Positive or Negative to Battery switch
Just got my Torx box installed and my battery switch. Wanting to wire it up tomorrow. I believe I know (negative) but thought I would ask do I put the switch on the Neg or pos? Thanks for your help...
Forum Discussion
Beemerphile1 and Wgriswold have it correct.
You have a trailer (5th wheel) and that has an emergency breakaway switch wired into the circuit. If the trailer becomes disconnected from the truck the brakes will engage and hopefully stop the trailer before it kills somebody.
Considering the breakaway needs 12v to engage you have to interrupt the positive side of the power BUT wire the breakaway around the cutoff and directly to the battery. This ensures that the emergency brakes will work regardless of whether you remember to engage the cutoff switch before towing. There is no parasitic load from the breakaway switch, it's just an on/off switch.
If you interrupt the ground your emergency switch power will not get back to the negative terminal of the battery unless you run a separate ground wire. But this will also allow the rest of the coach to use that same ground wire effectively negating the cutoff in the first place.
As someone else said in the automotive world they switch the ground, but in this case you need to properly disconenct the positive to be safe.
You have a trailer (5th wheel) and that has an emergency breakaway switch wired into the circuit. If the trailer becomes disconnected from the truck the brakes will engage and hopefully stop the trailer before it kills somebody.
Considering the breakaway needs 12v to engage you have to interrupt the positive side of the power BUT wire the breakaway around the cutoff and directly to the battery. This ensures that the emergency brakes will work regardless of whether you remember to engage the cutoff switch before towing. There is no parasitic load from the breakaway switch, it's just an on/off switch.
If you interrupt the ground your emergency switch power will not get back to the negative terminal of the battery unless you run a separate ground wire. But this will also allow the rest of the coach to use that same ground wire effectively negating the cutoff in the first place.
As someone else said in the automotive world they switch the ground, but in this case you need to properly disconenct the positive to be safe.
