Adding a second Battery with an Inverter

[sundance616]

Hello Everybody,
New user and new owner of a 3300BHS here.

Situation; I tried to hook-up a second battery and an inverter(2300w) I ran the batt's in parallel (12v) and hooked the inverter to one of the batt's.

Problem; the reverse polarity fuse (40w in the converter) is blowing (melting the whole fuse is more the correct way to say it), I unhooked the second batt and inverter, it stopped blowing and the whole unit is working fine. I then hooked "one at a time" the inverter and the second batt and each time the fuse started getting warm (hot) disconnected the item and here I am looking for some help or guidance. (12v is not rocket science and I bet its one little thing I’m missing....anybody really good at 12v? Drew

 

[SmokeyBare]

Not sure this will be of any help... but here is a Link for 12 Volt Information:

Page # 1 http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

Page # 2 http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volta.htm

Good Luck !

Marv

 

[jimtoo]

Smokey gave you the links I had in mind. Very good information. Double check that your are hooking up correctly.
Jim M

 

[pmmjarrett]

Double check that your are hooking up correctly.
Jim M

And check the + and - on the batteries as well as the converter, don't go by the colors of the main wires from the batteries as different manufacturers use different main cable colors. This is one thing I have to look for and be careful with every trailer I pull because we have to use our own batteries when transporting them.

Easiest way to figure out which is the ground when you don't know is to trace the wires. Ground wire is usually pretty short and goes straight to the frame.



4 combos I see most often on the main battery connections are...

1. black and white (black+ and white-)
2. red and black (red+ and black-)
3. red and white (red+ and white-)
4. blue and white (blue+ and white-) usually found on park models, horse trailers, boat trailers and other misc trailers with electric brakes that don't have a converter and only use the battery for the break away brake controller.

I can't remember which Heartland uses but I hope this helps.

 

[Uncle Rog]

We have a xantrex 2000w inverter / charger in concert with 4 6v trojans hooked up in series / parallel and could not be happier with the set up.If the 12v side of life does not save the day well oh #$%^&...............

 

[sundance616]

all right thanks for the replies, those are some great links and pretty sure they will get me on the right power grid with my rig.

pmmjarrett: i pulled for "Quality Drive Away" for a couple a years, and you are right about the differnt color cables...even saw one with all "white cables" not a differnt color to be seen just about blew up my little break away batt...lol

thanks again for all the replies, drew

 

[pmmjarrett]

all right thanks for the replies, those are some great links and pretty sure they will get me on the right power grid with my rig.

pmmjarrett: i pulled for "Quality Drive Away" for a couple a years, and you are right about the differnt color cables...even saw one with all "white cables" not a differnt color to be seen just about blew up my little break away batt...lol

thanks again for all the replies, drew

Forgot about the 2 white cables, can't remember who does that but for some reason R-Vision comes to mind.

I don't even waste my time with the small breakaway batteries any more, always install a full size battery now. Got tired of dealers trying to run the slides and blowing fuses on my truck and killing the battery before I could ask them to use their own battery.

I know a few people that drive for Quality, If I ever swap companies that's who I'd try to lease too next although I have been at a local Fleetwood dealer a few miles from my house talking to the owner the last few days. Said he's looking for somebody to pull units for him, sells a lot of park models locally, so I may sit down and have a serious talk with him next week and try to figure out if it's worth getting my own operating authority and insurance and pedal around here.