Battery Issue.

[thewild59]

We have a new Jayco 26BH. Our battery that came with the trailer died in 4 months. We have the trailer hooked up to our garage all the time. New battery does not show up as available when installed. There is one white wire that goes to frame, I am guessing ground. Other connection has a couple wires attached to the eye. Any ideas what to look for? I am puzzled.

[Iraqvet05]

Correct, white wire is ground and it grounds to the right sideof the trailer. There are two other wires that connect to the positive terminal (I have 3 with the tounge jack as the third)...I believe one goes to a breaker mounted to the frame in the middle of the tounge area and the other comes from the left side of the trailer.

[Jagiven]

White is ground (-). You could and should have a few other wires connected to the Positive Terminal (+ Hot). One goes to your power converter, one for your electric brake switch, one for your electric tongue jack (if equipped). In theory, you should have all three of those wires connected to the Positive terminal with in between the positive terminal and the wires, so you can disconnect the battery from any load drain for long storage.

Most likely the battery was dropped at some point and a flake(s) of lead has grounded out a few cells.

You can disconnect the battery (take a photo of the wire connections first) and bring it into your favorite car maintenance shop and have them do a hydrometer test on the cells. With this test they can determine if you have a bad battery. I did this a few weeks ago with my spare battery and they did not even charge me for the test. Hydrometers are cheap, they cost about $2-3 for a cheap one.

[thewild59]

Checked converter today and it is putting out the correct volts per owners manual. But nothing at the battery. I hooked up a fresh battery, and nothing.

[ktbarrentine]

My battery has a fuse in the hot lead at the battery.... checked this?

[thewild59]

Thanks all for your help. Dealer never attached the main power line to positive. Just the other wires. Positive lead was zip strapped up underneath propane tanks. All good now!

[Jagiven]

[RoyBraddy]

Glad you tracked down the problem...

I am surprised that the dealer would not have hooked up your battery before you left the dealership...

Your trailer is equipped with electric brakes and has the trailer disconnect connection in case the trailer becomes disconnected from your truck going down the road. It will pull this disconnect cable plunger out and will immediate apply electric brake actions on all your electric brake wheels. The 12VDC power for this operation comes from your trailer battery. This is also a DOT requirement to have this installed and operational.

By DOT RULES you must have all of this hooked up when towing your trailer...

Perhaps only the large cable going to the trailer converter was not connected up and one of those other two wires that was were connected actually goes to the trailer disconnect switch...

Just adding some info for future towing of your trailer. Must have battery connected (by DOT LAW) to operate the trailer electric brakes if needed.

just my thoughts
Roy ken