Proper battery connections for Jay Feather 186

[rctoyota]

Hi, I recently purchased a 2005 jay feather 186. It already has 2 batteries on it but I feel the previous owners did something not right with the positive wires from the trailer to the positive post on one of the batteries. i have 3 larger white wires from the trailer to the positive but the owner has a house spin nut from the 3 wires to a fuse link then connects to the positive post, to me knowing automotive this seems very wrong for a 12 volt system, my question is do I need a fuse link at the battery, I know the fuse panel is inside and is the safety for the trailer components, or do I need fuse link for just the battery charger wire from the trailer to the battery and the other 2 can be straight wired to the positive terminal. Or can all 3 wires be straight connected to the battery?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Rustic Eagle]

Welcome to JOF

I'm sure some of our members will chime in shorty with some feedback.

Is it possible that you could post a couple pics of your batteries/wires "as-is" (?).

Bob

[Jimw606]

Mine does.
My other trailer had a circuit breaker underneath.

[qwed94]

We sell new Heartland trailers where I work. They all have a fuse on the hot (positive) wires between the battery and the main fuse block.

My old Jayco does too.

Basically a fuse is like a filter, You cant really have too many, but more than "one" just may not be needed either.

[rctoyota]

Oh the wires are black going to the positive just for clarifying here s picture of the set up I have now.

[Jmooney]

It's not unusual at all to have black and white wires to your battery. Unlike typical DC , household wiring uses white and black, where white is neutral and black is hot.

Then, some additional dc device gets added , connect directly the battery, where black is neutral and red is hot.

Take care to look at how the wires come into the power area and in color pairs.

[rctoyota]

Yeah i understand automotive colors and house colors for hot and neutral wires or positive and negative in auto terms. The reason I don't like this connection is its could be prone to corrosion and I feel there is higher resistance at the spin nut terminal on the 3 main wires from the trailer to fuse link, when I plug in the trailer to 110volts that fused link gets so hot that I can't hold it for more then 2 seconds. I found out if the battery's are drained down then the on board charger is putting out a lot of amps, voltage at the battery when charging is 13 volts, but if there is high resistance at the spin nut to fuse link then that could be why the fuse link gets so hot, any ideas help

If I need to I will install 3 separate fuse links for all 3 wires going to the positive, that does not seem normal or correct for jayco, maybe I only need a fuse on the positive wire from the on board charger and the other 2 wires just go straight to battery with no fuse links.

Any ideas?

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by rctoyota

If I need to I will install 3 separate fuse links for all 3 wires going to the positive, that does not seem normal or correct for jayco, maybe I only need a fuse on the positive wire from the on board charger and the other 2 wires just go straight to battery with no fuse links.

Any ideas?

I have a Eagle 284BHS which had one BLACK 10AWG wire from the TT Battery Controller to a 30Amp fuse located at the battery and the other end of the fuse is connected to the POSITIVE terminal of the battery. The wire end that connected the fuse to the TT was connected with a electrical wire nut, as probably ALL the Jayco TT's are wired.

My guess from the picture, is that the RED cable is from your 2nd battery, correct? If it is, you need to replace that cable with a battery cable that is the proper size for connecting 2 batteries together and has the lugs on both ends of the cables properly crimped, using a 8 ton cable crimping tool. The connection that you have on the RED cable, was probably done with a pair of pliers, will add resistance to the circuit and will probably heat up under load/charge, and will corrode in due time.

So I would guess that ONE of those black wires goes to the TT Battery Charge controller and should be on its OWN 30 Amp fuse. I have no clue as to what those other 2 black taped wires go to (when you have time try to isolate where they go to.. stabilizers...?) and I would put those other taped black wires on a separate fuse(s). As far as I am concerned, you can never have enough fuses...

On TT's the only UN-FUSED link should be the TT's break-away switch.

Keep us informed as to where those other wires connect to.

Just my thoughts,
Don