Howdy All! Got a question for you eletrical-types...
Went to the fiver this evening to put some things in it and was going to turn on a light...nothing. Hmmm... looked at my propane detector "on" light and it wasn't. The battery was just tested and *charged* (at least I think they charged it) a couple weeks ago. But apparently the battery was dead again.
My question is how do you check to see if a battery is dead? Do you need a multimeter or can it be done with just a test light - which I have (one of those lights in the handle of an icepick with a wire going to an alligator clip). I know the test light won't give you how dead it is, but it should tell you if it's completely drianed shouldn't it?
Also if you have one black wire and one white wire going to your battery, how do you know which one is positive and which is negative? Don't want to hook the battery up backwards!
Lastly, if you are plugged in to shore (park) power, does that charge the battery as well or would a trickle charger be a good thing to have? I have a second battery I could carry as a spare, but that's a lot of extra weight.
"There's no such thing as too much tow vehicle!"
Wes, Linda, & kids
"Tow Twuck" - 2008 Ford F350 DRW CC LB 6.4 Powerstroke
"Cougar" - 2006 Keystone Cougar 289EFS Fifth Wheel Our Website
Black is ground, negative, white is positive. (usually!) Sure, the test light will tell you, but you are right, it won't tell you how dead it is. You might want to get a hygrometer, so you can test the specific gravity of each cell. They are only a few dollars, and will let you know the condition of each cell, if one is bad, the whole battery is bad.
Rodney 2005 Laredo 29GS 2002 F250 V-10 Hughesnet Satellite Internet
hotrod4x5 wrote: Black is ground, negative, white is positive. (usually!) Sure, the test light will tell you, but you are right, it won't tell you how dead it is. You might want to get a hygrometer, so you can test the specific gravity of each cell. They are only a few dollars, and will let you know the condition of each cell, if one is bad, the whole battery is bad.
I believe you mean a hydrometer. A hygrometer measures humidity.
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hotrod4x5 wrote: Black is ground, negative, white is positive. (usually!)
Ok how does one tell for sure..."usually" is a scary concept when you are talking about an electrical meltdown of a $30,000.00+ fifth wheel!
And exactly what can happen if it does get hooked up backwards? I did put the battery in this spring and used the landing legs and slideouts and they seemed to work ok. I can't remember offhand how it was hooked up. Now I am worried!
Well either my battery has drained from some load (I noticed the fridge door was closed - maybe it figured I wanted the fridge to turn on) or I have hooked the battery up backwards and blew the fuse. I will go by and check the battery out with my ice-pick tester and if it tests ok, then I blew the fuse and will have to find the panel and see what fuse blew.
why the company didn't put a RED positive wire on this unit (like they do on every automobile made throughout the world) I'll never know!
hotrod4x5 wrote: Black is ground, negative, white is positive.
Uh, On cars and trucks YES.. On RV's I would not count on that
Most RV's are wired by electricians, not automotive techinicans and Electricians tend to think of BLACK and Red as "HOT" leads
There are rather a lot of threads here from folks who hooked the white wire to the positive post on the battery and the black to negative, which I happen to agree is how it SHOULD be, and... Blew the reverse polarity fuses in their power converter.
So I would never say this color is that polarity.. Because I have seen WITH MY OWN EYES. people wire RV's backwards.. The one pictured below for example has the white wires grounded on the 12 volt side of thigns
(Save for the circuits I've added. and those are coded red/black with black as negative and red as hot)
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business John is Near Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
Trace the two battery connections to determine which is positive and which is negative. The negative will (hopefully fairly close to the battery connection) lead to a connection to the frame. On mine, white is negative, black is positive. So, don't take anyone's word that white is always one or the other.
Mike & Susie
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2000 F250, 7.3L XC SB, Equal-i-zer, Prodigy
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