Yet another new owner: Regarding my accessory battery: I do not know how to install it, as I have 2 red battery cables, and 4 smaller wires to attach to the battery, two black and two white. Any suggestions? I am not very handy with the tools.
Sounds like someone replaced the cables and didn't color code them. To figure out which of the big wires is + and which is -, either start the motor, or while it's plugged into shore AC power, put a volt meter on the cables. You should read a positive 13-14 volts. If it reads negative, you have the meter leads on the wrong cables. You should make the negative cable with some black tape near the end or something.
For the smaller wires, you might have to do some digging. Problem is that in DC, black is usually ground. But in AC circuits, black is usually HOT. So if whoever ran those wires is used to dealing with AC.... well.. things can get strange. See if you can trace the wires back to whatever they're plugged into and see if that helps any.