Electrical wiring diagrams

[John in Santa Cruz]

Ground is connected to negative, not plus.

It should be wired such that the battery negative goes to a ground bus or post on the back of the power center and chassis/frame ground is also connected to this same bus or post... Your shunt would go between the batt neg. And the cable to that bus/post

[BuggsMcBuggs]

Originally Posted by GwenL

One thing I discovered on our 2016 17' Escape is that the + terminal of the battery simply goes to ground (chassis).

Yes, I would check that very carefully. It is just not possible for your trailer to function electrically with (+) Positive on the ground. Either you have misread the battery markings, or the point it is connected to is, a centralized Positive distribution point, and this is important, ISOLATED from your chassis ground.
Invest in, or use a Volt Meter to verify while troubleshooting electrics..

[GwenL]

OH LORDY! I can't believe I typed in the WRONG character! I most certainly meant the NEGATIVE terminal goes to the chassis, NOT the positive. Now that would be something. I very much appreciate the calm replies to my posting and that no one went off in 'sparks!' thank you.

[splitting_lanes]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Here is a copy of my trailer's wiring diagram. I have made some improvements in Escape's wiring that I think makes it better.

I’m in the process of re-wiring my 5.0, mostly to make the battery disconnect easy to access, install a solar disconnect, install a 60 amp fuse, remove the thermal disconnect ( I see a voltage drop across it I don’t like) and shorten up the wire between the battery and WFCO.

I see you removed that 50a thermal switch between the batteries and WFCO, so I’m following your direction/diagram. Except, I am thinking no thermal disconnect on the circuit that runs to the DC/DC converter/power brakes/jack. It seems safe enough with the 60a fuse. Any thing I’m missing before deleting the thermal fuse you show in your diagram?

[hugh]

Originally Posted by splitting_lanes

I’m in the process of re-wiring my 5.0, mostly to make the battery disconnect easy to access, install a solar disconnect, install a 60 amp fuse, remove the thermal disconnect ( I see a voltage drop across it I don’t like) and shorten up the wire between the battery and WFCO.

I see you removed that 50a thermal switch between the batteries and WFCO, so I’m following your direction/diagram. Except, I am thinking no thermal disconnect on the circuit that runs to the DC/DC converter/power brakes/jack. It seems safe enough with the 60a fuse. Any thing I’m missing before deleting the thermal fuse you show in your diagram?

It's worth considering why Escape used an auto reset circuit breaker instead of a less expensive fuse.

I think the idea behind the auto-reset breaker, is that you still have working emergency trailer brakes after a transient overload.

If something blows that 60a fuse, you've got no emergency brakes.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by splitting_lanes

I’m in the process of re-wiring my 5.0, mostly to make the battery disconnect easy to access, install a solar disconnect, install a 60 amp fuse, remove the thermal disconnect ( I see a voltage drop across it I don’t like) and shorten up the wire between the battery and WFCO.

I see you removed that 50a thermal switch between the batteries and WFCO, so I’m following your direction/diagram. Except, I am thinking no thermal disconnect on the circuit that runs to the DC/DC converter/power brakes/jack. It seems safe enough with the 60a fuse. Any thing I’m missing before deleting the thermal fuse you show in your diagram?

The DC/DC converter/jack circuit could pull enough current through the 7-pin connector to blow the 60 amp fuse leaving you with no emergency brakes. All it would take is a wet 7-pin shorting across the +12v and ground. With the 50 amp thermal breaker in series with the 60 amp fuse, the thermal breaker would trip before the fuse blew.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I do have fuses on my setup, each 206AH Lithium batt has a 120A fuse in case of a short at the main battery bus bar. the AWG 10 wire that goes to the emergency brake switch is on the 30A thermal breaker, I didn't use the 50A thermal breaker at all. All the Victron stuff is current limited, so I didn't see any point in adding fuses for that.

[splitting_lanes]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

The DC/DC converter/jack circuit could pull enough current through the 7-pin connector to blow the 60 amp fuse leaving you with no emergency brakes. All it would take is a wet 7-pin shorting across the +12v and ground. With the 50 amp thermal breaker in series with the 60 amp fuse, the thermal breaker would trip before the fuse blew.

Thanks for the responses and for posting your modified wiring diagram. I completed my re-wire following your modifications. On my trailer there was a 50 amp thermal breaker between the wfco and the battery, between it and the length of the wire, the wfco almost never went into bulk lithium mode. I removed that thermal switch, installed a 60 amp anl fuse, and shortened the wire connecting the wfco to the battery significantly by relocating the disconnect switch to the U shaped dinette between the wfco and battery. Now when the battery is low and the wfco gets connected to AC it goes into bulk lithium mode, a 57 amp charge rate.

I discovered where the thermal breaker for the 7 pin and emergency brakes is when there’s a DC/DC converter. It’s in the little cubby with the inverter and jack switches. There’s only one 8 gauge wire from the output of DC/DC converter back to the battery, there’s no 10 gauge wire like your diagram has. I haven’t traced out that thermal switch yet, that’s part of the next phase — a dedicated hot and additional ground connection to the tow vehicle.

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by splitting_lanes

There’s only one 8 gauge wire from the output of DC/DC converter back to the battery, there’s no 10 gauge wire like your diagram has.

I added the 10 gauge wire so that the emergency brake circuit was separated from the rest of the circuits. You learn a lot about the trailer wiring while threading that wire from the front of the trailer all the way to the back.