Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks : 2ND 180 podmod, drawers under matress

Here is how I measured ALL AC and DC currents in the rig.

AC is simple.  I just used a Fluke clamp on amp-meter at each breaker.  

For DC measurement I used a Fluke 87 (most all decent VOM meters can do this... I just happen to have lots of Fluke equipment).  What you do is pull a fuse from the 12V fuse panel and then insert the meter probes into the socket the fuse came out of.  This makes the VOM a "fuse" to complete the circuit except now you can actually measure how much DC current is flowing through the meter.

When all of the fused circuits are measured then one thing you must do.  With all of the DC fuses removed, go to the battery itself and disconnect one of the wires to the battery and then use the Amp-meter and measure the current.  I found that I had almost 3/4 amp current......WITH ALL FUSES REMOVED.  This is called "phantom" load and apparently Forest River has chosen to connect things directly to the battery without mentioning it anywhere.  Some of the load I cannot figure out.  It just taps off the +batt lead and goes under the floor and where it goes I have no idea.  

For this reason it requires either to remove a battery lead when parking the unit for any length of time or as I did install a switch AT THE BATTERY to make it easier.  In my case I brought the 180 home from the dealer and parked it for 3 days in our RV storage area until I brought it over to the house to start loading it for the trip.  First thing... DEAD BATTERY 8.7volts.  Charged the battery all day and over night while I was loading the trailer.  Battery would only take a partial charge because of the deep discharge but would come up to 11.6 volts.  Disconnected the power for the night, made sure everything was turned off and next morning.... DEAD BATTERY.  

This is what got me started trying to figure out what was going on and thus far is still a problem.  We'll see what the dealer does.  I suspect they will have it for a month or so....

This explain things for you or do you need more?  Collectively maybe we owners can solve the problem.