12 volt Wiring

Texas'68 · 09-17-2003, 06:41 AM

I asked this question a few days ago and maybe I was too wordy or gave to much information, but as of yet I have not received any responses.

My trailer ('68 Land Yacht) has not had a battery in it for some time and now that I have purschased a new one I am not sure about how to correctly connect the cables to the battery. There are a total of 6 wires, 3 red and 3 white that are obviously for the batter. However, only 4 will reach the battery, the other two are located near the electrical box under the sink. Could these two wires be how the Univolt was wired into the electrical system?

Chas · 09-17-2003, 07:01 AM

My guess is the two wires under the sink are for something else, probably a 12 volt feed for some unused device. As far as what wires go on what battery post, no telling who wired it last but if I were to guess the reds would go to the positive and the whites to the negative. It would be best to trace them back and get an idea of where they come from, say a grounded terminal for a negative or a fuse panel or Univolt feed for the positive. Some of the older trailers had a fuse on the negative feed which can be confusing.

I see you are in Austin, if you really need some help let me know, I could possibly give you a hand. PM me if you like?

Chas

59toaster · 09-17-2003, 07:12 AM

Not having the same unit but making a educated guess I would believeve your correct. If you have a meter I would see if the wires under the sink are the oposite ends of the wires where the battery goes. The second pair at the battery is either the main feed to the coach or possibly going to the power jack if so equipped.

The normal routing would be that the battery would join the univolt. There would also be a 110v line to the univolt. The 110 line may have been removed from the box for safety concerns since the univolt wasn't present.

The real concern is since those items were removed is if anything else has been removed or modified.

Now our 59 has 12v and 110v lighting at every location but the back. My understanding is coaches of your vintage are all 12v lighting and depend on the Univolt to power with on shore power. How are the currently getting 12v without a Univolt? Or is the electrical box is actually the univolt and the power feeds to the battery were just removed?

The univolt does have fuses on one end and a distribution block. Pictures might help sombody with a simular vintage figure out what is going on.