Basic battery wiring problem - Montana Owners Club

Montana_2194 · 09-12-2005, 12:19 PM

Please help me. I have had my 2000 3255 for a few months, and installed two 6 volt golf cart batteries in series. They worked just fine, but fully discharged despite being hooked up to "shore power" or the truck.

I have two white wires that I connected to the negative, and two red wires to the positive. There was a stray black wire of smaller guage, which I assumed would go to negative. I called the previous owner, and he thought so too, but was a bit vague in his recollection. There was nothing in the user manual that I received with it.

I noticed today (embarrassed to say, after all this time) that there is a small note outside the battery (front) panel which says "connect the black wire to positive, and the white wire to negative". There's no mention of red wires, and there is no single white wire (there are 2).

Should I connect the small guage black wire to positive? I think that's the problem with my lack of re-charging, but I don't want to mess up the electrical panel.

Can someone please help? I'm sure the units are all similarly wired, but have no nearby expert advice.

Thanks, Jack Hadley

Broome101 · 09-12-2005, 12:56 PM

Well not sure what color is exactly what, look at the white wire and see if one of them is grounded to the inside of storage area onto metal, if so that's the ground for sure. Follow red wires make sure that one is leading to a circuit breaker to make sure one is positive. if you are trying to get 12 volts your issue is you have them wired in parrell by your description. Series you need one positive going to one negative. positive coming from breaker to positive terminal and neg (white going from camper ground to negative side of the opposite battery from the positive one connected.
Now the second black wire I am not sure what it is, follow it up see if you have a in line fuse or circuit breaker attached to it, if so it's a positive lead going to something. Your battery charger should be wired into the lines coming out of the camper going to curcit breaker which are resettable breakers, since yours is an older model this black wire might be the charger but not sure. You can ohm it out to see for sure if you have a volt meter this would require you removing the breakers inside to find the battery charger breaker itself.
Hopefully this helps little bit I sure some folks who have hooked up 2-6 volt golf cart batteries will come along before long.
If you have a volt meter you can check your wiring to be sure you have 12 volts by once wired up together touching pos on one battery and neg on other see what your reading is.

Illini Trekker · 09-12-2005, 03:48 PM

Broome101 have some good advice to follow. I have a link that has helped me in the past hope this may help. http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

Garin1 · 09-13-2005, 05:57 AM

jhadley,

If you have two 6 volt in series than you have a 12volt system. Series means: hot to first pos(+) then first neg(-) to second pos(+) then second neg(-) to gound. If you hook pos-pos and neg-neg you end up with a high load 6 volt system. As for the wiring I can't tell you much without seeing the schematic. The charging problem could be from a bad converter. That happened to me in my old Couger.

thundercat · 09-13-2005, 06:05 AM

The small black wire should be a feed to the break away switch that feeds the trailer brakes.

Montana_2194 · 09-14-2005, 02:33 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by labarnas

Broome101 have some good advice to follow. I have a link that has helped me in the past hope this may help. http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

Thanks for the link, Labarnas,

I've never received so much good practical info in my life about batteries. I studied science and physics at the U of Toronto over 40 years ago, and thought I understood the practical problems. That link was an eye-opener, and an indication that there's a big disconnect between theory and practice. The first bit was a bit "golden book", but as it progressed, I was blown away.

Your input is greatly appreciated, and everyone should read this unless they're electrical techs or engineers (and even then, maybe, eh?) Had to throw the "eh" in, since I'm Canadian.

Jack Hadley

Montana_2194 · 09-15-2005, 12:57 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Broome101

Well not sure what color is exactly what, look at the white wire and see if one of them is grounded to the inside of storage area onto metal, if so that's the ground for sure. Follow red wires make sure that one is leading to a circuit breaker to make sure one is positive. if you are trying to get 12 volts your issue is you have them wired in parrell by your description. Series you need one positive going to one negative. positive coming from breaker to positive terminal and neg (white going from camper ground to negative side of the opposite battery from the positive one connected.
Now the second black wire I am not sure what it is, follow it up see if you have a in line fuse or circuit breaker attached to it, if so it's a positive lead going to something. Your battery charger should be wired into the lines coming out of the camper going to curcit breaker which are resettable breakers, since yours is an older model this black wire might be the charger but not sure. You can ohm it out to see for sure if you have a volt meter this would require you removing the breakers inside to find the battery charger breaker itself.
Hopefully this helps little bit I sure some folks who have hooked up 2-6 volt golf cart batteries will come along before long.
If you have a volt meter you can check your wiring to be sure you have 12 volts by once wired up together touching pos on one battery and neg on other see what your reading is.

Montana_2194 · 09-15-2005, 01:01 PM

Thanks Broome,

No problem with understanding series and parallel, just the stray black wire and the dead battery. Got 12V. Working it out, and now have a full charge, but still haven't fiured the black wire function. It's not the breakaway wire, as someone suggested, but I found my circuit tester, and will sort it out tomorrow.

Thanks again for your input.

J

sreigle · 09-20-2005, 02:39 PM

Jack, did you get this all figured out? The black wire on mine goes from battery to slide pump.

Montana_3768 · 09-24-2005, 11:01 AM

The small black wire on my unit goes to the positive buss with all the other positive wires. There is also a small black wire that is wired to the metal side as a ground. Also a small red wire with a fuse that also goes to the positive buss.
My dealer's RV service manager said that black wires are usually positive in RVs. I asked the same question when trying to find out why my battery would keep going down. Finally had to replace the converter to keep it charged when attached to shore power.

lightningjack11 · 09-24-2005, 01:37 PM

Jack,

Sorry I am late on this because I have a 2000 so it should be similar to yours.

1. Since your running two six volt batteries make sure you have a battery type cable connecting the negative on one to the postive terminal on the other. Enough said on series/parallel.

The following is how mine is wired.

1. on the negative terminal of mine I have a heavy white cable going to the dewald system. I have a second white cable that apparently goes back to the converter. The last wire is a smaller black wire that is coming from a two wire harnes(Red goes to fuseblock).

2 on the positive terminal there is a small black wire that goes to the system somewhere, probably the inverter or car circuit. There are two heavy red cables connected that each go to a seperate fuse block.

There is no color coding in this unit so your colors might be different. Madness, I say.

You may also like: