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GULFMAN's avatar
GULFMAN
Explorer II
Feb 13, 2021

Chassis Ground on a Bigfoot truck camper????

Hello all!!
I am trying to wire in a Victron BMV 712 battery monitor.
The instructions say after relocating all existing negative wires to the load side of the shunt to run a new (thick) wire to chassis ground. Would a truck camper have a chassis ground and if so what would it be. Note I do have a Green wire from some that is clamped to the propane line in the back of the refrigerator access cover..
if someone could help me out I greatly appreciate it.

Thanks ??

12 Replies

  • GULFMAN wrote:
    Hello all!!
    I am trying to wire in a Victron BMV 712 battery monitor.


    Sounds like the same question posted to one of my videos,

    Here's my answer / explanation:

    From an "electrical" standpoint, there isn't a chassis ground that acts as a current carrying conductor on a truck camper. There is a "safety ground" as you have found on the propane line. There's probably also a ground wire from the negative bus of the DC panel and the AC panel to the same "ground" point where the propane line is grounded. Ignore all of that.

    A simpler way of describing the connections with the shunt and the battery bank is this:

    Take all the wires off the battery negative that feed to the camper, connect them to the "load" side of the shunt. Take a new wire/cable and run it from the battery side of the shunt to the negative battery terminal.

    There should only be one cable at the negative post of the battery - the cable that goes to the battery side of the shunt.

    In a multi-battery system you'd also have a cable from one battery to the next.

    The main key here is that everything that "was" connected to the B- (other than a battery interconnect cable in a multi battery system) is moved to the load (ground) side of the shunt and then a new cable is installed from the battery side of the shunt to the B- of your battery bank.
  • I've got 2 or 3 grounds bolted to the camper tie down ring on the front drivers side. I assume they would ground through the tiedowns to the truck frame. I am the 2nd owner but I'm pretty sure it came from the factory like that.