A.R.E. camper shell drawing 110 mA and killing my battery

Hi all,

I wanted to see if anyone else had an issue with A.R.E. camper shell having high parasitic draw. I bought mine from a dealer in Portland, OR area (Canopy Corner) and I think they did a good job installing it, but I noticed that my battery started dying if I don't drive the truck for 2-3 weeks (didn't drive much during pandemic and I'm 100% remote worker now).

I looked at the troubleshooting threads here and Youtube videos, got a multimeter and measured the parasitic draw. My truck by itself draws just 27-30 mA. The canopy by itself draws 110 mA! So together they draw 137-140mA. Not enough to kill the battery overnight, but enough to kill it after a long vacation. I double-checked the measurements and I'm 99% sure that's right. Camer shell has some LED lighting and a 12 V outlet installed. The installer ran a separate hot wire from the battery. I think he connected to the ground somewhere in the rear left light, but I don't believe they tapped into hot there. They didn't let me watch the install (insurance issues).

There is a disconnect for the LED lighting but not for the 12V outlet. Even with LED lighting disconnected camper shell is still drawing 110 mA. Nothing is plugged in into 12V outlet. It does have those "always on" battery level indicator LEDs, though I can't imaging them drawing 110 mA (then again, maybe they do). I did email the dealer today describing the problem, but I wanted to see if someone else ran into that and might have any ideas. Happy to post pictures if they help.

As a side note, got a fancy Klein tools amp clamp multimeter and a cheap Harbor Freight Cen-Tech one. Well, the Klein tools amp clamp turned out to be useless in troubleshooting this issue. It goes up to 400A, which is great, but even when I set it to 40, it's too inaccurate (either with clamps or with wire probes) to show values like 27 mA and 110 mA reliably. On other hand I can set Harbor Freight Cen-Tech one to 200 mA scale and it works perfectly every time. Re-measured things several times (just the truck, just the camper shell, and camper shell and truck combined), and measurements always come out the same. Cen-Tech tool was free with a coupon. Go Harbor Freight.

 

interesting dilema.
follow their wiring back to the connection
can you put a switch into the 12v socket circuit?
im assuming this is an ‘always on’ plug set-up.

 

The third brake light on my ARE shell was drawing power when the truck was off. I only noticed on a dark night when I saw the leds barely lit. Installed a resistor, problem solved.

 

Thank you both for replies!

Yes, it's the "always on" type of setup. Yes, I can definitely try putting a switch on the 12V outlet to see if that's the problem. I was thinking of just putting a switch on the hot wire running from the battery. I'm sure if I can just turn it off it would be fine.

I don't think I have a brake light on my shell, but I'll double-check to see if I can see anything after dark.

Anyway, my ARE dealer just got back to me and told me they will take a look. I think I'll let them double-check their wiring before I start messing with it. If they are unable to help, I'll keep tinkering with it. I'll post an update regardless. Thanks all!

 

Its the always on volt meter.

 

Thanks, you certainly could be right! At first I didn't think those tiny LEDs would draw that much, but thinking about it, it is basically a voltmeter. I also realized I can measure it easily. There is no disconnect but there is a fuse, which is essentially a disconnect. If that's all it is, I'll just throw a switch on that myself! I'll post the results.

 

thanks for posting about this.
the parasitic battery depletion can leave you stranded.
there is a school of thought that says dont mess with factory electrical. period. instead use totally isolated dual battery set up for all accessory modifications.
did ARE canopy use ultra cheap chinese components? poor workmanship during install?
is your battery’s condition showing signs of aging?
i just bought a used century canopy ( same as leer and ARE) and am hesitating wiring it up. timely topic.
thanks and good luck.

 

@nd4spdbh - you nailed it, thank you! I pulled the fuse from the 12V outlet, aka the "always-on volt meter" I guess, and the power draw went from 110 mA to 1 mA. So that thing was drawing 109 mA or so... It's A.R.E. branded, I ordered it with the camper. So be careful I guess if you get one of those, make sure it's not always on. They wired it before the disconnect so there was no way for me to turn it off other than pull the fuse.


I guess the solution is to just install an in-line switch and all should be well.

@bush rat - it actually killed one of my batteries before I realized anything was wrong. I thought initially it was a bad battery, and fortunately it was still under warranty, purchased from Costco, so they just exchanged it. My Schumacher charger refused to charge it and said it was bad. I even posted a thread here a few months ago complaining about Interstate batteries Costco sells vs factory battery it replaced. My bad, nothing wrong with those batteries. Took me a bit to figure out it was the camper shell drawing the power. I bought CTEK 7002 trickle charger folks on here recommended and was checking/topping off the battery every couple of weeks till I finally got around to troubleshooting it yesterday (again, videos were pointed out by folks on here in another thread). Thanks Tacoma World!

Yeah, the goal is to have another battery to run stuff like that. For now I bought one of the larger Goal Zero batteries and a couple of solar panels, will have to figure out the long-term install. Will probably steal some ideas from other posts on here

Thanks all for the help!

 

good to hear op.
where was the 12 v tap for the sockets/ plug.
was it wired direct to the battery?
ideally it should be fused nearest the power source for safety

 

Yeah, they ran hot wire directly from the battery. They tapped into ground somewhere in the rear driver side light.

 

Glad you found the culprit!

Looks like those connections are just "T Taps" (The blue connecter that wraps around the wire that the red plugs into). You could carefully move the T tap to the other side of the plug (making sure to wrap where the T taps was originally with some electrical tape) and then plug in the 12v socket volt meeter thing.


That stated:

1. I would go underneath the truck and double check the positive from the battery all the way back to the bed. Making sure that there is a fuse (of proper size for the wire) less than 6in from the battery on that positive line, and that the run from the front to the back is properly secured, away from hot things and properly insulated so that it wont rub through causing a short.

2. Check where the ground wire goes to, its likely they used a T tap into the brake light harness which is less than ideal. The better solution would be to run the ground wire to the frame of the truck (theres already a close frame grounding point on top of the frame driver side in the wheel well almost dead nuts center)

3. With wiring that size (small) Dont be trying to use that 12v socket for much more than a USB charger (Assuming its that smaller 16-18 awg wire ran all the way to the front of the truck).