Connecting batteries in 5th wheel

[Bob_C]

This is mine....hope you can see where the dial is pointed

[Bob_C]

This reading is what you'll see with probes touched together, other then what my fingers are added to the numbers....should be close to all zeros

[Bob_C]

Forgot the pic!....lol

[rarebear.nm]

When I first got our RV I spent hours crawling through the rig tracing out circuits and labeling everything. When something is broke is a bad time to figure out how it should work, IMO. Keep at this and you will learn.

1. Yes
2. Yes, if the second red is from the converter then the 12v system runs from shore power if connected. Shore power includes generator in your case.

New question is your generator built into the rig or plugs in via the shore power connector?

If 12v demand exceeds converter output then batteries makeup difference.

3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. Color of wire leads is based on size of wire. Common colors, red is smaller than blue smaller than yellow. Should never read any meaning into color of connectors.

Continuity tests can be tricky if you do not know where the wire goes. Example, if you have alight bulb with the pos end unconnected and test that wire to ground, frame, it will test positive. Because the other end goes to ground. So a positive test to ground does not convince me that it’s a ground lead without tracing it through.

7. Bob’s testis correct. Just a note or two. Some meters are auto ranging some have selectable ranges for volts, ohms, etc. if auto ranging then just set it ohms and first touch the two meter leads. The meter should read 0, no resistance a complete circuit. If the reading is not zero than something is in the circuit or a bad connection someplace. Note if you hold the leads to two fuse ends with your fingers your reading maybe wrong because your body is now part of the circuit. You can hold the lead to one end and touch the other fuse end with the lead.. if your meter has various rangers for ohms use the highest range when doing a continuity test. I seldom say ohhhhhhhhhm, but other things when the results are other than I expect.

8. The negative bonding bar should be very close to the fuse panel and converter. Never under the rig exposed to the weather. Frequently
, 12 v wires have pos and neg in one cable like a lamp cord. Therefor, the negwill be close to the fuse panel where the pos ends all meet up.

Yes please attach the trailers connecting cable to your truck.

1. Use the volt meter and test the two unknown leads in the battery compartment. If 12 volt then you have the trucks hot and neg. If no power then;

2. Test one end and the known frame ground, then test the other wire. I expect one of the two to be hot.

Report back good luck ....

[sfward]

Bob: Meter as requested. The setting i used to check for continuity is second to last. Looks lie a little speaker with an arrow coming out. That's the setting i saw on line to use for continuity testing. I do know the volts are the third one down with the V and dashed line across the top.

[shiggs68]

Your assumption in #6 are incorrect. Doing a tone test is not accuracy enough.

The heavy red wire (red crimp) will probably tone but it actually looks to be going to the fuse panel. The tone on indicates ground is seen thru the fuses and devices to ground. It’s the positive battery wire.

The other red and black (yellow crimp) are probably breakaway switch and charge coming from your truck cable. Without being plugged into the truck they will not tone to the frame. Just hook them to the battery, Black to negative, red to positive.

[shiggs68]

Originally Posted by sfward

Bob: Meter as requested. The setting i used to check for continuity is second to last. Looks lie a little speaker with an arrow coming out. That's the setting i saw on line to use for continuity testing. I do know the volts are the third one down with the V and dashed line across the top.

On your meter, the omega symbol is the ohms scale. Continuity is measured in ohms representing the resistance of the circuit. A true ground connection to your frame will be close to zero. A connection thru some device to ground will be in the 1 to 100 Range. And no connection will be infinity.

As I said above doing a tone test is not accurate enough on the heavy red (red crimp) wire. It is showing a circuit thru the fuses and devices to ground. Ie your positive battery lead.

[twinboat]

You should have a + and - wire on the battery for the house and converter system. They rarely use the Chassis ground for anything but exterior lights and power jacks. The house is built of non conductive material, screwed to a chassis.

Find the 2 wires that come out of the converter, fuse center and ID the colors. That go to the battery.

[Bob_C]

Another use for a long test wire that could be clipped onto a positive cable by the battery and the other end taken inside and clipped onto the meters neg wire....then using the ohm part of meter, search around till you find the factory wire.....

