Trying to hook up battery and 30 amp fuse blows

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NWRVERNORCAL

Active member
Joined
Aug 3, 2007
Posts
26
Location
Fair Oaks
OK, I am a newbie kind of.  I am placing battery back for the season and there is an in line fuse right next to the battery.  Every time I reattach the cable it sparks and blows the fuse.  The only thing I have tried was turning breakers off then attaching everything then flipping the breakers on?  Thoughts? Thanks fellas!
 
Crap, I hope so.  THereis a green wire connected to the black wire I assume the black wire is negative correct? The white wire is positive? Couldnt hu to try. Right?
 
By the colors you listed I am fairly sure you got it backwards.  On our 5er they use white for (-) ground & black for (+) hot. :)
 
NWRVERNORCAL said:
Crap, I hope so.  THereis a green wire connected to the black wire I assume the black wire is negative correct? The white wire is positive? Couldnt hu to try. Right?

Polarity is reversed.  I have black for positive on my Jayco at the batteries.
Although the white wire is usually a neutural (not always the case), I'll bet it's not hot in this case.
 
In Electronics and automotive technology USUALLY black is negative and RED positive, USUALLY but not always.

In house wiring Electricans are used to the WHITE wire being "Neutral" and bonded to ground and the BLACK wire being hot.

RV's are wired by house electricians, NOT electronics or automotive technicians.

Thus, they get it back ackwards. .


Also, usually if there are Two or more wires.. That's a "HOT" (Positive) lead,  Again, USUALLY, not always.
 
muskoka guy said:
wouldn't the fuse be on the positive lead. correct me if I'm wrong

It's also possible that the OP bought a battery with the posts reversed from the original.  That would depend on the application of the battery based on the info supplied by the OP when purchasing the new.  Unless the original battery was brought in as evidence.  In which case, maybe a mistake was made in polarity and not caught until now.
 
NWRVERNORCAL said:
Crap, I hope so.  THereis a green wire connected to the black wire I assume the black wire is negative correct? The white wire is positive? Couldnt hu to try. Right?

Yup! I'm with the others. If there's a black and a white cable I always assume the white is negative. As others have said this is normal, but not always actual practice. My negatives in my RV are all white, but some of my positives are red and some are black. If you have only red cables and black cables (no whites) it is generally safe to assume that the red is positive and the black is negative.
 
In the future whenever anyone removes all the wires from a battery they should take a few photos with their digital camera BEFORE disconnecting any wires. Real good, real clear photos.

You are lucky you are only blowing fuses, if there was no fuse you could do a lot more damage.
 
SeilerBird said:
In the future whenever anyone removes all the wires from a battery they should take a few photos with their digital camera BEFORE disconnecting any wires. Real good, real clear photos.

You are lucky you are only blowing fuses, if there was no fuse you could do a lot more damage.

Good idea.  At least mark the wires with some masking tape and write their position on the tape with a good ole Sharpie.  Either way takes all the guess work out of the equation and the replacement battery is installed correctly.
 
denmarc said:
Good idea.  At least mark the wires with some masking tape and write their position on the tape with a good ole Sharpie.  Either way takes all the guess work out of the equation and the replacement battery is installed correctly.

Yeah good ideas, but ya still gotta put the battery in the right way or it doesn't matter how good your pictures/markings are.
 
Brother Bear said:
Yeah good ideas, but ya still gotta put the battery in the right way or it doesn't matter how good your pictures/markings are.
We are talking about before you remove the battery the very first time.
 
My recommendation is to spray all the POSITIVE wires with red paint (or brush them with red nail polish)

Black on the Negative end.

Same effect only you don't loose the pictures.
 
Brother Bear said:
Still doesn't matter if you put the new battery in backwards.
You are not making any sense. When you buy an RV the battery is generally installed already. If you build the RV yourself and put the battery in backwards it won't work to begin with.
 
Brother Bear said:
Still doesn't matter if you put the new battery in backwards.

Brother Bear,

With all due respect, I have replaced a bunch of batteries in autos, boats, RVs, and the like.  Any battery I have ever replaced is marked for polarity.  Same as the replacement battery.  By either some sort of sticker, color code, terminal size, or molded into the casing of the battery itself.  If you are not electrically minded, it only makes sense to note somehow the orginal wiring to the battery while the original battery is in place.  By pic, or any other marking to insure the replacement is installed the same way.  Assuming the replacement is of correct application, you would then be good to go. 

If after all of that you still hook the battery up backwards, you could be asking for an expensive and/or troublesome problem you can only blame yourself for.

The OP may have still have wired his replacement battery backwards without realizing it.  Or the polarity is reversed on his replacement battery by receiving the wrong battery from the get go.  There are variables.  Hence, noting the orginal wiring takes care of any question to what works.
 
denmarc said:
Brother Bear,

With all due respect,  yada, yada, yada.......

The OP may have still have wired his replacement battery backwards without realizing it. 

It seems to me that is all he was trying to say.  Take all the pictures you want, you still have to hook it up correctly.  Makes perfect sense to me.....
 
Correct Lou.  I was simply trying to say some just don't understand how electricity works.  And to alleviate alot of heartache, a pic or note may help when putting things back together.  And what to look for when buying new parts for anything.  I have made many trips back to the parts store myself due to stupid reasons!

No harm done.  You can take a hundred pics, or just one.  The idea was to give the OP an option to help so his problem doesn't happen again.



 
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