2022 303 Negative Wiring

[gtippett]

Hey everyone, I am fixing some of the wiring that was done for the installation of my inverter/charger and battery banks. I noticed that the majority of the negative cables are just attached to the frame. Only one cable (6 AWG from the frame) is actually attached to my battery monitor shunt. For information, my inverter is also attached to the battery monitor shunt, and then a single cable goes to the negative post of the battery. Should I redo this so that all negatives go to a bus bar instead of using the trailer frame as the carrier or is this ok? It will take a significant effort to do this, so hopefully not.

Also, just a quick question, the power bus bar that was installed by GD, is it all positive connections or does it have negative connections. As mine has some black cables connected to it, a few small ones connected in the middle and two large (maybe 6 AWG) at the right hand side of the bar. Can someone explain this to me?

[ncitro]

gtippett Unfortunately color does not mean much. The factory bus bar is positive only and most of the grounds go to the frame, this is normal and should be okay. I put my larger loads on a bus bar, but generally as long as you have a good connection to the frame (no rust paint etc) it'll carry the current. It's important there's only one wire leaving the battery and that it goes directly to the shunt, that's to make sure the shunt can see all current entering and leaving the battery. Sounds like you're setup well.

[howson]

gtippett -- can you post pictures of how the inverter and shunt are wired? Try to show each end of the connections.

[gtippett]

howson, I have it all taken apart right now to clean up the wiring the best I can, so pictures won't be ready until I finish the clean up. I really don't want to touch the "rat nest" of wires from GD, as I don't have that much patience at this time. In terms of how the shunt is wired:

1. Battery side of the shunt (B):
   1. 4/0 wire going straight to the negative post of the battery
2. Power side of the shunt (P):
   1. 6 AWG wire coming from the frame (At least I think it is 6, need to confirm... this was the original negative battery wire for the rv as provided by GD)
   2. 6 AWG wire coming from the negative terminal of the solar controller (At least I think it is 6, need to confirm... this was the original negative wire from the solar controller provided by GD)
   3. 4/0 wire coming from the negative terminal of the inverter.

Note - it is a Go Power Battery Monitor.

In addition to the above, I have the small positive wire going to the positive terminal on the battery - which powers the battery monitor.

[Jlawles2]

Sounds like it's wired properly. As mentioned there should only be 1 wire from the negative of the battery to the shunt. Out of the shunt there can literally be dozens.

I chose to install a bus bar and attach all of my negatives that were on the self tapping screw to the bar. Less likely to have something get loose that way.

This is the one I installed: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 true clean up of wiring would mean a complete gut and restart. I just made certain the connections on the ends were much better at doing their job since having all of the ring terminals on one screw just did not look or feel correct.

[howson]

gtippett -- good explanation. I can 'see' it from your description and agree with Joseph that it should be fine. A "cleaner" way would be to go from the shunt to a bus, then attach those three wires to separate connections instead of having them stacked. Joseph's link is just one of many options available on the market could work. I went with a bus bar similar to the example below since I didn't need the small terminals. (I don't remember off hand if I went with the 3/8" or 5/16"...)

[gtippett]

Thanks everyone, I think that negative bus bar will be a job for next time.