Hooking Up New Batteries

[bonni]

Greetings from Las Vegas. I have a 2005 Travel Supreme Select Fifth Wheel in storage and just bought new batteries for her. Since I took out the old ones over a year ago, I can't remember how to hook up the wires on the new batteries. Anyone out there able to give me some pointers? Is the white wire the positive and the black wire negative?

[HD4Mark]

Hi bonni and welcome!

From doing a Google search it appears there is not really a standard. Too bad all manufacturers can't use black and red like in autos.

The negative (ground) lead will be connected somehow to the frame or a large metal piece. If it is possible to trace them back to where they are both connected you should be able to determine which one that is.

[Petro]

bonni;

Welcome to iRV2. I believe you have found a great site.

I had a previous MH where the cables were all the same and not marked. I purchased some small colored ties and marked all the positive cables with red and the negative with black. That solved any future problems.

To answer your other question, I have found that generally white is ground or negative. Don't assume anything and throughly check it out like HD4Mark has advised.

Good luck;
Don

[bonni]

Thanks, Don! Yes, we finally figured out the positive and negative and found the white wire to be negative (when we really thought the opposite). Thanks for your help!

[wa8yxm]

in the 120 volt side of life the WHITE WIRE is "Neutral" and often bonded to ground at a stick building service entrance (NEVER ON A MOTOR HOME) hence folks who work on 120v think of it as "Ground" (Which is of course the green/bare wire)

The result is they wire up 12 volt systems wrong in my electronics trained opinion

But .. as you know, everyone has an opinion, Mine and {Insert cost of cup of coffee} will get you one cup of coffee.