(ET) low voltmeter

[Neil Dennis <wombat RealNS com>]

John, First, I'd disconnect the voltmeter leads and clean them, any
corrosion will cause a bad reading.  Also, did you clean the battery
cable clamps when you put in the new batteries, they also may be
corroded which will give a high resistance connection.  These possible
bad connections would not affect the "open circuit" voltage reading but
would cause a voltage drop under load.

wombat