Dead Battery

I bought a brand new 172 last October and took it straight to winter storage. I had the battery at my condo on a trickle charger all winter. A couple of weeks ago I took the pod to the Tetons for a few days and on my last morning the battery was quite low. I assumed the 6 hour drive (into the teeth of a 60+mph headwind all the way to central Idaho) would charge the battery fully. It sat at my place with nothing turned on for four days then I towed it 1 1/2 hours to the Sawtooths. The battery went dead the first evening. I wasn't running the furnace or water pump, just a couple of lights and the stereo. I plugged into my truck and immediately had good power. So is my truck not charging the battery or do I have a bad battery? 

If, when you plugged into the truck, you had "good power", your truck is charging the battery. However, how many amps is it sends, and what else might be using them matters also.

"Nothing turned on" can't happen with a pod. It has several parasitic loads you can't turn off completely. In general, we recommend a battery cutoff switch to truly "turn everything off".

Most every pod comes with a single group 24 battery from the dealer. This is fine, as long as you are not a boondocker, and most are not. If you got through a few days on that battery, that's about right. But a short tow isn't going to charge the battery much, especially if you are towing with the fridge on 12v as many do.

If you can park the pod at home, plug it in, the pod has a fair decent charger built in, and an adapter can be used to plug into a standard outlet, just don't run the WH, a/c, and microwave all at once.

If off grid camping is going to be your main thing, consider dual batteries. Going from a single group 24 to dual GC-2's will just about quadruple your available aH's...

Thanks for the input. It confirms what a buddy who's smarter than I am about these things had concluded. The battery seems fine and is holding a good charge, now that I have fully charged it. I just ordered the Renogy 100 watt solar panels and will not count on my truck to charge it. And I'll drive with my fridge on propane. Again, thanks for the help. My learning curve is steep.

I have wondered how dangerous it really is to gas up with the fridge on propane. Oh well. Life is all about learning. 

Originally posted by IdahoBoy I have wondered how dangerous it really is to gas up with the fridge on propane. Oh well. Life is all about learning.  Thanks again.