How to Disconnect a Battery

To disconnect the battery, open the house (or coach) battery door and look at the wires on the the terminals. All you must do is to remove the wire off of any one battery terminal to break the connection. However, it is much safer to remove the wire from the negative or ground terminal. Working on this terminal means that no damage will be done if you brush up against the door frame with the wrench as you remove the nut on the battery terminal.

You don't want the wire that goes from battery to battery. You are looking for the negative battery terminal and you may be able to read which terminal it is right off of the battery itself. In my coach it's the one closest to the outside door. The negative terminal probably will probably have only one big wire on it that goes off to a ground connection. However, that ground connection probably will not be in sight. The positive terminal will have a two or three big wires on it, one of which typically runs to a circuit breaker but, again, that circuit breaker may not be in the battery compartment.

Once you have identified the negative terminal, use a wrench (a small crescent wrench is good) to remove the nut on the terminal. Once off,just lift the wire up off of the terminal and wrap it in a piece of paper so it won't touch any other piece of metal in the compartment.

When you are done, just put the wire back on the terminal and replace and tighten the nut to about the same tension it took to remove it. If you disconnect the battery, you probably will have to reprogram the buttons on your radio.

Contributor: Linley Gumm