New Pop-Up trailer owner and of course there’s a question

[silverscout]

Hello All, I'm new to the pop-up world but I'm enjoying it so far. I recently purchased a 2004 Fleetwood, Tucson. A small, light pop-up with enough amenities to keep my small family happy. We recently took it on a three night trip to Hollister where the temperatures dipped into the mid 30's at night. It seems that my small trailer isn't up to the challenge of heating the cabin. In the matter of two nights I killed two deep cycle batteries. By 1:30 AM on the first night, the carbon monoxide tester went off with a solid chirp and warning light. The warning light was not the carbon monoxide indicator light but the trouble light. I attempted to turn on the cabin lights but they were dim and dead. The second night the camper killed a second battery which I had pulled from the Scout.

My question is: Does the heater (including the fan and igniter) draw enough amps to kill a deep cycle battery in one night? Is this normal?

Thanks for any input.

The set up in question.

 

[TheThom]

The heater should have a sticker telling you it's electrical requirements: amps/hour voltage, etc. Your battery should have info about amp hours, voltage, etc. After that it's all over but the math.

 

[BADDANDY]

The heater will do that. I have a Honda 1000 generator to run an electric heater to prevent this. I plug the camper into the gen and the heater into the camper's AC outlet. I fill up the tank, crank up the gen, turn on the elect heater, set the camper thermostat, then go to bed. This will also charge up the camper battery. The generator runs out of fuel about the 7 hour mark with the heater set on low. If the temp drops inside the camper after the gen runs out of gas, then the camper heater kicks in after that, no more battery issues. Usually it only comes on a few times before it's time to get up for the day.

 

[Mark Harley]

Nice looking trailer, A good candidate for a spring over lift.

 

[achampagne]

Mine always runs out before morning, with the temp set at 65-67 so the kiddo doesn't get cold. Most over night temps for us range the 40's and up. For now we do a lot of campground camping(so we can plug in) instead of remote. I plan to add a second deep cycle battery this year to solve the problem.