New battery, no power?

ALso in the RV worlds Battery cable colors is BLACK or any color is HOT +12VDC and WHITE ONLY is NEGATIVE 12VDC.

In the Automotive world the RED CABLE is always HOT POSITIVE 12VDC and BLACK is always FRAME ground NEGATIVE 12VDC..

SOmething these colors get mixed up because of the installed battery. Always hand trace the cable going to the FRAME ground and this always goes to the NEGATIVE TERMINAL of the battery for 12VDC battery. Or the second 6VDC Battery NEGATIVE TERMINAL in the series connections. Read this SYMBOL on the battery case to be sure...

Roy Ken

Did you have some sparks for a second when you hooked up the last battery cable connection Only takes a small spark to tell you a fuse got blown down the leg somewhere... There is always an IN-LINE about 12-inches away from the POSITIVE BATTERY TERMINAL that you may have missed. This fuse is there to protect the cables from burning out in case of majpor short on the battery cable at the converter/charger end. The batteries can produce 100's of DC amps in a short time frame that could start a fire...

Are you using just 12VDC batteries in parallel or do you have the two 6VDC batteries in series to give your 12VDC....

Seems like 99% of the time when this post comes up for someone who has just replaced their batteries it falls back to being hooked up wrong...

here is a quick diagram for both 12VDC and 6VDC batteries... We always rely on the battery case markings for POS or + etc... Sometimes the same battery you purchase will move the terminals from what they were before.



Using a multimeter makes it pretty simple to find out where the battery DC voltage stops showing up...

A fully charged battery should read 12.6-7VDC at its terminals when disconnected from shore power. When you apply shore power this reading at the same battery terminals will jump up to 13.6VDC. This tells you all connections between the 12V Distribution Panel and your battery are properly connected.

Just more of what everyone is saying above...
Roy Ken

You say you checked all the fuses - but did you check the fuse that's on the converter itself? Also - many rigs have auto reset breakers and they don't look like std fuse or breaker - if the auto reset breaker goes toes up you don't get power (google for pic of breaker). Lastly - make sure you haven't accidentally toggled battery disconnect switch.

Hope this helps.

The battery cables are correct, first thing I checked. I will check for a in-Line fuse or DC circuit breaker when I get home. Thanks for the help.

Maybe it hasn't had enough time to recharge off the converter? You could try turning off the converter and using jumper cables off your TV to see if there are no bad connections in the A-frame area. Electrolyte level okay? You can use a voltmeter to see what the state of charge is and what voltage the converter/charger is putting out. With 120 volts to the converter turned off (at converter panel), use a voltmeter to see what voltage is showing up at the converter from the battery (take front panel off converter) - do this with no-low DC load and then turn on a bunch of DC loads.

Last year we had our battery develop a bad cell in under a year. Would not hold a charge. A battery shop diagnosed it. You could take the battery to a battery shop for testing.

If you are sure battery cables are correct (not reversed....tongue jack doesn't work backwards) then follow Battery POS cable from battery to the In-Line Fuse (or DC circuit breaker) on frame. Check for DC voltage on both sides.
Fuse/CB could be bad (some CBs have small tab on side to reset them)


IF cables hooked up backwards then 'Reverse Polarity' fuses on converter have blown Large 30A or 40A fuses
Correct battery cables (NEG to frame) then replace those fuses.

No problem with the simple suggestion! The camper does not have a main battery shut off. I installed one myself originally to keep the battery from draining in storage. I actually removed the switch to make sure that wasn't the cause of the problem trying to figure this out, but it wasn't.

You know I had this happen to me tore into many things checking, but only worked on shore. Frustrated I went onto something else, when I opened the front storage there it was, I forgot to turn on the main power. Turned it one and wala everything fine.

Have you checked the main battery shut off? Sorry to be so simple but it caught me.

OH, forgot to put camper info. 2015 North Trail 28BHS. Battery died because my trickle charger died on me over the winter and screwed the battery up. My fault for not checking on it, but it was a crazy year of kid's hockey.