Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Ryan: Hey everybody. Ryan here at etrailer.com. Today on our travel trailer, we're going to be taking a look at and showing you how to install the epicord battery disconnect switch with key. This battery disconnect switch is going to be a very quick and easy way to disconnect the battery power from your travel trailer, which in turn is going to help prevent your battery from going dead as well as prolong the life of it. This could be very easy to operate. Just simply pull back your protective dust cover and put in your tethered key, and you can rotate it to turn it on and off.
Now once it is in the on position, you'll know it's on because the key cannot be removed. However, whenever you turn it off, the key comes right out and you can put that cover back on. And I'll give you a quick example of how it's going to work. As you can see now, the key is not in it, that means it's in the off position. And with our electric jack up front, we hit our switch, it's not going to operate at all.
Now I'll go ahead and put our switch in the on position.With the switch on, we now have power to our travel trailer. This also makes it very convenient if you have to make any electrical repairs or even updates. When doing that job simply just turn your power off, get the job done, and turn it right back on. And when taking your trailer out of storage, you're not going to have to worry about bringing a jump box with you or bothering someone to help you out with some jumper cables. Now one of our customers did write in and say he actually had the key brake.
Now the key is made out of a pretty thick plastic and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to actually turn the switch, so just be conscious of that, especially in that cold and brutal weather.Now the switch is rated for up to 50 amps, so anything at that or below is going to work good for you. Now one of my favorite things about this switch is that it can be mounted flush and give you that nice clean look. Now, although this can work with two batteries, keep in mind that either they're both going to be on or both going to be off. If you're looking to control your batteries individually, I'd recommend a dual battery isolator switch, that way you can either disconnect both, connect both of them, or like I said, turn one on and one off. On the back of our switch, our posts are going to have a diameter of three eighths of an inch, and it's also going to come with the necessary hardware you're going to need to secure your cables to those posts.To begin our installation, we're going to locate our battery and disconnect all of our power cables.
With everything disconnected, now we need to locate a spot to mount our switch. Now you don't have to do it this exact way, but this is the way that I'm going to do it today. I'm going to mount this right here on our header and I'm going to drill a hole and mount it right here. And I like to do this first that way we know where to run our wiring. If you do drill into anything, just make sure that there's nothing of importance behind it that way we don't damage anything. I'm gonna use the hole saw to make that hole.Now to help prevent any rust or corrosion on this bare metal, I'm just going to shoot a layer of spray paint over it. Then what I'm going to do is take our positive cables that went to the positive terminal on our battery and feed them back up through here and get them to come out of the hole that we drilled. Now we can hook our cables up to our switch, but before we do that we want to ensure that the switch is in the off position. So to make sure it is, as long as you can pull the key out we know it is in that off position. So I went ahead and removed the hardware on our post, and we're gonna put these cables on our top post. Put on our split lock washer and our nut. Now we're just going to run these down hand tight for now and we'll tighten them here in a moment.Now we can connect our other cord to the back of our switch here at the bottom and run it over to the positive post on our battery. Now I do want to point out that this switch does not come with this extra cable, but if you need one you can find it here at etrailer.com. What we'll do is take off our hardware, run the end of our cable through our hole. And once again, we're just going to loosely install it for now. So now we can kind of position our cables in a way that makes sense to ensure that they're not gonna come close to each other. So I'm going to use this setup right here. And once we verified that we can then snug down our two nuts. And since our new battery cable had quite a bit of exposed metal, I went ahead and just wrapped it up in some electrical tape just to help keep it protected.Then what I did, I pushed everything through and held this in place where I want to mount it, and I made a few marks. What I'm gonna do is pre drill small pilot holes in here that way it'll be easier to run my self tapping tech screws through here to secure our switch to the trailer. If you need some of these tech screws you can pick some up here at etrailer.com. And finally we can take our new battery cable that's running out of the back of the switch and connect it to that positive terminal here on our battery. Now we can test it to make sure everything's working properly. So as you can see now, with the key out and in this position, our battery disconnect is in the off position. And just for a quick reference, we're going to test our jack to see if it is working with our switch.Now this is hooked up to all the same things that are inside of our camper. So if this doesn't work, nothing else will work inside. So we can try and go up and down and nothing is happening. Now let's go ahead and turn our switch on. Make sure we get power. Now we'll see if we have power. So it looks like everything is working properly. And that'll do it for our look at and our installation of the epicord battery disconnect switch on our travel trailer.
