Steve Savage submitted this article to RVtravel.com when he was a Master Certified RV Technician with Mobility RV Service.
Our first service call today was to connect the cables in a set of four 6-volt house batteries in a large diesel motorhome. The first attempt (not done by us) resulted in six hours on-site and ended in frustration with nothing working. Simply put, too much disconnecting and not enough forethought before the task was started.
Working slowly, we got everything hooked back up correctly and working. This is the kind of thing that should never happen. Before disconnecting anything, make a wiring diagram that is clearly labeled so you can follow it when putting things back together. Note the colors and where each wire goes. It doesn’t take long to make a basic diagram. If you take a couple of pictures you should be good to go.
I don’t care who the tech is who follows up – once things have gone south and the work has to be done from scratch, it takes time – and time with an RV technician costs!
Hooking batteries up incorrectly can also damage sensitive electronics, so any time there is doubt, do the connections first with an inline fuse connected to one lead with a 3-amp fuse. That way, if you do something wrong, the fuse will blow before anything is harmed.
##RVDT1340
