Good bit to read about electrical?

[Morich]

I'm just going through trying to get to know a "new-to-me" 2015 Vista and since I've not had an RV for about 10 years, I knew there would be lots of changes, especially in the electronics part, so that left me doing lots of reading, just because I know I will need it at some point. RV life just works that way!
So I came across this little section on the Winnebago site which really might be "required reading" if we want to understand the how and why things go wrong in the electronics portion.
Lots of us know about parasitic drains on batteries and we might have even gone around the bus and turned off all those we knew about but it might be worthwhile checking for some we did not know about?
A good read on some we might have missed that might explain why the battery goes flat even when we turned everything off!
https://winnebagoind.com/resources/s...%20Systems.pdf

[Oldchinahand]

Thanks Mo, it was a good read. I downloaded it to my files.

Sorta similar to you, at 68 we went from 45 years of tent camping to Class A in one fell swoop. As an old main space engineer, I prefer to perform as many maintenance items as physically and technically able. And, I prefer to discuss issues I can't rectify on an equal basis with the folks I hire to do it. Takes a ton of research.

The service tips referred to are an invaluable starting point.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

[powercat_ras]

Yes, the 2015 Vista has several "vampire load" items that draw 12 volt power from the coach batteries whenever the master coach power switch is on, and other than the master switch there are no switches to switch any of the off individually:

Propane Detector
Refrigerator Control Board
Infrared Remote Signal Repeater Module
Thermostat
HD Video Distribution Center (Some models)
Composite Video to HDMI converter (some models with external TV option equipped)

I have measured the 12 volt coach battery drain with everything else off that you can turn off and it is slightly over 1 amp so it's not terrible. That said with the OEM 2 NAPA 12 volt battery configuration you can only reliably count on about 2 weeks without power before the batteries become seriously depleted.

[Morich]

Originally Posted by powercat_ras

Yes, the 2015 Vista has several "vampire load" items that draw 12 volt power from the coach batteries whenever the master coach power switch is on, and other than the master switch there are no switches to switch any of the off individually:

Propane Detector
Refrigerator Control Board
Infrared Remote Signal Repeater Module
Thermostat
HD Video Distribution Center (Some models)
Composite Video to HDMI converter (some models with external TV option equipped)

I have measured the 12 volt coach battery drain with everything else off that you can turn off and it is slightly over 1 amp so it's not terrible. That said with the OEM 2 NAPA 12 volt battery configuration you can only reliably count on about 2 weeks without power before the batteries become seriously depleted.

I'm just getting down to looking at more of the power and I find there is a 30 amp breaker in the power center which is right next to the batteries.
As I have added a kill switch on the chassis battery and will be going there to kill that portion, I plan to flip this breaker until I get a full blown kill switch on the coach batteries.
Apparently the former owner never looked at batteries and let the first in the string go dry as they likely left it on charge while stored. So sad to see a good battery be ruined in three years, just due to not watching.
But I already knew that there were likely to be some changes needed. Part of the bargain when buying used but I like that better than dealing with the problems left by sloppy work on new RV! Looking at the quality of work on the used Winnebago compared to the new Thor I traded in, I may never buy another new one!