Please help me to not ruin my new camper. I went out last night to reinstall the battery on our 15 Jayco 267bhs. Here is the problem. I wish I would have taken a picture of which wires go where. I take a look and fortunately the wires are labeled with a sticker. The white lead had a neg sticker. I hook up the white wire. And pull over the black wire. As soon as I hook it on the battery I see a spark. I quickly pull it back off and assess the situation. The white wire was leading to a junction box and the black lead led to a splitter on a bracket attached to the frame. It appears that the sticker is wrong. hopefully that split second before I pulled it off didn't cause a problem. Am I right in that the white wire is a positive lead because it goes to the junction box?

If you have WHITE and BLACK wiring then the WHITE WIRE is NEGATIVE -12VDC and must go to NEGATIVE (FRAME GROUND) Battery Terminal. The BLACK is POSITIVE +12VDC and must go the POSITIVE BATTERY TERMINAL.In the AUTOMOTIVE WORLD it is different where RED IS POSITIVE and BLACK is frame ground. Makes for big confusion between the two worlds or RV and AUTOMOTIVE where BATTERIES are being used.You most likely have blown some fuses... There is a FUSE or CIRCUIT BREAKER real close to the battery and also TWO HIGH CURRENT RATING FUSES located in the 12VDC Distribution Panel labeled REVERSE POLARITY...Be sure to find the markings on the BATTERY CASE that says NEG or the SYMBOL - and make sure this is the WHITE WIRE CONNECTION. I would also hand trace the WHITE CABLE and make sure this goes to the trailer FRAME GROUND near the battery. Someone may have rewired it before you.Roy Ken

12v in RVs follows a similar color strategy as home wiring - black is hot (positive), white is neutral (or ground). A quick spark may not have blown anything. Hook it back up (correctly) and see what you've got. I did the same thing this past weekend on my GF's motorcycle. It wouldn't start so I installed the battery out of my bike. Little did I know the terminals were backwards versus her battery. Got a big arc when I touched the positive terminal so I knew something was wrong. No fuses blew and once I got it hooked up properly it was fine.

RoyB wrote:If you have WHITE and BLACK wiring then the WHITE WIRE is NEGATIVE -12VDC and must go to NEGATIVE (FRAME GROUND) Battery Terminal. The BLACK is POSITIVE +12VDC and must go the POSITIVE BATTERY TERMINAL.In the AUTOMOTIVE WORLD it is different where RED IS POSITIVE and BLACK is frame ground. Makes for big confusion between the two worlds or RV and AUTOMOTIVE where BATTERIES are being used.You most likely have blown some fuses... There is a FUSE or CIRCUIT BREAKER real close to the battery and also TWO HIGH CURRENT RATING FUSES located in the 12VDC Distribution Panel labeled REVERSE POLARITY...Be sure to find the markings on the BATTERY CASE that says NEG or the SYMBOL - and make sure this is the WHITE WIRE CONNECTION. I would also hand trace the WHITE CABLE and make sure this goes to the trailer FRAME GROUND near the battery. Someone may have rewired it before you.Roy KenThis. Also just because it sparked does not mean you had it wired incorrectly, that can happen occasionally as you the cable makes contact with the battery.

dee74 wrote:This. Also just because it sparked does not mean you had it wired incorrectly, that can happen occasionally as you the cable makes contact with the battery.I thought so too, until I reread the original post:Am I right in that the white wire is a positive lead because it goes to the junction box? That's wrong.

A little trick I learned was to take a plastic bread tie and put it on the end of each cable when you undo the cable just put a + or a - on the bread tie and you wont have to remember so much when you put the battery back in spring.

Battery Installation question | Good Sam Community

turbojimmy
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
msmith1.wa wrote:
It is hard to tell from the picture where the black wire goes, but if it is connected under that red cover, it is connected to a self reseting circuit breaker. Thus the black wire would be the positive.

That's what it looks like to me, too. The white wire appears to be going to a ground distribution hub.
msmith1_wa
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
It is hard to tell from the picture where the black wire goes, but if it is connected under that red cover, it is connected to a self reseting circuit breaker. Thus the black wire would be the positive.
westend
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
A meter is going to figure all of this out faster than you crawling around and trying to chase wires. They are less than $10 at Harbor Freight. Put one lead on the frame and the other on a wire you believe to be ground. Set the meter to continuity or resistance. Continuity will be positive or resistance will be zero, when there is connection between the cable and the frame.
Brett_K
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
westend wrote:
You also have another white wire entering the box, where does that lead?

Not sure about that. I will have to check tomorrow.
Brett_K
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
See why I'm confused?
westend
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
You also have another white wire entering the box, where does that lead?

Edit: I can't make any inferences from the pictures, especially the second.
Brett_K
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
Black wire going here...
Brett_K
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
White wire going to here...
westend
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
Another lesson here in not relying on the color of wire to determine where it is connected and what it does. A hand held multimeter should be in every RV'ers tool box. It will determine which wires are connected to ground/frame, immediately, without guesswork or having to make a trip to the store to replace fuses.

Conventionally, White is negative/ground and Black is positive/voltage to 12 V circuits.

A spark may happen when connecting in the way that the OP proceeded. It does not mean the connections are reversed. There are probably a few 12 V devices inside the trailer that are always on, the radio in stand by, the alarms, and the circuit boards for furnace and water heater (if those are switched to on).
dee74
Explorer
Apr 21, 2015
I am somewhat new to tt but am I right that in a newer travel trailer a battery hooked up in reverse will not destroy anything. I thought most tt have a reverse polarity fuse that blows before you can hurt anything.