24HFS Dual battery wiring

[klarowe]

I just picked up my new 2015 24HFS and have a question about how the 2 batteries are wired. First of all, there is no ground cable between the 2 batteries... which throws me for a loop right off the bat. The other odd thing to me is that the battery with both terminals being used goes directly to what I can only guess is a relay bank (behind a black plastic cover). The other battery (the one with only the positive terminal used) goes to a 120amp circuit breaker.

So my questions are; 1) Is this wired correctly? 2) What is the reasoning for only one battery going through the circuit breaker?

[WolfWhistle]

Originally Posted by klarowe

I just picked up my new 2015 24HFS and have a question about how the 2 batteries are wired. First of all, there is no ground cable between the 2 batteries... which throws me for a loop right off the bat. The other odd thing to me is that the battery with both terminals being used goes directly to what I can only guess is a relay bank (behind a black plastic cover). The other battery (the one with only the positive terminal used) goes to a 120amp circuit breaker.

So my questions are; 1) Is this wired correctly? 2) What is the reasoning for only one battery going through the circuit breaker?

Are you saying the negative on one battery doesn't have a cable attached? Are they 12V or 6V? You might want to take the covers off and post a picture. My TH came with one battery, the (+) red goes to a circuit breaker, the (-) black to the frame. When I added the second batty I simply cabled positive to positive and negative to negative... battery to battery. Do you have a generator or generator prep option?

[klarowe]

Yes it has a generator prep package. Battery 2 has one red lead (positive) to the breaker. Battery 1 has a ground to the chassis and a positive to the relay pack...

[Herk7769]

Do you have a commercial (house type) refrigerator?

It may be a dedicated battery/inverter for the fridge.

[wana65stang]

Originally Posted by WolfWhistle

Are you saying the negative on one battery doesn't have a cable attached? Are they 12V or 6V? You might want to take the covers off and post a picture. My TH came with one battery, the (+) red goes to a circuit breaker, the (-) black to the frame. When I added the second batty I simply cabled positive to positive and negative to negative... battery to battery. Do you have a generator or generator prep option?

Are you sure you wrote this correct? you running 24 volt? or are you using 6 volt batteries?

[klarowe]

Originally Posted by jfrauts

Are you sure you wrote this correct? you running 24 volt? or are you using 6 volt batteries?

Positive to positive and negative to negative is wired parallel which means it would maintain 12volts. Mine are neither... there is no negative wire connected to the 2nd battery. I have a standard elec/propane fridge, as far as I know, there is no DC to AC converter installed either (none of my 110 works without shore power connected).

[RSchleder]

The wiring as you have observed is, IMHO, not correct. It makes absolutely not sense to have 1 battery with only the + terminal hooked up to anything!

[Herk7769]

Is it possible to take a few photos of your batteries and battery compartment? Something is going on and some photos will help.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by klarowe

Positive to positive and negative to negative is wired parallel which means it would maintain 12volts. Mine are neither... there is no negative wire connected to the 2nd battery. I have a standard elec/propane fridge, as far as I know, there is no DC to AC converter installed either (none of my 110 works without shore power connected).

Just sounds like someone did not connect negative to negative. So really you are running off of 1 battery. I would just connect them, leave the red to the fuse and disconnect that ground and ground your second battery instead after you connect the two negatives together.

[klarowe]

I got under the trailer a bit and did some tracing.. now it makes a little more sense. Battery 1 has power going to the relay pack (still not 100% that's what it is) and ground goes to the chassis. Battery 2 positive goes to the circuit breaker and then into the generator compartment where it just terminates (no generator at the moment). This makes a lot more sense as to why there is no ground... this way it can't short on anything. For now I can probably just wire it up in a dual parallel battery setup to get the most out of having 2 batteries. Especially since I will probably eventually just go with an add-on generator rather than the factory Cummins Onan which I know can be loud as hell. Thanks for the help!

[WolfWhistle]

klarowe, your rig is exactly like mine. You are correct. One red (+) cable goes to what you call a relay, its actually a circuit breaker (nice that they did this) and that battery is then grounded to the chassis. You are running only on this one battery. The other battery has the red (+) to the generator bay and isn't grounded.... which means the lead isn't hot inside the generator compartment. It isn't wired correctly for a generator or for 2 batteries. First, if you don't want the positive to the gen box hot, disconnect it and store it for future use. That leaves you with a battery not connected to anything. The simplest way is to buy (Wally world sells them) a red and a black battery cable of ample gauge and length (seems like 16" is good) and strap the two batteries together... positive to positive and negative to negative. You could certainly connect the second battery (negative) to chassis ground... that is up to you. It doesn't matter if you use the posts or the bolts, same-o, same-o. Safety tip for no additional cost: When working with batteries, always disconnect the ground or negative cables; never have negative connected while working with positive connections... connect the positive(s) first; then lastly connect the negative cable(s). That way if you accidentally touch positive to ground (frame or anything grounded to frame) with wrench or whatever, nothing bad happens. Then when connecting negative and you accidentally touch negative to ground as the last step, again, nothing bad happens. And, as you well know... I am stating the bloody obvious for a complete newbie, never touch positive to negative unless you always wondered what a battery explosion is like. Hydrogen is a powerful thing... and even these small batteries have enough current potential to mess things up big time

