A couple of weeks ago, I had an RV repair shop replace my battery isolator, because the current isolator wasn't separating the batteries, and I was told I needed a new one. They replaced it with a Sure Power 70amp isolator. They also installed a battery switch to turn the house battery off as an added measure.
However, when they called to tell me the job was done, they told me that my alternator was also bad. They asked if I wanted a mechanic down the road (who they'd called to determine this) to replace it. I told them I would have my mechanic do so.
My mechanic put in a new alternator. When I picked the RV up, he told me that the RV place had hooked up the isolator incorrectly and it might be the reason the alternator blew. From what I could determine of what he'd done, he had wires running from the alternator to both the isolator and the starting battery, with the only used posts on the isolator being the alternator running in and the house battery wire running out. I was pretty sure this wasn't correct, but not confident enough to argue with him.
Once I got home and tested things out with the system my mechanic rigged, everything that runs off 12v power still operates when the house battery is switched off, so the current setup isn't separating the batteries. That can't be right! (I know the battery switch on the house battery works, because when I disconnect the wire from the alternator to the isolator, the 12v lights/etc. operate when the house switch is on and do not operate when the house switch is off.)
I have a general idea of how things should go - from the alternator to the A post on the isolator, and then from posts 1 and 2 to the starting and house batteries, respectively. But once you start following the wire toward the starting battery, I get lost and just don't think I can do this myself.
I need help, and I just don't know who to trust. Any recommendations for solid RV repair folk, or even a local Toyhome owner, who can re-run the wires in the chassis area and then test to make sure everything both charges and is still separate? I'm really at my wits end.