battery wiring diagram

[smuff168]

Hi all !....hope im posting in right area here, just joined as i acquired a 1990 sun sovereign 34 ft MH...it had an light engine fire and we are sorting out all the crispy critters right now ( hoses, lines, etc etc )....unfortuately, the not so bright guys working on this disconnected all the batterys at front of MH, got rid of them and now we cant figure out how to wire new batteries into it, as all the batteries are gone, with only the cables laying around loose.

I called gulfstream the other day and although they called back, they had no info for me on schematic for this one....so, i also have a caLL INTO OSHKOSH with hopes of getting this info....im in michigan, if anyone has any info or a sketch or schematic ( be nice to find another owner close by, to do a visual on theirs ) or info to wire these in, I would be grateful....we are close to completion on the work and would like to fire it up this week, to continue checking out this MH....its in relativly nice shape for year...needs a good cleaning and general going over. 41K miles, ford 460 carb engine, oshkosh MC16 FG chassis, most everything seems to be working when hooked up to 110 house cord, so thats a plus....anyway, if anyone out there in gulfstream land could advise, it would be appreciated. Thanks !

[larrybell]

Were your batteries 6 volt or 12 volt? What do you plan on replacing them with? The diagram depends upon these answers. I would Google RV battery installation or RV DC systems for a diagram you need. Good luck.

[e3steve]

Hi, I am in the UK, and this is my first post on this forum, anyway I have a gulfsteam sunstream, 1990, on a John Deere/ Oshcosh chassis. I have just had to sort my battery situation out as those who had it before me had overridden the split charge relay. This should allow you to use the leisure batteries without flattening the engine battery. It was flattening them all as they had wired it, so I simply fitted an isolater to manually split the batteries. It now has one engine battery that can be isolated from the two leisure batteries, so there is always power to start the engine and then turn the isolator to charge them all up, or also if you left something on and flattened the engine battery, then you can turn the iso switch to join them all back together to start the engine. The proper type split charge relay kits are quite expensive, but a simple isolator is very cheap. I dont know if I can do you a diagram, but basically you wire all the batteries in parallel, giving 12v to all the systems, and then put an isolator in line to the engine battery. The original relay, which would be at the top of the big fusebox under the bonnet, would automatically let all batteries charge with the engine running, but not allow the engine battery to go flat alongside the leisure batteries. Sorry if I am waffling on a bit, but I am trying to make as simple as I can. I could maybe do a photo if I can work out how to do it.

[Chuck v]

Smuff168,

This article might help you with some general yet detailed information on what 12 volt systems generally look like:
http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm

e3steve, welcome to the forum and thanks for your post. I presume you meant to say the three batteries are in PARALLEL when charging...

Chuck

[e3steve]

Sorry for the mistake there, the batteries are wired in parallel, and I have corrected it now.