DC Current Draw

[moallen]

I connected my meter between the negative battery post and the ground wire, mainly because the positive post has a bunch of wires connected to it. Then I made sure everything was off that could be turned off. The current at that point was .22 amps. Then I turned each device on by itself to get a measurement. I should have said in my 1st post about this that I unplugged shore power when taking these measurements. Otherwise the converter will bypass the battery and you won't get a reading.

[mrhyland]

Can I ask you how you went about measuring the amp draw for each of the different appliances? Was it listed somewhere, or did you somehow measure each one independently? I would love to do this for my tent trailer appliances to see what we can run for how long when away from shore power.

[pawpaw]

Great info, thanks for posting!

[moallen]

Regarding incandescent lamps - maybe I should have posted those too, since I have one on the frame behind the steps and another in the stove hood. Both are 921 lamps and each draws 1.5A. All the clearance lights use the same 921 lamp. I've seen people jumper their 6 pin trailer connector and leave them all on in the campground. I think there are normally about 11 clearance lights, so that would be 16.5 amps!

[moallen]

I just added the Schwintek slideout to my list above. It averaged 6.4 amps. I should mention both the slideout and awning current varied a couple amps while energized. I think they must have some kind of speed control. In any case, I posted what seemed to be the average current for those two things.

[tslarson]

Thanks for taking all the measurements. I was also truly amazed when i measured the amps of all my LED lights. Also nice to see what things are the power suckers! We do a lot of dry camping and are always conscious of our battery usage.

[jcarlilesiu]

Yeah, I am a little upset that our 16RB came with 2 LED fixtures in the bunk ends, but all other bulbs and fixtures are incandescent.

Its going to be a bit pricey to switch over.

Thanks for posting this. Interesting info.

[moallen]

While on a recent trip I decided to measure the DC current draw on appliances, lights, etc. This was on a 2016 24rls with a fully charged battery connected to campground AC power. I posted under general discussion because most of these are common devices. Minimum current draw (things that can't be turned off like propane detector) is .22A and is included in below amp readings.

The current draw on some of these things is for their controls only, like the refrigerator. Forgot to get the slideout and will update in a few days. Normally you wouldn't have to worry about the electric brakes unless you accidentally unplug the emergency breakaway switch at the camp site like I did once.

Brakes 15A
Tongue Jack 9.2A
Furnace Blower 7.7A
Slideout 6.4A
Awning 6.2A
Water Pump 4.8A
Bath Fan (Vortex Replacement Fan) 1.7A
Stove Hood Fan 1.6A
Awning LED 19' Strip 1.3A
Hot Water Heater (on propane) 1.1A
Refrigerator(on AC power) .78A
Large LED Ceiling Light .77A
Small LED Ceiling Light .54A
Antenna Amp .31A

You gotta love those LED lights!