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Old 07-18-2019, 09:17 AM   #1
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Angry Motor home draining battery when towing

2002 itasca horizon 2017 equinox on my last two trips after 2 hours the battery is dead in my Equinox. have to jump start it to start equinox. I have the car set up as required with fuse pulled. and tow charging system.
It seems like the the motor home is drawing power from the car.
is there a one way diode that can be used to prevent this?
Have others had this problem what did you do?
thank you in advance
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Old 07-18-2019, 09:34 AM   #2
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Not sure if this is the issue you have - but are you running an auxiliary braking system that plugs into a 12v outlet in the Toad?

I ask because we have a 2016 Lincoln toad and found the OEM battery just wasn't all that long lasting. Seems they're putting smaller lighter batteries in new vehicles. Anyway after about 2 1/2 years the battery started running down while towing because of our Brake Buddy plugged into the 12v lighter socket.

Finally, we figured out the issue and replaced the battery. Now it's not a problem for us. A better solution is probably to pick up 12v from the 7-pin connector on the RV and use it to keep the battery charged while towing.

As I said, you may have a completely different issue and this may not apply to you at all. Just wanted to try to help.
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Old 07-18-2019, 11:08 AM   #3
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I had the same problem on a 2014 Ford Edge toad, when it was less than 2 years old. Picked-up hot 12v. in the 7 point plug on motorhome to toad and problem completely went away. Hope this helps.
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Old 07-19-2019, 04:05 AM   #4
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Bruce-

The first thing I'd check is whether or not the 12V charge pin/blade on the coach actually showed (more than) 12V when the engine is running.
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Old 07-20-2019, 09:44 AM   #5
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Sorry forgot to mention what i have done.
My motor home is supplying 13 volts to car when towing.
I have 13 volts at connector to car
When connector is removed from car "connector on car side is 13 volts"
I have road masters circuit breaker system installed also and have 13 volts on both sides of circuit breaker also have car set up with switch to disconnect power to ABS
I ordered a Diode to put in line to prevent voltage from car going to MH will let you know how this works, it should isolate MH from car
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Old 07-24-2019, 02:59 PM   #6
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Maybe some more info to help? If the car is like my 2014 Focus and uses an electronic transmission, you may also need an onboard charge system to keep the battery charged but disconnected from the trans.
To set up to tow, there is a very specific process to put it into neutral for towing the auto transmission four down.
Lots of different setups with the newer cars but with mine it was not as simple as having 12 volt but it had to be to some points of the car but not others. Too complex for me current knowledge of cars, so it requires a "pro" to do the work.
Too bad the "pro" did not know about checking to see where the mounting screws would come through on the other side of the fuse box lid!
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Old 07-24-2019, 09:35 PM   #7
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I had the same problem on my Ford Fiesta. The car Manuel says to pull negative cable off battery when towing. The problem was the car was grounding itself and drawing power off the car battery. The way to solve the issue was to put a battery shut off to the car battery to completely disconnect the car battery. The other thing to watch out for are the pins on the motorhome. They have slots like thin screws. If they are compressed in you may not get a full connection so flair them out to make sure you have a good contact.
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Old 07-25-2019, 08:10 AM   #8
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I have a 2018 and when I set it up I obtained a battery charger from towing world. I then ran a wire from the coach battery (through a fuse) to the car. This keeps the battery charged while it is hooked up to the coach. the charger is about the size of the fob on your key chain.
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Old 07-25-2019, 12:10 PM   #9
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The issue of how to set up each car for towing has become much more complex than before we got so many different uses of the power in cars. It is still surprising to me how many different items were involved to get my 2014 Focus set. Using a breakaway brake as required by so many states is one thing that made it more difficult to set up, combined with needing to supply power to lights on the car but not the transmission moved it way beyond just feeding power from the RV as a number of items were still powered in the car while other like the radio settings/clock are not . Even the shifting after power is off and then returns, is somewhat "off" and has to "relearn" some things as it adjusts to my driving style.
Not just playing checkers anymore!
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Old 07-31-2019, 08:57 AM   #10
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Up date on the chewy equinox 2017 required to have some power. There are certain fuse that require pulling or put power cut of switches to act if the fuse is pulled which has been done in my car.
It also was set up with a road-master circuit protector between the MH and car as required.
I just added a one way diode to prevent power going from the car to the motor home Road-master part number 690 now there is no way for reverse flow.
There is power at the connector from the MH to the car battery 13.6 volts with motor home running.
I'm going in for surgery and will not be able to test this out now until October
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Old 08-04-2019, 11:44 AM   #11
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We tow a 2012 Cadillac SRX and have never had a problem with the Brake Buddy as I wired the 6 pin car side to have the hot line from the MH to the battery. I can drive all day and never have a problem.
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Old 08-27-2019, 06:14 AM   #12
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Well I fought and struggled with our '18 Subaru Forester manual with the charge line. Things just kept throwing me off track. First one the ground wire to the WGO supplied jumper from chassis to 7 pin RV side Pollak was loose, worked first few times tested - then j zero. Slight tug on that white wire and it came right out of the socket! OK, got a workaround from etrailer.


Brake Buddy then popped fuses in Subaru power plugs. Got out the Fluke. With nothing connected and ignition in first position the crazy Suby was drawing 4-6 amps, I suppose the computer. Forget the charge line. With the key just inserted the Fluke confirmed no amp draw on Suby battery, 0.


Since the Suby unlocks the steering wheel as long as key is inserted I just leave the key in. Got a Battleborn 100AH battery, put it in a battery box. Connected the PD9145ALV lithium charger to the lid and ran 4awg cables to battery. Also put two leads on each terminal with SAE connectors outside the box. One for the Brake Buddy and one for the LED light bar which runs from remote transmitter on RV 7pin. Finally got a solution. Of course it includes the adapter from etrailer which goes into the 7pin RV first. It has builtin load resistors to make the Sprinter tow module work, then plug in the remote transmitter. I can tow two days easily, perhaps three and will know soon. Will probably recharge the Battleborn each night though.


The whole point of all this info is the new cars are just not like the old cars when setting up to tow. I finally made my brake and lights totally separate from the car - it works. Now when WGO gets back into production they will make up a new jumper for me to get the RV 7pin back to factory spec. I mean, it's bad enough just making one of these new cars set up and work right for a tow but then throw in intermittent then failed ground wire and my head was hurting.


The nice thing is I can also connect my CPAP adapter to the Battleborn 100AH when boondocked and run the CPAP three nights before recharge.
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