was completely dead. After towing the 210RS back yesterday with the fridge off, the battery read fully charged. I plugged back in last night and turned the fridge back on to cool it down again. This morning I unplugged, opened up the propane again, and turned on the water pump. I ran the water a few times throughout the day to simulate our use when the problem occurred but after about 12 hours battery is still reading full. The fridge and freezer are cold too so those seem to be working.

Any ideas what the issue could be? I'm new to Outback ownership and RV repairs in general and am a bit lost as to where I should start since the problem seems to have gone away.

Thanks for any help!


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## RDS (Jul 20, 2011)

Couple things to check.

Make sure battery is full of water.

Check that the cables are clean and tight at battery.

Check that the - cable is clean and tight at frame.

Follow the + cable down to the junction box on front of TT and check the condition of the little 50amp circuit breaker that is inside the box. I know your TT is fairly new but these tend to get water in them and the circuit breaker gets all rusted.

Have the battery tested and make sure it is fully charged with a good car charger before heading out.


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

Also make sure you don't have something on that's draining your battery.

Sneaky things that do this in the OB are the light(s) inside the storage compartments (in mine it's in the pass-through) as well as the antenna amplifier.​
Next, your batteries may be past their prime. Age isn't the only thing that determines this. If your batteries were drained too far, then they'll never really come back. I've had this happen to me at least a couple times, until I learned my lesson, so try not to let the batteries get past 50% down (an now with my solar system, it hasn't happened - _knock on wood_).

Battery maintenance is a learned art. Keeping water levels appropriate, discharge levels, and heat all play integral parts in this process. I have gone through my fair share of batteries in my education process. But by the time I graduated from this course, I switched to 6v batteries and now I'm in much better shape.


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## Ironpony (Jun 21, 2012)

I agree with the recommendation to check the auto-reset curcuit breaker on the front of the trailer. I had similar problems with a new fully charged battery. It wouldn't show any lights on the gage as soon as I unplugged it.
The circuit breakers are cheap(6$) at local auto parts store. It fixed my problem


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

One sneaky thing to look at is the light in your front storage compartment. If your 210RS is like my 21RS, there is a light on the forward wall of the storage compartment that is next to your entry door. Something may have fallen over in there and turned the light on while you were on the road.


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## outdoors4me (May 8, 2012)

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

So far I haven't found a problem. I shut the fridge down again but still have the battery connected - everything is still working fine and the battery gage is still reading full. I'd like to find the problem before our next trip so any other ideas would be much appreciated.


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## al b (Aug 13, 2007)

i have seen this a couple of times when the brake safety actuator cable has been pulled out just far enough. the front jack gets put down on top of the safety wire and pulls it out to set the brakes. this will easily drain a battery in the time mentioned and when the trailer is hooked back up and the cable is out of the way everything is back to normal


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## outdoors4me (May 8, 2012)

al b said:


> i have seen this a couple of times when the brake safety actuator cable has been pulled out just far enough. the front jack gets put down on top of the safety wire and pulls it out to set the brakes. this will easily drain a battery in the time mentioned and when the trailer is hooked back up and the cable is out of the way everything is back to normal


Thanks a lot! I think you may have nailed it. When hitching up to leave, I accidently popped the safety brake actuator loose. Thinking back, it seemed to come off pretty easily but it never dawned on me that it could have come partially loose earlier and been draining my battery the whole time.


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## al b (Aug 13, 2007)

outdoors4me said:


> i have seen this a couple of times when the brake safety actuator cable has been pulled out just far enough. the front jack gets put down on top of the safety wire and pulls it out to set the brakes. this will easily drain a battery in the time mentioned and when the trailer is hooked back up and the cable is out of the way everything is back to normal


Thanks a lot! I think you may have nailed it. When hitching up to leave, I accidently popped the safety brake actuator loose. Thinking back, it seemed to come off pretty easily but it never dawned on me that it could have come partially loose earlier and been draining my battery the whole time.

[/quote]

i bet your trailer stayed pretty still for the first few hours


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## Tyvekcat (Aug 28, 2007)

That LG Gas alarm will drain a battery if you leave the Outback unplugged from AC or don't have a trickle charger on your batteries.
Takes a week or two, but it will drain it and it is continuous. Get you one of those little battery disconnects that has a screw cap on top of the battery terminal. That way you can disconnect the battery from the camper and put a trickle charger, Like Battery Tender or a good solar cell like the small Volkswagen ones by ICP (find on Ebay pretty cheap) Those small Volkswagen ones are not water proof so put it in a window or place it in a small plexi-glass case.

I use the battery tender in the winter to keep mine charged, won't boil out the water in the batteries either. 
have a good one!


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