[chboone]

Look at the two pictures on the one that says "DC Distribution Panel" look at the "Wiring Instructions". Read what it says for the "B" lug Those two heavy red leads connected to the "B" lug come from your battery and converter. Now connect the both red leads in battery compartment to the positive terminal of your Battery. Now connect the heavy black lead to the negative terminal of the Battery. If you want to you can also connect the white lead you verified goes to the frame to the negative battery terminal. Now check if your interior lights work.
One of the red leads go your DC Distribution Panel the other for your landing gear. If you still nothing working your 30 amp fuse is bad, some older RV's did not come with an in line battery power fuse.
Try operating your landing gear, the 30 amp fuse may be for you landing gear since it is not fused on the DC Panel.

[TQ60]

Have not read all...

Common practice is to place a fuse at any source of power before it goes through any holes.

So there should be a fuse at the battery and also a fuse or breaker between the converter and the main panel.

Starting all over...

Plug the shore line in and turn on the breakers (breakers are for 120 VAC).

does anything happen?

Get voltmeter set to dc volts and red lead on the red wires on the fuse panel and black wire on good ground.

Any voltage?

Look for converter as it may not be plugged in.

Converter ground lead may NOT be connected directly to ground, it may be connected to battery negative then from there to ground.

While converter is plugged in check voltage from each red at battery to each other wire at battery, if 12 volts is found between 2 wires then mark them as converter output.

Power off then connect them to battery post in correct manner and turn power back on and recheck voltage at battery and it should now be charging voltage...more volts than it was but not important how much now.

Power off now connect the red loose wire to battery positive and the wire connected to ground to battery negative and now lights should work...

[rarebear.nm]

I understand you're getting lots of ideas, most all are good and useful.

RVs are wired in many variations between makers and over time. Just to point out something more that has been brought up.

At least in my 5th, the cable from the truck's connection terminates in the forward generator compartment. The hot lead is attached to a bus bar (a common bonding device). Also attached to this bus bar are hot leads going to the battery compartment; the landing gears (has an inline fuse, and two more for the rear stabilizer jacks, each fused; plus two more each fused, one going to a light in the generator compartment and another to the land gear/hitching light. Also connected to this positive bus bar is the hot lead to the emergency breakaway switch.

Likewise the truck's ground lead is bonded to a frame member here as are the ground leads from each of the above mentioned devices. I'd like a dedicated ground lead back to the battery compartment, but have not taken time to add one.

The point here is that there may be important terminations not seen in or near the battery compartment.

Also in the generator compartment the truck's leads for the running lights, turn signals and brakes all connect to the matching leads in the trailer to each of those lights/brakes. All of those grounds are bonded here as well.

Again there is a great deal of variation how these rigs are wired. Yours may well be totally different.

IMO- it is worth the effort to learn and understand how your rig is wired, because when something else goes wrong you'll be much better prepared to deal with it.

[sfward]

SHE LIVES!!!!!!! And I did not once have to grab the fire extinguisher I had at arms reach. Trust me....it was there.

OK, Readers Digest version;

I connected the truck power and found my hot lead in the battery compartment. It was one of the red wires. I tested it with the white ground and got 13+ volts.

I disconnected the truck and connected my generator. I got the same readings on the same wires.

Both times I checked my hot leads at the fuse box and had 12+ volts.

The other red and black in the battery compartment got nothing. I surmise they went to the fuse box on DC power.

I connected the two red and one black to the positive and white to negative on battery. Yeah, my heart stopped for a second when the negative terminal gave me a tiny insignificant spark. It may as well have been a hand grenade.

Anyway, I have inside lights and working outlets!

In short, battery is connected and I have DC power. Power is going to converter when connected to shore power and charging batteries. Batteries are getting a charge when connected to the truck.

Sending out a big high five and belly bumps to everyone on the forum. You all have been absolutely fantastic. More importantly I got it working before my wife got back in town and strong armed me into dragging my rig to a shop. Let's have a yell out to us shade tree mechanics!

So, next on list, get my second battery hooked up so I have two 12v running in parallel. Don't suppose you have a diagram handy for that? Don't want to fry everything with a 24v surge now that I have it working.

[rarebear.nm]

Great job. This forum is very good. As for step two; there are diagrams on the web. Google for 12vt parallel batteries. Basically for parallel connection connect positive to positive and negative to negative. You will increase the amp hours at 12 volts. An additional detail. It is best to connect the trailers positive leads to one of the batteries’s positive posts and the negative to the negative of the second battery. This forces a more balanced discharge and recharge of the two batteries.