Two 6v house batteries wiring

[deangraham]

Hi,

I recently had a problem with the two 6v house batteries I have in my hunter 29.5 and have removed them both.

The cables going to the batteries were red cables from various places, (I taped these together) and a black cable connecting the two batteries together.
I foolishly did not take a photo of the set up.

I assumed the set up was the black cable was connected negative to negative on the batteries and the red cables connected to positive terminals.

Seeing as the objective is to achieve 12v (series not parallel) I am now thinking that that may not have been the case.

Can anyone tell me how my black connecting cable and two red cables should be connected.

 

[OPossumTX]

Upon re-reading your post, I see that the black cable was connecting the two batteries. This would indicate that:

One of the red cables goes from the DC ground bus (-) or (return) to the Negative of Battery #1.

The black wire connects battery #1 (+) to battery #2 (-)

The other red wire must connect #2 (+) to the DC Positive bus.

This is the kind of thing that if gotten wrong will foul up all kinds of expensive stuff and possibly burn 'er to the water line.

Only a demented person would use a red wire for the negative return. Or perhaps an all too common yard monkey with an extra bit of red wire lying about.

If I am wrong, someone please save us!

Have FUN!
O'

 

[Merlin Clark]

.

 

[deangraham]

Thanks both, now to work out where the two red cables lead to!

 

[Merlin Clark]

Is one going to a battery switch and the other to an unswitched bus, like for bilge pumps?

 

[deangraham]

Perhaps, that does sound right but I will need to get back down to the boat.
Would the battery switch be the 12v one or the ground one in the diagram?

 

[Scotty C-M]

If you look at the Catalina 34 International website you will find a thread near the "critical upgrades section" called Electricity 101. It has information about this, as well as a wealth of related information. Quite electrifying reading!! (sorry, couldn't resistance).

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,6437.0.html

try this post too:

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,7162.0.html

 

[Merlin Clark]

The switch would connect to the positve (+) cable in the pic.
On the second red, see if it leads to your engine starter (I was thinking outboard not inboard). It would also be connected to the positive post.
I'd turn the battery switch to off before connecting.

 

[deangraham]

ok great thanks that and scotty's post should get me going again.