2019 cougar 5th wheel battery connection

[turbo]

hi all, finally can go camping again, went to put my battery back in and forgot how it was wired. reds to positive, single black to negative but there is a single wire that is red on one side and black on the other so want to ensure i connect it correctly. assume it goes to positive? 2019 315RLs owners pls help ! thanks in advance all.
Turbo

[chuckster57]

The wire your wondering about is black with a red tracer, or red with a black tracer?

Not that it really matters, use an Ohm meter set to resistance. One lead to the end of the wire and the other lead to a known good ground. If you have continuity (no resistance) That is a ground. I suspect the wire your wondering about is a positive lead, but no harm in making sure.

[turbo]

Oddly it seems fully half red and half black. It’s part of a harness that has another positive lead and in line fuse so this questioning if it’s positive or negative. The wire in question is the one in the pic with the circle on the end. Thx

[sourdough]

That red/black wire appears to be part of a 2 conductor wire that has been split back; red plus red/blk. Is that correct? If so I highly doubt both conductors go to the positive terminal. I would do as Chuck suggested and see if it doesn't show continuity with ground with a VOM.

[turbo]

thats correct sourdough, so that had me thinking if its part of a harness that already has a positive, then perhaps its a negative but the half red has me confused. Hoping a 315RLS owner can check their battery connection for me. thx
Turbo

[sourdough]

In many, many applications a place uses "some sort of colored wire" for whatever it may be. Red would be the positive I'm relatively sure. The red w/ black tracer is then telling you it is the same wire but picking up the ground side of pos/neg as best I can explain. Again, checking that lead to ground will tell you definitively in a couple of seconds.

Waiting for someone with "another" 315RLS may or may not tell you anything. It could lead you to damaging something because if you are familiar RV construction most anything goes. They do say that Keystone went to a unified color coding scheme but I've not seen that in my 2020 (chart of some kind). I just look at the stuff, determine what it should (looks to) be for and check with a meter.

[tech740]

Is it black with a red tracer, or is it just red because the split wasn't at the color divide perfectly?

[GaryUT]

It's a 2 conductor red black zip cable. The red mark is where the black wire was connected to the red wire, the solid red is positive the black is negative.


Does the tag on the red wire read "solar", if it does then they are the lines to the solar plug on the outside of the trailer. If you are not using the plug just leave them disconnected. On my trailer I removed them when I straightened out the wiring.


Gary

[JRTJH]

I can't remember ever seeing a fuse in the ground wire circuit, so I'd suspect that it's a "positive wire connection" based on the red wire having a fuse. Now, whether it's an active circuit or a "pending active circuit" ??? If it's a "pre-wired solar system" then it's likely not connected to the battery or circuit breakers. If it's an "active circuit" I'd suspect that it's intended to be connected to the POS side of one of the circuit breakers. Before connecting it, test the ring terminal to ground path with an ohmmeter to be sure it's not a "direct short to ground"….

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

I can't remember ever seeing a fuse in the ground wire circuit, so I'd suspect that it's a "positive wire connection" based on the red wire having a fuse. Now, whether it's an active circuit or a "pending active circuit" ??? If it's a "pre-wired solar system" then it's likely not connected to the battery or circuit breakers. If it's an "active circuit" I'd suspect that it's intended to be connected to the POS side of one of the circuit breakers. Before connecting it, test the ring terminal to ground path with an ohmmeter to be sure it's not a "direct short to ground"….

I think that fused wire is connected to the larger red wire via the crimp connector in the photo. For the OP, to check if it's connected on the other end, first check I'd leave those wires disconnected. Try everything 12vdc and see if it works. If everything works, then check between the 2 wires with an ohm meter. No reading (infinity ohms) would indicate a wire for a solar panel if the trailer is "rewired for solar. You could go further if that's the case by taking a long length of wire to the solar plug down to that area and start checking ohms to find which wire goes where. Hopoe this makes sense.

[turbo]

thanks everyone that helped. I tried per Chuckster's suggestion - no resistance so have assumed negative. Connected it, and heading out today so hopefully all goes well!
And in response to GaryUT, the tag on the positive doesnt reference solar, it says 10AMP MAX.
Enjoy your camping everyone.
Turbo

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by turbo

thanks everyone that helped. I tried per Chuckster's suggestion - no resistance so have assumed negative. Connected it, and heading out today so hopefully all goes well!
And in response to GaryUT, the tag on the positive doesnt reference solar, it says 10AMP MAX.
Enjoy your camping everyone.
Turbo

As long as it's zero resistance and not a reading of infinity. If the meter is set on a high enough scale the wire should read a minute amount of resistance. If you want to double check then set the meter to dc volts, place the positive test lead on the positive post on the battery and the negative test lead on the wire in question. If it's a grounded wire you will read the voltage of the battery..

[turbo]

Originally Posted by flybouy

As long as it's zero resistance and not a reading of infinity. If the meter is set on a high enough scale the wire should read a minute amount of resistance. If you want to double check then set the meter to dc volts, place the positive test lead on the positive post on the battery and the negative test lead on the wire in question. If it's a grounded wire you will read the voltage of the battery..

OK flybouy, you had me doubting this again...so here's what readings i got
1. Meter set for ohms, one lead to the wire in question, other lead to ground (where the negative and other wires bolt to the internal wall), with no contact meter defaults to 1. With meter at 20M, and connected per above, readings jump around between 16 to 19, at 200K, 2K and 200 all stay at 1
2. Meter set to 12V DC, positive lead to battery, negative lead to wire, meter goes from default (no connection) of 0 to .01 when connected.
All of the this is done when the other red wire in the 2 wire harness (with inline fuse) is not connected to anything.

SO...any conclusion if the half red/half black wire is go to the positive or negative? thanks so much!
Turbo

[flybouy]

That sounds like a ground wire to me.