PArked in my driveway, and we moved it on Monday 10/2 out of the driveway to power wash the driveway. parked it in thed riveway that night. All was fine.
During this past week I plugged a 3 outlet adapter into the power outlet. It has a coiled 3' cord on it and I mounted the oulet on teh face of the dash to the left of the steering wheel. It has a small LED indicator on it and an on/off switch. I turned the switch off. Into the cigarette lighter, I plugged another 3 outlet adapter. This one does not have a cord, just a plug that goes directly into the outlet and has a swivel head with the 3 outlets on it. There is a small LED on this one also, and no on/off switch. I think I did all this on Tuesday. I need the extra outlets for our cell phone chargers, the GPS, my Brake Buddy alert system, and cell phone amplifier. The only thing plugged in at this time was the cell phone amplifier. But it was plugged into the adapter with the on/off switch (which was off), and the amplifier itself was turned off. The one in the cigarette lighter was plugged in and the LED was on.
I now have a battery charger on it. In reading the Ford manual it states to NEVER use the cigarette lighter for electronic equipment. A previous discussion on this forum shows people do use it, and I don't see why not.
But, could it be the cigarette lighter is designed differently? Not being a smoker, I can only recall from the old days when the lighter was pushed in, the heating coil would get hot and the lighter would pop out and be ready to use. By leaving my adapter plugged in, could that have been causing the lighter to try and heat up the element, and it just kept trying because the plug was in? And this eventually wore the battery down?
If used only when driving, it probably would not be a problem since the battery would keep getting a charge.
Also I did not realize the BF does not come with an auxiliary start switch that would allow the engine to start from the couch batteries. Had one on my other motorhomes and never used it. needed it now, and it wasn't there
![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)
Any ideas?
John