Average Customer Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (68 Customer Reviews)
I just installed this as a replacement for an identical switch on my 2018 2109S Rockwood camper. The original switch failed. This one seems to be high quality so hopefully it will last. Because it was an identical switch, I was able to take the switch out of the backer plate and install it on the backer plate for the old switch. This was easier than taking the mounting screws out of the camper frame and worked perfectly. etrailer was the only place I could find an identical replacement. As always, etrailer shipped quickly and I am pleased with their service.
Bruce - 11/08/2022The 50 amp Epicord Battery Disconnect Switch with Key that I purchased from etrailer arrived in a timely manner and was a very good quality. It worked perfect for my application. I highly recommend this switch and etrailer.
Ordered the part and received it a day earlier than expected.
The part is better than the original because it comes with the protective cap that can be used when the T handle key is not in place.
Ordering from etrailer is the best, better than the big e-commerce place, because they follow the product all the way to your door and even ask if it worked for you.
Very pleased!
Perfect replacement, fast delivery, and at a fair price. Thanks, eTrailer!
Well pleased with product , installed on our travel trailer to disconnect while not in use.
Paul G - 07/24/2021
Great replacement for the broken one.
I've purchased two of these switches now over the last 2 years because they fail after 1 season. Definitely need a better solution for a disconnect
Jenny N - 04/12/2022This was the perfect replacement for our switch.
Excellent quality. Versatile mounting options for a travel trailer. I mounted kind directly to the battery box. No issues.
Good quality and a good price. Purchased these for my travel trailers. A must have to extend the life of the battery. Posted pictures of how I installed it to the battery box.
Purchased to install a battery isolation switch in our travel trailer. Installed it into a square junction box to seal off and weatherproof the wiring connections Works like a champ.
Mike L - 07/18/2021Great product…direct fit for my camper.
Very sturdy, well made product. I have this switch on my Rockwood and purchased this for my sister's trailer.
We received the item in a very timely manner. It is the part we needed. We received it today and it is already installed.
This worked great. You had to be a tad creative and know your electrical supplies to buy the right plastic box and fittings to install it. And don’t forget to maintain proper polarity when you hook things back up. I have no idea why I would say that.
Part shipped to me as soon as it came back in stock. Very helpful video on installation.
Well built. useful removeable key. Minus one star for quality control. This one replaced exact same one not working - could not get power to connect. Took it apart and found a piece of plastic blocking the contact plate.
Needed a battery disconnect for an inverter feed. Product fit and finish looks professional and clean. Solid feel.
Very simple to wire. To avoid unnecessary drilling into the trailer, I simply went to Walmart and purchased an oversized battery box. It easily fit in the same location on the tongue. I cut a hole in the end of the box and mounted it there. No exposed wires or connectors.
Purchased this switch to be the master battery shutoff for my camper. It is mounted outside and to the frame of the camper. After one year of use it is still working well. It was easy to mount and connect the battery cables. Appears to be a sturdy, well built part and I would recommend this product to others.
Hey quick shipping, Exact replacement. Connected easily and works great. Thanks
I have bought other things with the same success and quality.
I ordered this to replace an existing defective disconnect switch on our travel trailer. I am by no means mechanically inclined, but after watching the video, the install was straight forward & easy. The most difficult part was removing the rusted screws from our original one. This switch fit right in where the old one was mounted on the frame and has a sturdier key than the one we have had. It's mentioned in the video, but note that the mounting screws are not provided in the disconnect kit. You must supply your own.
This battery disconnect is perfect of isolating my RV batteries. I mounted it on a plastic 4x4 junction box and then onto one of the battery boxes then wired it up. Works great!.
Easy to install and easy to use. Saves unwanted battery drain when the RV is not in use.
The switch failed after a couple days. It caused major difficulties for my camper and camping experience - a long story. It's a switch! What can go wrong? The company sent a replacement fairly promptly, but the damage had already been done. I hope the replacement works.
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