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Old 03-15-2012, 10:08 AM   #1
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I took my battery out in the fall and failed to take note which wires go where. So which posts do the red, white and black wires connect to? I have sunset trail.
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Old 03-15-2012, 10:49 AM   #2
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for the Battery hook up if the wires are Red & Black the Red would be the Positive with the + sign and the Black would be the Negative with the - sign, if it have Black & white wires the Black would be Positive + and the White would be Negative -, hope that would help you.
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Old 03-15-2012, 01:14 PM   #3
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Do you have two batteries or one?
White is generally minus to ground.
There was a recent thread on battery wiring as to white and black. You might try a search to read the previous discussion.
good luck
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Old 03-16-2012, 02:48 AM   #4
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Yeah that doesn't really help me cause I have 3 wires, Black, red and white.
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Old 03-16-2012, 04:12 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wader
Yeah that doesn't really help me cause I have 3 wires, Black, red and white.

First make sure that the white is your ground. You have a grounded bolt in you battery compartment that has a white wire on it. The white wire on a trailer will always go to the negative of the trailer battery. Theblack wire will go to the positive of the trailer battery. Your problem is the red wire. I suspect that it may be the load wire for a slide motor if you have a slide or thecharging wirefrom your power convertor or the tow vehicle. If it's atallpossible, I suggest that you try totracethe red wireback to the device that it's connected to. If you can't do that, try this.

1: Ensure that the battery is fully charged and connect thewhite (neg) andblack (pos) wires to it.

2: Disconnect your 120 V shorepower so that all your equipment is working off the battery only.

3:Operate all your12V equipment, pumps, lights, sliders, fans, landing gear (if it's a 5vr) etc. If a device doesn't work when it should, connect the red wire to the positive of the trailer battery and check that the non working device works. If it does then you're done.

4: If everything works then, test forvoltage between the red wire and ground. If novoltage is present,reconnect your shorepower andcheck forvoltage on the red wire toground. Ifanominal 12VDC is present then this is your battery charging line from thepower converter.For safety reasons, disconnectthe shore power first and then connect the red wire to the positive of thetrailer battery.

5:If all the effort in Step 4, failed to provide you with any answers, thenback your tow vehicle up to the trailer, close enough that you can connect the trailer power umbilical cord to theTV trailer plug.The charge line on yourTV has to be workingfor this to give any results, so I'll assume that it is.

6:Ensure that the Shore Power isNOT connected to your trailer. Connect your trailer power umbilical cord to your TV. Measure fora nominal 12VDCbetween the red wire andground. Ifvoltage ispresent, then the red wire is the charging line from the tow vehicle. Connect it to thepositive of the battery and you're done.

7:If, after all this and nothing worked as I suggested, I'm sorry, because I'm out of ideas. Ofcourse, you could use theRed Green method andjust connect the red wire to the positive of the battery and hope for the best.
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Old 03-16-2012, 05:11 AM   #6
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One of the wire could be for the power tong jack if you have one



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Old 03-17-2012, 02:01 PM   #7
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I'm farly positive the Red wire is powering a secodary system like your slide. That's how mine is set up. Simple take a Volt meter and place the black probe from the meter to something metal (the grounding bolt) and place the red probe from the meter to your mystery wire. If you have continuity then your red wire is a ground (Very unlikely unless someone other than the OEM has installed after market stuff) . If you have never used a meter make sure it is set to ohm's. Most meters will have a audiable setting so when you have zero resistance you hear a beep. touch the tow probes together; the meter should beep. If you touch one probe to your red an one to a good ground and the meter beep them your red wire is a ground wire. Hope that is not too confusing.
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Old 03-18-2012, 07:52 AM   #8
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One additional caution!!!! Since you are unsure what the red wire is connected to, don't have the trailer connected to shore power with the red wire removed. If it is the source of charge from the converter you could damage the converter if it doesn't "see" a load from the battery. Attempt to determine what it's function is as described above. Make sure it isn't a ground wire as described above (it really shouldn't be unless someone screwed up!!). I'm thinking that it is the 12V supply for the slides, in which case all of your 12V functions should work except for the slides. If that is the case, connect the red wire to the positive of the battery and your slides should work.



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Old 03-18-2012, 08:53 AM   #9
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Its hooked up and working! Turned out the red wire goes to the tongue lift and it is connected to the positive post. The white wire turned out to be the ground and is connected to the negative post. The black wire goes to the electric in trailer and therefore goes on the positive post.



The battery after having sat all winter long in my basement still had a full charge.



I was nervous to connect water from the house as it was my first time winterizing. Thought for sure pipes would've frozen and would have water all over. But everything worked out fine.



Now can't wait to take it out on first camping trip this season!
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Old 03-18-2012, 09:29 AM   #10
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Contrary to popular opinion, cold is not hard on a fully charged battery. In fact, the amount of internal self-discharge will be less if the battery is cold than it would be if it were warm. The source of the misconception comes from trying to draw current from a cold battery, as it has much less capacity to provide that current when it is cold, but let it warm up to 60-70 degrees and it will have more charge remaining than if it were stored in a warm environment.



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