Battery Negative to DC Powered System

[BR549]

This is my first venture into RV wiring and what I understand should be isn’t exactly what I see.

The 2022 280 RS has a black (negative) cable between the battery and the Furrion shunt. The other post on the shunt is a black cable from the solar controller and a cable to ground on the frame.

A red (positive) cable runs from the battery to a bus bar along with another positive which must be the solar from the bus bar to the battery. There is no negative wire from the battery or the shunt to the bus bar.

My question is where is the negative for the DC powered loads? What am I missing?

[Country Campers]

The negative will be thru the trailer frame. The power panel inside the camper will have a negative that goes to the trailer frame. To my knowledge there is not a negative wire from the battery negative to the power panel on the inside.

Brian

[howson]

This is my first venture into RV wiring and what I understand should be isn’t exactly what I see.

The 2022 280 RS has a black (negative) cable between the battery and the Furrion shunt. The other post on the shunt is a black cable from the solar controller and a cable to ground on the frame.

A red (positive) cable runs from the battery to a bus bar along with another positive which must be the solar from the bus bar to the battery. There is no negative wire from the battery or the shunt to the bus bar.

My question is where is the negative for the DC powered loads? What am I missing?

In addition to what Brian wrote, do you understand there should be nothing else connected to the negative on the battery but that single wire between it and the "battery side" of the shunt? In order for the shunt to sense all the power going to (and from) the battery all of it must flow through the shunt.

If that's a bit confusing (and even though it's a video on the Victron BMV-712 the wiring of the shunt is still identical) so check out the AMSolar video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV055vmZgvY

All the other returns (-12vDC) connections are on the other side of the shunt (and from your description it's wired correctly).

[BR549]

Thank you both for the feedback. I’m replacing the Furrion shunt with a Victron Smart Shunt and wanted to make sure that I was interpreting the schematics that reference a negative for all loads.

[Country Campers]

I think I mentioned in one of your other threads about the group of white ground wires in the spray foam under the bus bar behind the battery box but thought I would mention it again. Pull this group out and attach to a negative bus bar on the metal frame, this will provide a place for adding negatives when needed, also as stated above all negatives should be on the opposite side of the shunt from the battery. Sorry for stressing this but it is worth stressing, I have had fun tracing battery usage only to find a negative on the wrong side of the shunt.

Brian

[BR549]

Country Campers - I pulled the mess of wires out of the foam and it appears there are 4 white wires connected to a bus with a single white wire that is grounded to the frame using the same grounding bolt where the Furrion shunt was grounded. I guess I caught a little good luck on this one. For this trailer at least, they made it easy.

[Country Campers]

Country Campers - I pulled the mess of wires out of the foam and it appears there are 4 white wires connected to a bus with a single white wire that is grounded to the frame using the same grounding bolt where the Furrion shunt was grounded. I guess I caught a little good luck on this one. For this trailer at least, they made it easy.

That is great. On the earlier rigs like mine it had a wire nut holding those wires together, others have found the wire nut as well. I am glad to see they have made an improvement on this.

Brian

[howson]

Country Campers - I pulled the mess of wires out of the foam and it appears there are 4 white wires connected to a bus with a single white wire that is grounded to the frame using the same grounding bolt where the Furrion shunt was grounded. I guess I caught a little good luck on this one. For this trailer at least, they made it easy.

I agree with Brian -- very pleased to see GD using a Wago connector in lieu of a wire nut.