Does anyone know what gauge wire should run from the battery to the circuit breaker on my 2001 320sr? I know that 8 gauge is running from the converter to the battery positive that's about a 25 ft run. The negative is 8 gauge as well. Then there's the positive feeding the camper that appears to be a possible 12 gauge and the other negative appears to be a 10 gauge. I don't know if the previous owner changed the wire for one reason or another. Just seems to be a light gauge considering the load it would be carrying when operating the slide or when the furnace is operating.
Hi Roger,
Something seems a little out of original in this pic. A few comments that will combine to your later picture.
The 2 smaller black wires with the blue connectors laying on the battery tray angle iron, "appear" to be the qty 2, no. 14 awg, wires for the emergency breakaway switch. One of those smaller wires "normally" goes back into the 7 wire DOT cable junction box to tie into a 12 volt "hot" wire direct off the battery, the other small black wire ties into the "blue" brake wire on the 7 wire truck cable harness and the camper brake wires. Sunline used blue as the hot wire for the brakes under the camper.
The heavy red, and the heavy white, you called no 8 awg, do look original and are the 12 volt hot + and ground/negative -. The red 12 volt + hot would go up into the DOT box and then to the 30 amp fuse. Your other pics shows this.
In that same pic above, is a heavier black and a smaller white then the main Sunline ground wire. Those extra black and white"appear" to be extra and not original. Can't tell as your pic does not show where they go. Sunline in the year 2001 would not be running 2 separate hot and ground wires to the battery as part of the power converter tie in.
If your camper has a power tongue jack, then yes, that heavier black wire if it goes to the jack, all fits. The extra white, if it also goes to the jack as a ground, that fits too but many use use the frame ground. If you have a manual hand crank jack, and that extra black and white go into the camper, that "appears" to be a prior owner addition. Not sure at this point what it feeds, need more pics/info and search and destroy on your end.
To this pic, something is missing in this pic or hidden under the bundle we cannot see. Need you to have a look.
What is missing is the no 14 awg black power feed wire that goes to the emergency break away switch. That small wire normally is tied to the battery hot red wire "before" the fuse. Which should be in that box. There is not normally a fuse in the emergency break way wire circuit. The blue brake wire from the 7 wire cord is also missing. That said, Sunline may have joined the blue 7 wire cable wire, with the blue brake magnets wire and the other downstream no 14 awg black emergency breakaway wire under the camper and not bring the blue up into the junction box. But the emerge- breakaway hot has to come from the battery red wire somehow.
See what is under the camper at the end of the 7 wire cable, and see if there is a small black in the box inside the camper that runs down under the camper to feed the breakaway wire.
I agree, your labels are correct in this pic, the truck charge line being a circuit breaker is "different" as Sunline used a fuse on the 2003 and newer campers and a 30 amp self resetting circuit breaker on the main power feed between the battery and the power converter. But, that may be a Sunline change that occurred over the years.
Also, just and FYI, you used the words "inverter" which I think you are talking about is a "converter". A power converter uses 120 VAC and creates 12 VDC which is what power the camper 12 volt items.
An "inverter" uses 12 VDC to create 120 VAC to run 120 VAC items. Sunline normally did not supply an inverter, only the converters to create 12 VDC to run the camper items.
Hope this helps
John
