# Hooking Up Battery



## BlueSky (Aug 26, 2006)

Hey all....









We are getting ready for our first camping trip this week and cant remember the proper way to hook up the battery. Does the black wire go to the positive terminal and the white to the negative? Is there an order we are supposed to hook these up in? Any help is much appreciated!!

We have a 21RS btw....


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## Kamm (Apr 27, 2007)

It's wired like your house not your car. Black is hot (positive) white is neutral (negative).

Have a great trip... stay safe


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## Five Outbackers (Dec 27, 2006)

BlueSky said:


> Is there an order we are supposed to hook these up in?


White ( Negative ) first Black ( Positive ) Second 







Edit... Sorry got it backwards

Positive first Negative Second


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Kamm said:


> It's wired like your house not your car. Black is hot (positive) white is neutral (negative).
> 
> Have a great trip... stay safe


Yep this is correct, but like house wiring they can use RED for hot too. Now if they would have used Red for hot on the trailer then RED would go to the positive and then people would not be so confused. But the engineers thing they know better and use black or maybe they do know what they are doing and want you to connect it backwards so they can make more money.


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

Disconnect neg first and connect neg last.....

The main reason for this way is if the neg is connected while you are disconnecting or connecting the pos and your wrench touches steel (ground), you will get sparks and sparks can be damgerous around the battery. I have seen wrenches weld themselves to a inner fender.

If you do neg first disconnecting and neg last connecting and the wrench hits ground, there are no sparks.

John


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## Kamm (Apr 27, 2007)

N7OQ said:


> It's wired like your house not your car. Black is hot (positive) white is neutral (negative).
> 
> Have a great trip... stay safe


Yep this is correct, but like house wiring they can use RED for hot too. Now if they would have used Red for hot on the trailer then RED would go to the positive and then people would not be so confused. But the engineers thing they know better and use black or maybe they do know what they are doing and want you to connect it backwards so they can make more money.
[/quote]

There would still be the white to confuse everybody... and then the 14/2 would have to have a red wire too... now even the engineers have confused themselves!!!


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

Forget colors, follow one wire to ground and you know its the right one


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Kamm said:


> Forget colors, follow one wire to ground and you know its the right one


Agree, this is what I do without even thinking about it


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## battalionchief3 (Jun 27, 2006)

I put a label on mine so I wont forget and have to replace that big fuse and hope thats the only thing that happens..


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## Chasn'Racin (Mar 12, 2007)

Remember..."*N*ever leave your *N*egative alone"


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

A great tip I learned from this site. Take a picture before you put your batteries away. This really helps come spring time. I labelled mine as well.

Thor


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

Gee.....and here I was thinkin' that I'm the only one that's always been (and still am) confused
















....there's a reason why Kathy's the lead mechanic at Wolfwood


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## muliedon (Jul 6, 2005)

All I know is do not hook them up backwards. It will blow the fuses in the electrical panel. I should have read this yesterday.

Muliedon


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## wolfwood (Sep 19, 2005)

muliedon said:


> All I know is do not hook them up backwards. It will blow the fuses in the electrical panel. I should have read this yesterday.
> 
> Muliedon


oops


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## biga (Apr 17, 2006)

Y'all should have seen the light show when I was hooking up the dual batteries on my tractor last week. I accidentally set the second battery in the tray backwards. Hooked up the positive wire to both batteries, hooked up the negative wire to the first battery, went to hook up the negative to the second, and got a great show and a black thumb (luckily no burns or damage).














Decided that they MUST have lableled the battery wrong, unhooked, flipped the battery around and reconnected after cleaning up the molten lead from the area.


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