johnbama01
Alabama
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Joined: 04/08/2008
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Hello all, I had an after market radio installed in my dash of my class c last May 2011. I used my rv alot last year. Parked it in Jan 2012 for 3 weeks. Went to start it and battery was dead. Had the battery checked and replaced. 2 weeks later, dead battery. I have had the alternator, starter, battery checked and all were fine. This has been going on since Jan. I unplugged the radio from the wiring harness and let the rv set for 2 weeks. Started right up. Any ideas what maybe causing the radio to drain my battery? Any help is greatly appreciated....
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donn0128
Pronounced Ore-gun
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Modern car radios have all sorts of constant on circuits in them. Everything from preset memory to clocks, If you want to stop this and don't mind resetting the clock each time you get in, Simply find the constant power wire and add a small toggle switch to kill the circuit.
Donn,Lorri,Max (The Rescued Lab)
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Kanata
Ottawa, Ontario
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Do you not have Cut off switches that disconnect everything from either the chassis or house batteries? If not I would consider having them installed.
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Son of Norway
Denver, Colorado
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The memory wire on after-market stereos is usually orange.
Miles
Miles and Darcey
1989 Holiday Rambler Crown Imperial
Denver, CO
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sch911
Rochester Hills, MI
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Joined: 04/13/2003
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After market car radios have both a battery feed and an ignition feed. If both are connected to battery the radio will work but never shut off....
Chrysler/Dodge/Ram/Jeep Engineer
2003 Damon Challenger 348 Class A - F53 Triton V10
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crasster
Dallas
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I agree. Install cut off switches. It's the best way to eliminate ghost drains and non-start surprises.
4 whopping cylinders on Toyota RV's. Talk about great getting good MPG. Also I have a very light foot on the pedal. I followed some MPG advice on Livingpress.com and I now get 22 MPG! Not bad for a home on wheels.
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gotsmart
Aberdeen, WA
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...or just wire the radio to a fuse that isn't live when the ignition is turned off. No toggle switches needed - or forgetting to turn off when parked.
2005 Cruise America 28R (Four Winds 28R) on a 2004 Ford E450 SD 6.8L V10 4R100
2009 smart fortwo Passion with Roadmaster "Falcon 2" towbar & tail light kit - pictures
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sharker6
fulltime KY, NC, FL, MA, TN
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The Pioneers have a 'Demo Mode' that will stay on if you have both the ignition and red hot wires together. The thing I did was disconnect all hot to the radio, reconnect it and within 30 seconds get to the radio and program the setup menu to "Demo Off". To test it, when you have the ignition turned off, there shouldn't be any lights and the display should be blank on the face of the radio. It was a real pain to figure out.
2009 30' Fleetwood Wilderness, 2008 F-250 Super Duty FX4 stump puller
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johnbama01
Alabama
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Thanks for the replies, however, the radio is not lit up and the display is blank. It looks as if the radio is off but it is draining my battery...
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gotsmart
Aberdeen, WA
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Assuming that the radio is wired at the fuse panel to the ignition and can't be turned on without the key in the ignition, disconnect the radio's 2nd power wire that maintains the clock and preset radio settings. Then monitor for power drain. If this is the culprit, then you could add a toggle switch to that wire. This way the radio will work even without the memory wire's toggle switch set to the ON position.
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