E-350 House battery drain
I just found my battery drain on a 2006 E-350 6.0. After installing a Balmer SG-200 I found I had a persistent .4 amp/hr drain on the house system, which explained why I was having house battery problems. It turned out to be my TrippLite Inverter/Charger. The van has the remote control panel over the sink area which is a two position switch to turn on the inverter or let the charger come on when shore power is available. On the inverter itself there is a 3 position switch, which in hidden in the front of the unit up high under the lip of the case. The left position is Auto/Remote, which lets the remote panel control operation. The center position is off and the right position is charger only. This switch has alway been in the Auto/Remote position, as I assumed this was where it was suppose to be and the remote panel would control all inverter functions. I checked all the fuse circuits for a drain, but they all checked out ok. I found out that when I turned the house battery power off you could hear a relay clicking and it was coming from the inverter. So I put the 3 position switch in the off position and my .4 amp/hr drain is gone. In the off position the battery will not charge on shore power nor will the inverter work. So now my work around is at home in the garage the switch goes to the off position after the batteries are charged. Then when I go on a trip I will put the main switch in auto/remote and accept the .4 amp drain when the battery is not being charged or only turn it on when the inverter is needed or to charge the batteries via shore power.
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