1066 Battery Dying While Sitting?

[5030]

Never put a disconnect on a positive terminal, always the negative post. I don't have a drain issue, I use mine as a theft deterrent when my units are sitting in a remote field. It greatly negates malicious tampering.

 

[DonRybak]

I think Seville009 is dead on with the alternator. There is an internal diode that will cause that parasitic drain. Just disconnect the alternator when done for a couple days and see if the drain disappears. Just remember to reconnect it when going to use it so you don't lose the charging function.

 

[CobyRupert]

If you remove a cable and reconnect it in a darker area can you see a spark,
if no visible spark you can use a meter on the amps scale to see if you do indeed have
a current draw.

If no current draw;
Are you using two 6 volt batteries in series?
If one battery gets a bad cell it will suck both batteries down.
If you have switched to two 12's could still be the same issue.
You can pull the fill caps off the cells and use a volt meter, testing voltage
from each cell to ground and you should see a continuous step in voltage through the system.

That’s a neat trick. Never thought of dipping the meter probe into the battery.
(Just don’t accidentally have it set to resistance measurement and spark the hydrogen(?) Possible? )
I’ve used the battery testers that are like anti freeze testers that draw out the battery acid and measure its specific gravity to tell you the cells voltage / health. Or I’ll just measure the voltage across the battery posts. If a fully charged battery quickly drops ~ 2 volts, you know you’ve lost a cell. Unless you’re into desulfurization(?) of batteries, it probably doesn’t matter which.

 

[rockinmywaypa]

we have a 1086 here with the same problem, we put welding lead disconnects on the positive side and disconnect if we are leaving it for any longer length of time. you can fit them in anywhere on line and if you install the female side closest to battery it will be protected from shorting on anything.

 

[WranglerX]

Never put a disconnect on a positive terminal, always the negative post. I don't have a drain issue, I use mine as a theft deterrent when my units are sitting in a remote field. It greatly negates malicious tampering.

Really ... "Positive post"???....... That argument has raged on for years in several automotive blogs I follow and never proven either way is correct. Open either negative (ground ) lead or positive battery lead remove any current loop.... Manual disconnect switches are not voltage/ground sensitive and electron flow theory says any "open" on current loop (parasitic drain) stops electron flow....

 

[loggin]

Really ... "Positive post"???....... That argument has raged on for years in several automotive blogs I follow and never proven either way is correct. Open either negative (ground ) lead or positive battery lead remove any current loop.... Manual disconnect switches are not voltage/ground sensitive and electron flow theory says any "open" on current loop (parasitic drain) stops electron flow....

I believe it is just better practice to put a switch on the ground side. If a positive wire were to come loose from the connections to the switch and touch the frame there would be a short with a large wire running straight to the battery without a fuse and the battery could very likely explode. Whereas if a ground wire were to come loose and touch the frame nothing would happen.

Just my 2 cents.