Duh Moment !!

[Jdhiker]

Labor day weekend took my tear for its maiden voyage an 800 mile round trip. in the meantime, while not at home I decided to "Unplug" my BIG white box standie trailer and shut off the battery cutoff switch. I didn't want the converter powered up all the while I was gone. I shut the battery cuttoff switch as to not drain the batteries, the standie has so many things that draw power when not in use.... propane detector, usb ports, radio, etc.

Well I got home , put away all the teardrop stuff and didn't plug in the big camper until almost 2 weeks later, "Yesterday"

turned on the battery kill switch and.........THE 2 group 27 batteries were DEAD !!! Oh NO !!!

Plugged back in and hoped I didn't Kill the batteries... after a while I checked again... STILL DEAD.... CRAP !!!!

pulled the batteries out and bench tested with a meter and hydrometer.... HUH... Both show fully charged.

maybe the converter is bad??? maybe the inline wire circuit breaker tripped??? Nothing.. all were good...

Stumped started tracing all the voltage from the batteries out... THE DARN KILL SWITCH !!! nothing through it.... it corroded inside and when I used it for the first time in a year just made no more contact. looks as if water got inside and did its damage. pulled it out of the circuit and all is good...

So now on my tear it's getting me rethinking adding a kill switch unless its completely out of the elements.... and this was supposedly a "marine rated? switch....

[Dale M.]

One should exercise them occasionally....... To keep contracts from corroding..... IF one can disassemble it and clean it, a bit on polishing of "contact" surfaces and some dielectric grease...

Dale