charger hookup

[matt]

I have an original charger on my H34 (dunno what brand) but I'm a little lost about its wiring. It takes two wires from the main breaker (presumably + and -), and sends 1 wire to my battery, and then sends a black and a white wire to my 2 battery switch. These last 2 wires appear to both be positives, but when I attach 1 to the 1 battery, and 1 to the 2 battery, it creates a circuit and powers all of my systems regardless of whether the switch is on or not. I was thinking of hooking both wires to my "common" switch -- that seems to avoid the problem. But is that right? Any insight appreciated.

 

[Steve O.]

charger

Without seeing it, its kind of hard to tell but this is how it should be hooked up: negative wire from from charger goes to negative post on either battery, or to ground, but neg post on battery is usually easiest. Positive wire from charger goes to positive #1 on switch, other positive from charger goes to pos. #2 on switch (these are interchangeable). This allows you to switch between batteries or charge both when the switch is in the "both" position. I think this is how you described your charger as it was originally wired.

 

[matt]

thanks

Thanks Steve. I think you've described the configuration for my charger. The problem I'm having is that, somehow, attaching 1 positive to battery switch 1, and another to switch 2, creates a circuit -- That is, when I've got black on 1, white on 2, and the house wire on common, even if I disconnect the positive power from batter 2, the house lights still come on when I'm switched to battery 2! I've noodled around w/different scenarios and still come to the conclusion that it's these 2 positives from the charger that create this circuit. Would an isolater solve the problem?

 

[Mickey McHugh]

Schematic

Matt,Take the time to trace all 12VDC wiring including all batteries, disconnect switches, chargers/solar panel(s), alternator/starter, isolators/combiners, electric windlass/winch and the DC load breaker panel (but don't complicate it with your smaller 12VDC loads from the breaker panel and create a schematic. A 'picture' is worth a 1000 words.

 

[Debra Blatnik]

Get a Volt Meter

And be very careful.Then from a known ground, you should be able to see what each voltage is. Otherwise you are just guessing.Black is usually ground in 12 volts. (they have started to use something else to keep people from connecting the black from 12 volt to the black from AC).And I hate to ask this, but the battery switch isn't set to BOTH, is it?