I can’t hook up my battery!

[Meldew]

L

Sounds like the wire colors for your power tongue jack don't match the wire colors for the rest of your trailer. Given how close the tongue jack is to the battery, you should be able to determine which wires are for the tongue jack, which means the remaining wires are for the trailer. My trailer wiring is red to positive, black to negative, white to ground.

With all that sparking, there's a good chance you may have blown a fuse, so you'll likely need to replace the fuse as well.

Looking for fuses…

 

[Brian Clancy]

Trace the black positive cables back from battery about 1 foot or so. You may have a blown inline fuse there. Other fuses will be in the power center inside the camper around heater, refrig and other appliances.

 

[Meldew]

Just an update: I disconnected the battery completely and the Shore Power works fine!

I will just need to spend some time before closing up the popup on Sunday figuring out where all the wires go!

 

[vagov]

L

Looking for fuses

Trace the black positive cables back from battery about 1 foot or so. You may have a blown inline fuse there. Other fuses will be in the power center inside the camper around heater, refrig and other appliances.

You more than likely have circuit breakers , and /or actual fuses, in the power center . try turning each one off, then back on until you here them click One at a time. Sometimes they are hard to tell if they actually tripped(blown ) Send us. Pic of the power wire (s) coming off the Power tounge jack. It should have a cord on it somewhere leading towards the battery. At least we can start determine if it’s red or black .

 

[vagov]

Here are picture if typical in line fuses. So you know what your looking for , you may have something similar.

 

[vagov]

Typical power supply center in campers, you should have something like it. As mentioned before near furnace, fridge, just above floor level somewhere . Just for reference.

 

[vagov]

. I think your son is close, try hooking white to negative instead of positive as it should be neutral. And see if it all works , green is still a mystery

 

[vagov]

This is how someone else attached it and it drained the battery

Did everything work like this, except the battery drained? Something telling me the green wire is the problem. I never saw green (usually ground) to a hot positive . I would leave it off completely and see if you got anything. Otherwise I’m thinking green is negative also . so it would be both reds to positive and everything else neg . Anyhow it’s getting late, tired of racking my brain tonight, hang in there, alit if good minds here. We will eventually figure it out together. As I’m very couroius myself .

 

[vagov]

You more than likely have circuit breakers , and /or actual fuses, in the power center . try turning each one off, then back on until you here them click One at a time. Sometimes they are hard to tell if they actually tripped(blown ) Send us. Pic of the power wire (s) coming off the Power tounge jack. It should have a cord on it somewhere leading towards the battery. At least we can start determine if it’s red or black .

Rereading. My own post, the breakers in the power box should be your Shore Power side, as you mentioned everything works when plugged into pedestal. So they should be ok. So you may have a blown fuse on the right side of power center (actual fuses). Is anything else working Such as interior lights ,while disconnected from Shore Power , straight off the battery besides the electric tounge jack. Not working ?

 

[Hilldweller]

I'd disconnect everything and meter the wires one at a time for continuity to ground. Any that make the meter beep get hooked to negative.

I hate trailer wiring. In the real world of DC there's just red and black, pos and neg. In AC there green for ground, white for neutral, and black/red/blue (three phase) for hot. Consistency. Trailers go all rainbow on the wires.

 

[Johneliot]

I would hazard a guess that one of those wires is a 12 volt line for the fridge and that may be the one that is draining the battery.

 

[Susan Premo]

After you have it all figured out and working can you put a sort of twist tie or something better around them, then theyll always be together and you'll know where they go. I know how you feel, same thing happened to us.

 

[TSQ]

I'd disconnect everything and meter the wires one at a time for continuity to ground. Any that make the meter beep get hooked to negative.

I hate trailer wiring. In the real world of DC there's just red and black, pos and neg. In AC there green for ground, white for neutral, and black/red/blue (three phase) for hot. Consistency. Trailers go all rainbow on the wires.

Agreed.

In some industries (marine in particular) there is a trend towards using yellow as DC negative, to help prevent people hooking up black DC negative wires to black AC hot wires.

 

[lifespeed]

I can try to trace them…. But I’m not very knowledgeable about electrical systems

Then quit guessing and seek help from someone more knowledgeable who can examine your trailer in person.

 

[ChiefHart]

I would check because someone could have wire it differently. But I would consider:

2 - blacks as Positive
2 - reds I would be thinking positive, but I would double check
1 - white as negative
1 - Green I would double check where its wire to, but most of the time green is ground, so at a battery go's to negative.

Do you think that a couple of the wires go to a brake breakaway switch?

 

[jfilz]

First of all figure out your ground wires. Check with a meter set to ohms. Check frame to each wire. If beeps or well above zero... Then attach to negative post. Red is most likely positive then attach that and chech which systems work. Check remaining wires if they have full power to ground(meter set to 12/24dc) that means it most likely neg side and something is on! Check each wire to ground if voltage exists try connecting to neg and see which systems are turned on/running. If no voltage then try connecting wire to positive and see which systems now works.

Chances are: positive colours red white... Negative colours black and green.

 

[ChiefHart]

If anyone can help I’d greatly appreciate it. I’m trying to leave on a trip and don’t know how to reconnect my battery!

There are two black wires, two red wires, a white wire, and a green wire.

I tried the blacks and reds on positive, green and white on negative and it was popping and sparking.

See if this diagram helps.

 

[radar1]

It can be confusing, since cars are universally black ground/negative and red positive. Then you try to connect to campers that generally use the household wiring, where white is ground/negative and black is positive (just the opposite for cars).
Green is universally ground/negative.
Your electric jack is probably wired like cars though, so likely a red (positive) wire and black (negative) wire.
Most likely the white and green should go to negative (ground), the black wire going to the camper should go to positive, the black wire coming from the electric jack should go to negative, and the red wires go to positive.
Maybe.
Once you get it figured out, I would tape all the positive wires together, and all the negative wires together, and take a photo.

 

[radar1]

What about this? The tongue jack worked.

Tongue jack may have worked because they usually use automobile wiring convention (red hot, black ground) but campers use black as hot/positive so although your jack would work wired that way, the other wires caused you to blow a fuse due to short between positive and ground.

 

[Mhowdy]

Does it spark the whole time or just when you connect it? Mine gives a little spark on the positive side because I think something is pulling power to it.