My 04 Meridian has enough parasitic drain on the chassis batteries to run them dead in about 30 days. This occurs even with a "Trik-L-Start" charger which I added a couple years ago. It seems like the only solution in to install a battery disconnect which Winnebago did in later models. I was curious if any other 2004 Meridan/Journey owners installed the "Guest" brand disconnect and how difficult it was.
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2004 Itasca Meridian 34H
2010 Chevrolet Equinox
My 04 Meridian has enough parasitic drain on the chassis batteries to run them dead in about 30 days. This occurs even with a "Trik-L-Start" charger which I added a couple years ago. It seems like the only solution in to install a battery disconnect which Winnebago did in later models. I was curious if any other 2004 Meridan/Journey owners installed the "Guest" brand disconnect and how difficult it was.
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2004 Itasca Meridian 34H
2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Slightly off your information request but are you sure you do not have other electrical problems? The Trik-L-Start should be maintaining your chassis batteries at about .3 volt below the charge on your house batteries. In my situation, my house batteries are at 13.2 to 13.3 volts and the chassis batteries are at 12.9 volts when in the maintain mode. 12.66 to 12.7 is considered fully charged. (I have a PD 9260 charger converter with the built in charge wizard and pendant.)
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'07 Winnebago Journey 34H, ISB-02, MH2500
Toad - '08 Ford Taurus X
Blue Ox, Aventa
US Gear UBS
I looked at installing a chassis battery disconnect switch Here
I had previously installed a trickle charger for the chassis batteries and in the extreme cases will now charge the chassis batteries with an external charger. So far I've had no issues and still think the decision to not install was a good one for me.
As SteveG mentioned take a look at the information available on the previous posts. We've been using our Flaming River disconnect for over 5 years without any problems. Our coach routinely sets in the garage for up to 3 months at a time and we've never had a dead battery since it was installed.
The only downside of installing this type of device is that the engine electronics have to "relearn" all your driving habits each time the battery is disconnected, and all the coach electronics that operate off the chassis battery (like the radio and clocks)have to be reset when the battery is reconnected.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by FleetMan:
Slightly off your information request but are you sure you do not have other electrical problems? The Trik-L-Start should be maintaining your chassis batteries at about .3 volt below the charge on your house batteries. In my situation, my house batteries are at 13.2 to 13.3 volts and the chassis batteries are at 12.9 volts when in the maintain mode. 12.66 to 12.7 is considered fully charged. (I have a PD 9260 charger converter with the built in charge wizard and pendant.) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I have no electrical power where I store my coach. The only charge to the coach batteries is the little solar cell on the roof.
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2004 Itasca Meridian 34H
2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Catpowered,
No shore power when being stored places an entirely different light on the subject. If you don't want to disconnect the chassis batteries when parked, a disconnect switch mounted in the battery compartment area would probably be the easiest solution.
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'07 Winnebago Journey 34H, ISB-02, MH2500
Toad - '08 Ford Taurus X
Blue Ox, Aventa
US Gear UBS