Jump Start RV Batteries Archives

This time of year, you may need to jump start your RV batteries. It’s a fairly easy thing to do and you shouldn’t feel intimidated with the task.

Whether you’re starting the coach or the house batteries, you’ll always want to take a few precautions:

Make sure to familiarize yourself with the positive and negative terminals of both batteries.
If the battery is cracked and liquid is leaking out, don’t do anything more. You’ll need to purchase a new battery.
If the battery is frozen, don’t do anything more – it may be leaking but because it’s frozen you wouldn’t know.
Try to clean any corrosion around the battery terminals.

After making sure the battery is in the correct condition, you’ll want to determine the type of battery you have.

Determine if you have two 12 volt batteries (Parallel) or two 6 volt batteries (Series).
If you have two 12 volt batteries, connect the positive side to the red connection first and then attach the negative side of the battery with the black connection or clamp the black connection to a metal piece to ground it.
If you have two six volt batteries, you must connect the red connection to the positive side on one battery and the black to the negative on the other battery. Make sure to not connect to either of the grounds that are connected to each other. You’ll notice you have a connection that connects a negative to a positive from one battery to the other. Those are off limits for charging. You’ll need to connect your starter pack to the ungrounded positive on one battery and the ungrounded negative on the other battery.

Let the batteries charge for a bit before starting the engine. Before long you should be off and running!