I am chasing an electrical gremlin that is draining my starter battery but the chase is made difficult by the fact that I can't shut off my house battery with the circuit breaker. It used to work but I would usually have to turn the breaker's switch to 'Off' then turn on the fridge or something that would draw power for the power to actually cut out. I believe that this is the same circuit breaker that I have.

Meanwhile, as near as I can tell, my gremlin lives on the Upfitter #1 circuit. Currently, I have 6" PIAA driving lights on switch 1 and 4" PIAA fog lights on switch 2. I can read a more than 8 amp draw on the van battery until I pull the fuse for Upfitter #1. The draw then drops to 0.5 amps. Both tests are with all doors closed and the key out of the ignition. I am pretty sure the problem is not with the lights as I swapped the driving lights to the fog lights' wires connected to switch 2 and they do appear to work. I pulled the fuse for Upfitter #1 for now and the battery stays charged. I also tested the battery by pulling it from the van, fully charging it on a trickle charger then letting it sit for a few days and saw no drop in voltage. This is as far as my knowledge of auto electronics can take me.

Any recommendations of a shop I can take the van to for this in the West Valley area of Los Angeles? My nearest dealership has been under construction for several years and claims they can't accommodate a vehicle of my size for now. The next closest dealership almost had a seizure when I brought them the van for some routine fluid changes. I unfortunately do not have the time to drive it from mechanic to mechanic trying to find one that is qualified for this kind of work.

__________________
2010 Red EB50 V10, Quadvan 4WD (El Guapo Rojo)
1978 VW Westfalia Champagne Edition (Pepe - gone, but not forgotten)

Are the PIAAs wired through a relay? I've had relays go bad before. 8 amps is a pretty high parasitic draw, so I would expect to find heat somewhere coming from the faulty components or short.

__________________
2000 E450 dually V10 wagon

They are going through relays but I also tried swapping the relays and there was no change.

__________________
2010 Red EB50 V10, Quadvan 4WD (El Guapo Rojo)
1978 VW Westfalia Champagne Edition (Pepe - gone, but not forgotten)

I'm with Carringb, 8 amps is a bunch Steve. Seems like that would kill your batteries almost overnight. Are you sure it's not .8 amps? As far as disconnecting the house from the starting batteries I'd do that at the separator. Your rig is pretty new so I figure you have a Blue Sea unit. Many of the new separators SMB installed have a lockout control on it. How are you reading the amperage draw?

__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer

Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures..........On and off road adventures

Now you're getting it! My original problem is, in fact, that a fully charged battery is being drained overnight. I actually don't expect to get any answers here about what is draining the battery, but rather why my house battery circuit breaker might not be working. To find the parasitic draw on the van battery, I followed the instructions here:

In my book of manuals I have paperwork for a Blue Sea Systems ML-Series Automatic Charging Relay. I have a black button in the console near the driver's side a-pillar that when I push it, a big clunking sound comes from under the bench seat in the back and I can start the van from power in the house battery. Another push to that button makes a slightly different clunking sound and I no longer get power to the van from the house battery. Other than when the van battery is dead and pushing the button lets me start, there is no indication which way I am configured. The house battery circuitry is crammed tightly together under the bench seat and around the rear wheel well so figuring out what is what is challenging. Another call to Peter at SMB West might be my next course of action. It just seems to me that when this guy's switch is set to 'Off', things wired to the house battery should not have power:

__________________
2010 Red EB50 V10, Quadvan 4WD (El Guapo Rojo)
1978 VW Westfalia Champagne Edition (Pepe - gone, but not forgotten)

I am not sure how your unit is wired, but if SMB is now putting a circuit breaker between the starting battery and ACR i commend them, but that was not done with the Surepower units. I know they did switch to that circuit breaker between battery and fuse distribution. So make sure that it actually goes between the ACR and house battery. If going between the distribution it would shut off power to the items powered off of the house battery. It would not, however open the connection between ACR and starting battery.The ACR does provide a line that drives a LED while the unit is connected, if you are interested in making that mod.

-greg

__________________
-greg
__________________________________________________ ______________
"Goldilocks" 2020 Ford Transit High Roof Extended 3.5 EcoBoost AWD Homebuilt

I have a breaker like that which feeds the air compressor but was not aware they were putting protection between the battery systems. Also how that would work depends on where it's cut in with respect to the separator and DC fuse panel. It hard to say w/o seeing a schematic.

In the past the "jump" button at the dash could be configured as on-off or be setup as a momentary switch. It might also depend on the model of the separator but all the jump button does is force the two battery systems together. by closing the separator. So when combined (closed), power to the living quarters is coming from both battery systems. Once open, the living quarters are only being supplied by by the house. It won't kill the power to the 12v living quarter fuse block. My fuse block is protected by a 40 amp breaker but again it depends on what the system feeds. I just find it hard to believe they used a 200A breaker. Sometimes SMB offered a "master switch" that killed all the DC items in the living area but it didn't have anything to do with the separator.

An 8A load that stays on all the time and kills your starting battery does indicate something on the engine side of the separator. If you didn't let the separator do its job you'd have a depleted house battery system as well.

I'd still like to hear how you are reading the 8A load Steve. A handheld volt/amp meter?

__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer

Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures..........On and off road adventures

Steve

Take the bulbs out of each set of lights and see if the draw goes away. If so you could have a grounding issue and something is using that as a path back. Are you sure the lights are on relays because the ones on my van did not and the switch was pretty warm after a hour of use.

__________________
Kelly, Claudine, Sophie dog, Bell the redheaded step child and Gooseberry RIP.

Most the time the Copilot is Now Sophie dog the noise maker.

2000 7.3 PS Quigley/RB30 with a 6 window poptop.

I disconnected the negative cable form the starting battery terminal. I set my LG amp meter (a Fluke knock-off) to its 10A setting and read the amperage between the negative battery terminal and the negative cable. With all doors closed, all lights and everything else off (including unplugging the Scangauge) and the key out of the ignition, completing the circuit shows a draw of 8 amps. If I pull the 30A Upfitter #1 fuse and repeat the test, the draw is a little less than .5 amps. What is odd is that with the Upfitter fuse installed and the circuit closed, the dash lights up like I have put the key into the start position. I am still playing the process of elimination game so I can't say for sure what is the cause. For now, I pulled the fuse. I just returned from 3 days in Death Valley with no problems other than not having additional driving lights which I didn't need on this trip.

Meanwhile, I have more info about the circuit breaker on the auxiliary battery. It seems that if there is any charge coming from my solar panel, the circuit breaker has no effect, but if I disconnect the solar panel, the breaker shuts the power on and off as expected. Is this right?

__________________
2010 Red EB50 V10, Quadvan 4WD (El Guapo Rojo)
1978 VW Westfalia Champagne Edition (Pepe - gone, but not forgotten)

As Kelly pointed out that does sound like a grounding issue. Being this deals with the lighting it sounds to me like a open neutral/ground wire somewhere. I'd start with the light wire harness. If those lights require a relay to operate I'd be looking there as well. Just a guess on my part. Sometimes current looking for a ground being pulled through something like a light can make it operate.

__________________
2006 Ford 6.0PSD EB-50/E-PH SMB 4X4 Rock Crawler Trailer

Sportsmobile 4X4 Adventures..........On and off road adventures