Hello Everyone,I just took ownership of a new Jayco Whitehawk 31DSLB and was a little confused looking at all of the wires connected to the battery. I'd like to clean this wiring up plus I have plans to add a few batteries and possibly inverter/solar.I could use a little help from the experts on this forum to understand what all these wires are for.The orange/black wire is for the breakaway cable. The red cable goes to my electric tongue jack. There is a 30A fuse on the red cable. The white wire, obviously, is the negative.The two green wires attach to the battery positive and both are 30A fused. They are then connected to several other black wires that disappear to the underside of my trailer.The green wire furthest to the right in the picture "seems" to power everything in my trailer. I left the left green wire disconnected and didn't notice any loss in functionality of anything. Similarly, I connected ONLY the green wire on the left of the picture and nothing at all seemed to work.I would appreciate any help someone can provide me.Thanks.Ryan

Sorry, I think I messed up the picture. Let's try this.

BigFly10 wrote:Sorry, I think I messed up the picture. Let's try this. It looks to me like the right side green cable goes to an inline fuse (or is that just a connector?) then connects to the red wire and three more smaller black wires at the blue Marrette.One of those seems to be in with the black and white wires. Any idea where any of the three go? Can you see where the two individual black wires go? It's possible that one goes to the trailer plug as charging cable. Do you have a power leveling system?

Somebody on here has a Jayco and said the green wires were positive, with one going to the power centre (DC fuse panel and converter) with a 30a fuse, so the other is likely for the slide motor.(Lippert spec has a 30a fuse on our slide motor pos wire) (you already identified the jack one)The 7-pin pos will merge with a pos wire somewhere on the way to the pos batt postHard to clean up wiring, but some use a buss bar approach to collect a bunch of wires and then just have one wire to the battery post.If you get a Trimetric, you will have the shunt act as a buss bar, where one end goes to the battery neg post and the other end takes a bunch of neg wires.Solar and an inverter add to the fun!

Those are some very small wires, especially to the + terminal.Jim

1. The green on the left to the BLACK is battery TO the Power center inside the trailer and supplies 12 volts to the Trailer2. The Green on the right is a protected fused FROM your tow vehicle and goes to the 7 way plug3. White is ground4. The orange/black is the breakawayIs this unit New or new to you? You are correct, that is NOT how Jayco attached the wires when new. Doug

Help Identifying Wires Connected to Battery | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

BigFly10
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
Bob Landry wrote:

Is the trailer new or just "new to you"? That is not factory wiring, and if it's something the dealer did, I would ask why. Green wire is only used for AC safety ground.

This trailer is new. I will check with the dealer and see if they can tell me what they've got going.
Bob_Landry
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
wa8yxm wrote:

On the negative side put black

Traditionally these colors mean Positive (RED) and Negative (Black) at 12 volt.

No, this is not standard household or electronic wiring. White is standard color for trailer ground and anyone who works on it in the future is going to be looking for that.

Is the trailer new or just "new to you"? That is not factory wiring, and if it's something the dealer did, I would ask why. Green wire is only used for AC safety ground.
dougrainer
Nomad
Jun 16, 2013
smkettner wrote:
dougrainer wrote:
2. The Green on the right is a protected fused FROM your tow vehicle and goes to the 7 way plug

Looks like #2 connects to three black and one red. I am thinking the red is the slide, small black is tongue jack, large black is from vehicle, the second small black..... no idea.

Jayco fuses the slide AT the inside 12 volt fuse panel. Doug
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Jun 16, 2013
Odds are the 2nd Green wire goes to the converter/charger.

Suggestion... ALL the wires on the positive terminal, Give them a coat of red. Either a couple inches of split loom (RED) or nail polish or paint (Spray) or tape.

On the negative side put black

Traditionally these colors mean Positive (RED) and Negative (Black) at 12 volt.

MANY MANY threads here that start with either "Where does THIS wire go" or "I disconnected my batteries and forgot where this wire goes.

Doing this (And taking a good hi-res photo) helps big time.
HiTech
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
Did the dealer add any options like the tongue Jack? I suspect they made your modifications.

Jim
BigFly10
Explorer
Jun 16, 2013
bucky wrote:
Is that a piece of wood the battery is sitting on? And no hold down? On a new trailer from Jayco that is pretty odd.

The board was added by me. Sorry, I should have added this info. The battery is just sitting there because I haven't had a chance to get my battery boxes mounted yet. But I have not changed the wiring in any way yet.
bucky
Explorer II
Jun 16, 2013
Is that a piece of wood the battery is sitting on? And no hold down? On a new trailer from Jayco that is pretty odd.
BigFly10
Explorer
Jun 15, 2013
Thanks for the help everybody.

To answer some of the questions.......

Both green wires are fused with a 30A fuse.

The two green wires are spliced to 4 black wires, the red wire, and the orange breakaway cable. I have already identified the red wire goes to the power jack. The 4 black wires and white all head towards the underside of the trailer. Two of the black wires go through a small electrical box connected to the trailer frame with more splices and then disappear under the corrugated cardboard that is the glacier package. The other two black wires go right beside the box (not through it) and also disappear in the trailer underbelly.

The 7-pin connector would account for one positive connection, another would be to the load center. As suggested one more may go directly to the slide (I will check). Still not sure about the 4th black wire.

This trailer is BRAND new ordered from the Jayco factory and this wiring has not been touched since I took it home from the dealer.

I will take another closer look when I get a chance and see if I can provide some more useful information. Thanks for the assistance everybody.
time2roll
Nomad
Jun 15, 2013
dougrainer wrote:
2. The Green on the right is a protected fused FROM your tow vehicle and goes to the 7 way plug

Looks like #2 connects to three black and one red. I am thinking the red is the slide, small black is tongue jack, large black is from vehicle, the second small black..... no idea.
dougrainer
Nomad
Jun 15, 2013
1. The green on the left to the BLACK is battery TO the Power center inside the trailer and supplies 12 volts to the Trailer
2. The Green on the right is a protected fused FROM your tow vehicle and goes to the 7 way plug
3. White is ground
4. The orange/black is the breakaway

Is this unit New or new to you? You are correct, that is NOT how Jayco attached the wires when new. Doug