Desperate for help.. Isolator to battery bank!

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by superduty

Im in Salem... Ill double and triple check again...

PM sent, let see if we can hook up and take a look at it.

-greg

[Scalf77]

The first issue, I see from the diagram is that the house batteries are not grounded to the vehicle, so they are floating in reference to starting (truck battery). The Inverter safety ground does not ground the battery system.

I expect this is why you were trying to jump the batteries to ground to see if that fixed it. When you did this , I expect this is when you saw the sparks and bad stuff. So at this point we have to assume either your house batteries are miss wired or you miss jumped to the wrong polarity. One would think that if the inverter was working correctly, that jumping to the wrong polarity was the issue.

- greg

[superduty]

There isnt a negative to chassis on the bank, Im just learning and didn't know I should have one.. I did go +/- from to inverter then ground on the inverter to truck bed .. the inverter worked fine, shows 12.7 volts, ran a vacuum I tested with it.. its when I made the connection from the isolator to the truck using the 150amp battery doctor that it was blinking and I grabbed the manual and saw it said ground aux battery to metal... so I used jumper cables to test it and that when it sparked... like alot of sparks.. so i tried again and it made the the tip of the cabels glow.. Should I be using 1/0 wire for the ground since everything else is 1/0? The cables are like 6/0 ... This has been great, I tried to join the lance forum and the moderator declined my registration and IM glad they did or Ide not of found this one!

[arctictraveller]

The size of the wire, quality of the connections etc have no relation to the problem you are experiencing. It's nearly impossible to troubleshoot from afar with the limited information, but if you take some quality, close up photos of the connections that show where each wire goes, we may be able to better understand where the problem is. Again, connecting a cable from the negative post of the battery to ground should not cause sparks and overheated wires. Accidently connecting from the positive to ground would do that though. I'd double check your isolator wiring. You said you used the battery doctor to make the connection, what exactly is the Battery doctor? Do you have the wiring diagram for that?

[superduty]

here is the diagram from the manual for the battery doctor/isolator. I will go take pics of the wiring .. The isolator only has three cabels.. main 12v, Aux battery and a hard wired ground. The main is coming from my truck battery and the aux goes to 250amp fuse then run back to the battery bank..

[superduty]

https://www.amazon.com/WirthCo-20092.../dp/B0058SGDFK


That is the one I bought and installed.

[superduty]

this doesn't make any sense...does it matter what negative I ground on either of the 4 batteries? before the truck is running and isolator is hooked up no sparks, when trucks on, sparks glowing on the cables im using to ground battery bank to truck bed. The isolator is not outputting any voltage at all Ive tested it on the aux out and nothing... so I dont know what the hell... Before truck runs, no sparks, truck running sparks when grounded... Im so frustrated

[Scalf77]

Yes it matters what ground you use, Only two of the four grounds are actually ground. The other two are connected in series to the the positive of the other battery these grounds would be at 6 volts. I gave you my number in a PM feel free to call or text.

-greg

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Yes it matters what ground you use, -greg

I think you may have just discovered the problem.

[superduty]

solved it... thank gosh.. see pics next post