Jayco Jay Flight Battery Hookup

[Mountain runner]

I have a Jayco Jay Flight travel trailer and can't remember which wires go where on the battery. There are 3 wires (white, black and green). The black appears to be grounded to the frame. I assumed the white went to the positive and the black and green to the negative but nothing is working. I just pulled the battery off of the trickle charger so it should be charged. Any suggestions?

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Mountain runner

I have a Jayco Jay Flight travel trailer and can't remember which wires go where on the battery. There are 3 wires (white, black and green). The black appears to be grounded to the frame. I assumed the white went to the positive and the black and green to the negative but nothing is working. I just pulled the battery off of the trickle charger so it should be charged. Any suggestions?

The cable that goes to the frame is the GROUND. That cable should be attached to your negative battery terminal. On my JayFlight, that ground cable is bolted directly to the frame and is in plain sight. (My trailer isn't here so I can't send you a photo.)

Hopefully that helps a bit. You didn't mention if this was a new or used trailer. If it isn't new, the cables may have been replaced at some point so the color of the cables may not match a new trailer.

And, BTW, welcome to the forum.

[Skaling]

Solid white single wire is you negative. Green, black, and orange wires are your positive.

[Mmtttweir]

As a new RV owner I made the mistake of hooking up the black to ground and the white to positive. Household wiring us actually white is hot. It popped two fuses in panel inside that are designed to ensure reverse polarity does not damage the converter. It also will not charge the battery if the fuses are not replaced.
Good way to check is to hook the trailer up to shire power and check battery level. When it is plugged in the battery level should be full.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Mmtttweir

As a new RV owner I made the mistake of hooking up the black to ground and the white to positive. Household wiring us actually white is hot. It popped two fuses in panel inside that are designed to ensure reverse polarity does not damage the converter. It also will not charge the battery if the fuses are not replaced.
Good way to check is to hook the trailer up to shire power and check battery level. When it is plugged in the battery level should be full.

Good point. Thank you for that information.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

[tnchuck100]

Originally Posted by Mmtttweir

As a new RV owner I made the mistake of hooking up the black to ground and the white to positive. Household wiring us actually white is hot. It popped two fuses in panel inside that are designed to ensure reverse polarity does not damage the converter. It also will not charge the battery if the fuses are not replaced.
Good way to check is to hook the trailer up to shire power and check battery level. When it is plugged in the battery level should be full.

Let me correct some bad information here.

In house wiring WHITE is neutral, BLACK and RED are hot, GREEN is ground. RV 120V wiring follows the same.

[Tunce the traveler]

Originally Posted by tnchuck100

let me correct some bad information here.

In house wiring white is neutral, black and red are hot, green is ground. Rv 120v wiring follows the same.

X2 what he said !!!

[Iraqvet05]

Who came up with the DC wiring color standard for RVs, anyway?

[mike837go]

Originally Posted by Iraqvet05

Who came up with the DC wiring color standard for RVs, anyway?

In RV's there is no standard!

The manufacturers started with AC house standards. And kept some things the same on the DC side. And sorta kept things similar for the DOT lighting.

In cars and electronics service DC+ is red and DC- is black.

You want real fun? Open up 25-pair telephone cable. It starts with Blue with a white trace and gets worse from there!

Be grateful that we've got something resembling consistency.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by mike837go

You want real fun? Open up 25-pair telephone cable. It starts with Blue with a white trace and gets worse from there!

You mean like BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, BROWN, SLATE?

Tip TOP, ring RIGHT

And how do you know where all those wires go go to?

Don

[norty1]

blue orange green brown slate
white red black yellow violet

Now for a retired telephone man, you're talking my language!

[mike837go]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

You mean like BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, BROWN, SLATE?

Tip TOP, ring RIGHT

Every single time (except when they're reversed)!


And how do you know where all those wires go go to?

Don

THAT's what signal tracers are for.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by mike837go

snip... and gets worse from there!
Be grateful that we've got something resembling consistency.

To color blind folks like me, there is NO consistency. In fact, to me, there are multiple names that refer to the SAME COLOR.

[mike837go]

Originally Posted by oldmanAZ

To color blind folks like me, there is NO consistency. In fact, to me, there are multiple names that refer to the SAME COLOR.

Oh you think you're so special....

Us 'regular sighted' folks got to put up with ecru, putty, beige, taupe... too!

[Mountain runner]

Thanks for all of the help. Since I was heading out on Friday I decided to drop by Camping World and have them look at it. Turns out (as most said) White was ground (negative) and black and green are positive.

Next problem to solve is I may have hooked them up backwards and done something to the power. When I got to the campground and hooked up to the 30 amp power the lights and fridge came on for a few seconds and then stopped working. The only thing that would work is the microwave. Everytime I unplugged and plugged back in the same thing would happen. Lights and frige work for a few seconds and then shut off. Is this an easy fix or should I just bite the bullet and take it to the dealer? I have no experience with electrical.