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OTRA15 · 03-06-2019, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zymurbrian

. . .
I suspect that you actually solved the issue by cleaning the ground on your jack.

Another take-away [good meter suggestion, Alan] is that some of the first posts in this thread mentioned checking the ground.

The weakest link in a chain . . . it only takes one . . .

SteveSueMac · 03-06-2019, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OTRA15

...snip...

some of the first posts in this thread mentioned checking the ground.

Yes indeed - the *very* first post mentioned that - I know the guy who wrote it... [emoji3]

But yeah - testing (instead of guessing) is absolutely a more efficient way of getting to an electrical solution. Of course, in that case, we wouldn’t have had so much fun in this thread and I may or may not have wasted money on switches [emoji23]

As Mike Brady would say “well kids, I think we’ve all learned an important lesson today.”

JCWDCW · 03-06-2019, 06:48 PM

The jack should work from the 7 pin connector. Your TV battery supplies 12V through the charging circuit to the trailer from your battery. On mine the 7 pin runs the jack when there is no battery. Do you have a fuse on the 12V line from the TV battery. If you had bad switches, that fuse would potentially be blown...mine was when the limit switch in the jack failed.

I suspect you have a bad battery (the one you tried first), or you have a bad power supply line from the trailer to the jack. Not sure why two batteries work when one won't....12V is 12V, unless the one battery is not putting out 12V. Your experience defies logic but can't argue with fact! so not sure what to say.
JCW

Al and Missy · 03-06-2019, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCWDCW

The jack should work from the 7 pin connector. Your TV battery supplies 12V through the charging circuit to the trailer from your battery. On mine the 7 pin runs the jack when there is no battery. Do you have a fuse on the 12V line from the TV battery. If you had bad switches, that fuse would potentially be blown...mine was when the limit switch in the jack failed.

I suspect you have a bad battery (the one you tried first), or you have a bad power supply line from the trailer to the jack. Not sure why two batteries work when one won't....12V is 12V, unless the one battery is not putting out 12V. Your experience defies logic but can't argue with fact! so not sure what to say.
JCW

When he connected one battery, he connected one of two positive cables and one of two negative cables. My suspicion is one of negatives went to the ground buss bar and one went to the converter, and he used the one that went to the converter.

Al

SteveSueMac · 03-08-2019, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al and Missy

When he connected one battery, he connected one of two positive cables and one of two negative cables. My suspicion is one of negatives went to the ground buss bar and one went to the converter, and he used the one that went to the converter.

Al

Agreed - must be something like that.

So another question then - I am assuming that when I hook up the single battery to test this again (because I’m so curious!), I gather I need to connect both positives and both negatives (and the positive from the jack) to the single battery to complete the circuit - is that correct? It seems so but I’ve only ever had the pair running at the same time and this was my first experiment (failed) connecting just one....

AlinCal · 03-08-2019, 07:34 AM

You only need the positive wire from the jack feed connected to the positive post on battery and the black ground cable that goes to the bus bar or trailer ground connected to the battery neg post.
the circuit needs to be completed from positive to negative with a good battery in place.

for it to work with the 7 pin and dead batteries you need a complete circuit from batteries back to trailer bus bars, plus the above.

OTRA15 · 03-08-2019, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlinCal

You only need the positive wire from the jack feed connected to the positive post on battery and the black ground cable . . . connected to the battery neg post.

Amen!

Keep it simple, Stu.

Avoid analysis paralysis.

Jumper cables could do this IMO, assuming you include the inline glass fuse in the circuit.

Peter

SteveSueMac · 03-08-2019, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlinCal

You only need the positive wire from the jack feed connected to the positive post on battery and the black ground cable that goes to the bus bar or trailer ground connected to the battery neg post.

the circuit needs to be completed from positive to negative with a good battery in place.

for it to work with the 7 pin and dead batteries you need a complete circuit from batteries back to trailer bus bars, plus the above.

Got it. Thanks.

So curious! Appreciate the help.

SteveSueMac · 03-21-2019, 03:13 PM

Well kids - this just in - single battery connected properly and the jack works just fine. Moreover, I took out the bulb, cleaned off the contacts and put a thin film of dielectric grease on the contacts and lo and behold - the light works too!

Feels like a strong camping season in the wings! [emoji3]

SteveSueMac · 03-22-2019, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Feels like a strong camping season in the wings! [emoji3]

Ok - may have jumped the gun there....

I woke up at 4:00 this morning startled, realizing I connected the pair of batteries incorrectly. I was so exited about testing the single battery with the jack that I screwed up the double install. The picture in post #10 is how it’s supposed to be connected. What I believe I did was to put the main positive and negative cables on the same battery (closest to you in the pic). Everything else was wired correctly. I have not turned on the battery use switch.

I’m going to correct it after work today.

I’m assuming this won’t hurt the batteries at all - I just need to put the positive terminal on the second battery (after disconnecting the negative first....) - if that assumption’s faulty, please let me know.

Sounds of Han Solo in my head saying, “don’t get cocky, kid...”

rmkrum · 03-22-2019, 09:11 AM

The difference it makes doing it the ‘right’ way is super tiny. But it won’t hurt anything either way.

Don’t beat yourself up over it, besides, Han shot first...

SteveSueMac · 03-22-2019, 10:07 AM

Ha! Good point!

Thanks. I’m so excited about camping season, I let my guard down on the install.....I even had that pic open on my phone and checked it several times! Amazing what you can force your brain to miss when you’re focused elsewhere!

Pure curiosity - what’s the tiny difference? I worried whether this meant they were hooked up in such a way to either double or halve the output....

I’ll correct it - but what’s the tiny difference you mentioned?

Thanks!

Al and Missy · 03-22-2019, 11:16 AM

When both charge or discharge cables are connected to one battery, that battery gets charged/discharged more than the other due to the resistance of the jumper cables running to the other battery. If those cables are large, the difference is probably not significant. When the positive cables are connected to one battery and the negative cables to the other, the losses are distributed since each battery only sees the loss of one cable.

Al

rmkrum · 03-22-2019, 11:30 AM

Yup. Exactly. And The difference given a heavy jumper cable will be only a few millivolts. Not real significant in the wider scheme of things. Where it becomes significant is if you have an inverter or other heavy loads on your parallel set of batteries.

SteveSueMac · 03-22-2019, 12:07 PM

Brilliant. Thank you both!

SteveSueMac · 03-23-2019, 01:12 PM

Corrected the wiring before hitching up to get a new set of tires today. Even if only a minimal issue, just felt like doing it.

Felt great to be towing the Tin Goat again!!