New battery hookup

[Tom]

Received this request via email. Please respond here.

TIA

My husband & I just bought an 1986 Santa Rosa Lite by Six Pac trailer.  There was no manual and we are having
much difficulties hooking up the new battery and getting the 3-way refrig to work.

The battery of course has the positive and negative but the supply from the trailer has a white, red & green connections.
We do not know how to properly hook up. And we are having trouble getting the frig to work  It's a "Dometic 3-way
with automatic pilot, you don't need to light.

Any suggestions?  We would surely appreciate it as the trip starts in two days.

Thanks so much,

Pam

 

[Carl L]

On shore power connections (120VAC) white would be  AC neutral.  Red (sometimes black) would be AC hot.  Green would be AC ground.  If there is 24O VAC 3-phase, one hot leg could be blue.

12VDC red is positive, black is negative.

 

[Karl]

I'm not sure from the message if the refrigerator refuses to work at all, or just on DC or AC or propane. If it doesn't work at all, it's probably the battery connection at fault. Red (positive or +) from battery must go to red (positive or +) on the fridge control board; likewise black (negative or -) from battery must go to black (negative or -) on the control board. If the control board is not wired properly, the fridge won't work on battery, AC, or propane. If you tried hooking it up and you did it backwards (red to black and black to red) you may have blown a fuse on the control board. Not sure where it's located on a 3-way, but perhaps someone else can help with that. The fridge should have a wiring diagram on the unit located in the OUTSIDE access panel.

Carl,
I believe black is the more common for the AC 'hot' side with red being the second choice. So call me a nit-picker

 

[John From Detroit]

I'm not sure if you are installing a battery for the first time in the MH or not, but white black and green sounds like 120 volt, not 12 volt (Though in my Motor Home most of the 12 volt wireing is black and white, with white being ground)

One of the essential tools for an RVer is a VOM often called a MultiMeter,  Was looking at them for 10 bucks at Harbor Frieght, have paid as little as 1 dollar at a dollar store and as much as 150 dollars (I do need a good onre) at an electronics store.

If you have a battery compartment, with battery cables in it but no battery and you are wondering which witch is which simply isolate the battery cable ends (make sure they don't touch anyting metal) plug into shore power (activating the converter) and measure the voltage at the battery cable ends... Positive is , well Positive

If you are talking about hooking up the fridge and need an instalation manual,  Visit the manafacturer's web site and download the needed manual

 

[Carl L]

I believe black is the more common for the AC 'hot' side with red being the second choice. So call me a nit-picker?

Well ok, if you insist, but it is an odd request.? Would Nitpicker be ok or would you prefer a more formal Mister Nitpicker.

Anyway the inquiry mentions white, red and green wires.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Hmmm. This is a 1986 and back then it was not unusual to have a separate small gauge charge line run to the battery positive post from the little converter that was typical back then.  Could be that's the Green and the Red & White could be the 12V battery positive and negative (respectively). If the green is a relatively small wire and the red & white are large diameter "battery cables", I'd bet on that.

But I worry that they might be talking about the 120 VAC wiring, where the red/white/green color code is fairly common (even though blac/white/green is most typical, as Karl says).

A picture of the battery compartment and associated wires would be most helpful. Possible???

 

[John From Detroit]

I agree with RV ROAMER, a photo would help

Ok Carl, I got confused, happens when I'm overheated and trust me, this week (and next) I'm overheated


I think I'm going to fall back on "use the multi-meter" to find the charger lead and the negative (usually common) lead, once we have identified those two wires, the thrid wire is fairly easy, plus the battery will charge

 

[Karl]

Carl,

Well slap me with a nylon cable tie! - totally missed that. Apologies, oh one of accurate reading