Looking for some guidance here, because I'm not 100% sure of what I'm seeing here. I'm nearing the end of a solar/battery/inverter charger upgrade to my travel trailer. Everything I've read and come to learn and understand about how to wire the battery to the distribution panel involves both positive and negative leads from the battery going (eventually) to the positive and negative posts on the DC side of the panel.
Yesterday I was working on pulling out the existing battery wiring, cutting to new length where needed, terminating, etc. On the positive side, the existing lead from the battery goes to a terminal block on the chassis near the front of the trailer, which also has positive leads from the trailer level motor and breakaway detection thingy. From that terminal block, a wire is ran to the battery cutoff switch, and the output from the cutoff goes directly to the positive on the distribution panel. That all makes complete sense to me, as you want to still be able to have your leveler and breakaway operational even if the battery switch is off.
Now, I was expecting the negative lead from the battery to be routed similarly, but it's not. It goes straight to the chassis where it's screwed in with a ring terminal. At the distribution panel, the negative is connected to a bus bar, along with the negative leads from the DC powered devices in the trailer. From the busbar there's also a wire that is screwed into the chassis. So basically on the negative side there is no "direct" connection from the panel to the battery, other than the chassis itself - which is metal and therefore a conductor so I guess that's OK? Seems a little cut rate or downright dangerous, but I'm not an electrician, so I really am not sure.
What I'm thinking I need to do is eliminate the wire going from the busbar at the distribution panel to the chassis, and run a new cable from the main busbar(Lynx distributor) to the panel busbar. And also the wire that went from the existing battery negative to the chassis - that cable is just loose now as the existing battery has already been disconnected. My one and only DC ground is going to be from the Lynx Distributor to the chassis. Does that sound right?
For reference, my project plan will follow the guidance here except I won't have a DC-DC charger from the alternator and my capacity for both battery and solar is a little less than shown.
Yesterday I was working on pulling out the existing battery wiring, cutting to new length where needed, terminating, etc. On the positive side, the existing lead from the battery goes to a terminal block on the chassis near the front of the trailer, which also has positive leads from the trailer level motor and breakaway detection thingy. From that terminal block, a wire is ran to the battery cutoff switch, and the output from the cutoff goes directly to the positive on the distribution panel. That all makes complete sense to me, as you want to still be able to have your leveler and breakaway operational even if the battery switch is off.
Now, I was expecting the negative lead from the battery to be routed similarly, but it's not. It goes straight to the chassis where it's screwed in with a ring terminal. At the distribution panel, the negative is connected to a bus bar, along with the negative leads from the DC powered devices in the trailer. From the busbar there's also a wire that is screwed into the chassis. So basically on the negative side there is no "direct" connection from the panel to the battery, other than the chassis itself - which is metal and therefore a conductor so I guess that's OK? Seems a little cut rate or downright dangerous, but I'm not an electrician, so I really am not sure.
What I'm thinking I need to do is eliminate the wire going from the busbar at the distribution panel to the chassis, and run a new cable from the main busbar(Lynx distributor) to the panel busbar. And also the wire that went from the existing battery negative to the chassis - that cable is just loose now as the existing battery has already been disconnected. My one and only DC ground is going to be from the Lynx Distributor to the chassis. Does that sound right?
For reference, my project plan will follow the guidance here except I won't have a DC-DC charger from the alternator and my capacity for both battery and solar is a little less than shown.
