battery Coach Battery Hookup

[Uncle Eddie]

Just bought a used Tioga Montera. It had no coach battery. I acquired one and need to know how to hook it up. It has 4 wires, 2 heavy 2 lighter. The heavies are clearly marked pos (red) neg (black). The smaller ones appear to be 2 reds. If I hook one small one to pos and one to neg I get a warning buzzer that I think means a ground problem. Can anyone help?

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums. Could you give us a little more information about the Tioga, like the year model? Also if you can get a picture of the battery box that would probably help. My best guess is that all 3 of the red leads should connect to the positive terminal as most RVs use chassis ground for the return side and so only have one cable from negative to ground, or the RV chassis. If shore power is available your converter should supply 12V power and you can try connecting the 3 red leads together and if everything in the RV works, you have found the answer. 

[Lance A Lott]

The 2 small ones are probably both hot wires and should go to positive. Most campers use the frame as the ground and hitch the large ground from the battery to the frame then hitch individual components ground to the frame. You may be able to,test it with a test light or a meter. Odds are that if you leave it off and your not plugged into shore power something won't work. If,you use a test light go from your wire to negative first if it doesn't light then try going to positive if it doesn't light then it's probably not a ground. If your test light burns up than something tried to come on and the light could not handle the load. You might consider putting in a breaker near the battery for any small hot wires that connect directly to the battery.