We are wondering if there is a problem in our coach battery. The motorhome is only 8 months old. It is currently winterized and sitting here in Illinois.  We have the disconnect switch turned off  at the door but in checking in on it, the battery seems to be totally drained after sitting only 2 weeks.  This has been the case twice now.  We can't seem to locate anything that should be causing this drain.

Any ideas?

LP gas detector is probably still on. Often they have a separate switch.
Parasitic loads abound in RVs!
Otherwise, you'll need to get a volt/amp meter and start seeing what/if loads are still on the battery after "disconnecting."

Another drain on the battey could be coing from the refer.  Even though it is turned off the brain part is alive with 12 volt. 

We have a fiver and my husband takes the battery completely out of it for the winter.  I'm not sure if you can do the same thing in a coach (I'm not very mechanical, so take it for what its worth:)

Colleen

Did you look in your battery compartment?  There should be a battery cutoff switch there that should eliminate any drain on the battery. 

Do you have only one coach battery or is there a bank of 2 or more batteries?  In any case on our last DP Class A we had 4 - 6 volt batteries with a cutoff switch and 2 engine batteries with their own separate cutoff switch. 

While in storage I would turn off both switches and had no problem.  However, I did go once a month to run the generator as recommended for proper maintenance of the generator and batteries.  Please note we live in Florida so never had to deal with below freezing temperatures!!

I never used the battery cutoff switch by the entrance door as I don't believe that cuts off everything.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, everyone! We looked for the cutoff switch in the battery compartment but with no luck. So our 'ah-ha' moment was simply unhooking the 2 coach battery cables at this point since they are not difficult to get to. As was noted here, there appear to be a lot of little things here that are a constant slight drain. We look forward to the day when we are with so many of you on the road full time and don't have to worry about sitting idle during these cold Illinois winters!

Did any of us ever think that we would be having these kind of conversations? What to do with our failing batteries? I hope that we all meet in a warm climate and talk this problem over. Joe

You don't say how long your batteries will be disconnected so I will mention this. Lead/acid batteries require charging every 90 days that they are in storage. Failure to charge them on this period WILL result is reduced battery capacity and life. Since you say you don't find a battery disconnect switch, it would be a good idea to install one, especially if removing the battery cables is a little difficult because of battery is located. The switches are readily available and come in at least 2 styles. The common knife switch is the most popular but a bolt and nut type is also available. Its advantage is that when you remove the bolt the batteries stay disconnected until it is reinstalled while the knife switch can accidentally be bumped closed.