[wana65stang]

Originally Posted by klarowe

Positive to positive and negative to negative is wired parallel which means it would maintain 12volts. Mine are neither... there is no negative wire connected to the 2nd battery. I have a standard elec/propane fridge, as far as I know, there is no DC to AC converter installed either (none of my 110 works without shore power connected).

My BAD! you are right parallel maintains voltage. opps!

[SOONERSALT]

Klarowe. Does ur 12volt battery disconnect work? Mine does not on my 2015 model. Ive been looking at the same wiring scheme and thinking my disconnect is wired to the generator instead.

[WolfWhistle]

Originally Posted by SOONERSALT

Klarowe. Does ur 12volt battery disconnect work? Mine does not on my 2015 model. Ive been looking at the same wiring scheme and thinking my disconnect is wired to the generator instead.

If you are on shore power and throw the battery disconnect switch (to off) don't expect the 12Vdc devices, such as lights, to go off... because the 12Vdc is then coming from the converter. It does however disconnect the battery from converter, at least mine does. To make sure unplug from shore power; then throw the disconnect switch and see if it works. If you've already tried this, please excuse me.

[SOONERSALT]

Thanks for input. I have two red leads on my battery. I believe one goes to the generator box, the other is the 12 volt system. With no power at all to the camper, i disconnected both red wires and reconnected just one at a time till i had 12 power, verified by lights and stereo. I left the other cable off and the totally disconnected the dc disconnect taking the cable off of it, so that i had unconnected leads there. All dc power continued to operate as normal. I just dont know how to fix it as the wiring is confusing past the battery.

[WolfWhistle]

I am not sure how much help I can be, but I'll try. The red cables are B+ or 12Vdc. One does go to the generator (or the box only, if you don't have a genny). This one is for the generator's starter. There is a circuit breaker between the battery end and the generator end. If you don't have a generator, you can leave it off and store it for future use. The other B+ feeds all the other 12Vdc things, which is first distributed at the front of the trailer (several things have direct to the battery connections). That B+ goes to the battery cut off switch; then to the converter; a converter is in the panel below the fridge and makes 12Vdc out of 120Vac when you have 120Vac supplied. With the switch OFF, the converter to battery connection is broken. First, you are only working with battery leads at the battery, not on the connections at the lower front of the trailer! Please do this: 1. do not connect to shore power, if connected, disconnect it. (nothing that runs on 120Vac should be working) 2. Disconnect the red, B+ to the generator and leave it off (don't mess with any black B- cable) 3. Make sure the other red B+ and its ground cable are connected to at least one battery (red to +; black to -). Then: verify that your cabin (LED) lights work. If not, turn ON the battery disconnect switch... are the lights on now? Turn off the battery disconnect switch... do the lights go off?

[SOONERSALT]

Wolf whistle. That is exactly what i did before I unhooked the cables from the dc disconnect entirely. Yes w the correct cable on the battery all dc products work like lights and stereo but they also stay on w the dc disconnect switch in off or on. I also don't have any AC source of power plugged into the camper. Yes I have the gen prep package but no generator. I would bet if I did have the generator would not start w the disconnect in off position. Somehow I think the factory got this crossed. I had planned to take a meter and take voltage readings at different places just to see if I could verify my suspicion. The wiring between the battery and the dc disconnect is hard for me to understand. What I was trying to say above, was that I unscrewed and removed the disconnect and took the cables off of it as well. Even doing that did not affect my ability to turn on lights( w no AC power to the camper either)

[WolfWhistle]

Soonersalt, I started a new thread titled "XLR 29HFS Battery Cut Off" in XLR forum and moved this statement to there with my answer. I don't really like high jacking someone else's thread. Please find it there. Thanks, Wolf

Originally Posted by SOONERSALT

Wolf whistle. That is exactly what i did before I unhooked the cables from the dc disconnect entirely. Yes w the correct cable on the battery all dc products work like lights and stereo but they also stay on w the dc disconnect switch in off or on. I also don't have any AC source of power plugged into the camper. Yes I have the gen prep package but no generator. I would bet if I did have the generator would not start w the disconnect in off position. Somehow I think the factory got this crossed. I had planned to take a meter and take voltage readings at different places just to see if I could verify my suspicion. The wiring between the battery and the dc disconnect is hard for me to understand. What I was trying to say above, was that I unscrewed and removed the disconnect and took the cables off of it as well. Even doing that did not affect my ability to turn on lights( w no AC power to the camper either)