Converter wiring question
A friend bought a used trailer without a converter. We bought the correct one but questioning whether the white wire is the hot or ground in this case. Are we dealing with 12v standards or 110v?
Forum Discussion
- Amazing, a lot of posts, but NOBODY asks for the brand and model of the Converter. BUT, he states a 3 prong plug, which indicates THAT is the Plug for 120 TO the converter. He then states "black and white wire to be lugged to the converter". This makes it easy. BLACK is Positive and WHITE is Negative/ground. BUT all you have to do is connect the coach battery and use a multimeter to test that White and Black. You will get 12 volts between the two and depending on the - or + display on the multimeter will tell you which is POS and which is Neg. Doug
- What BLF13 said.
Almost always White is the DC camper ground/neutral.
You have a 3-pronged household plug so your AC is a no brainer, just plug it in.
The DC is the side with bare wire ends. YOU REALLY NEED TO GET A MULTI METER!!!!!
Check the output wires yourself. Check the camper wires yourself. determine for sure that white is ground.
You can alternately determine ground if all the white wires are connected to a large wad, block, tangle, harness or other sort of contraption the RV manufacture came up with at that moment. All ground wires are usually connected together in bulk and that is also connected to the camper frame and the battery Negative.
You really need to get a multi-meter and check yourself. Super_Dave wrote:
BFL13 wrote:
Hot and ground apply to the 120v input side of the converter. There, white is neutral, ground is green, and black is hot.
On the 12v DC output side, white is negative and the other colour is positive (blue in some converter models).
White is return on 120v wiring but hot on 12v wiring. That is what has me confused.
No. In RVs, DC white is always negative, if the other colour is black or blue or whatever. If the two DC wires are red and black, then now black is negative and red is positive.
The output DC wires of the converter do not connect to the "converter"! (ok, they do, but at the inner end)
They go the the DC fuse panel which has some lugs on it to take converter 12 v and battery 12v. If the battery wires to those DC fuse panel lugs are red and white, put the converter's white to the neg lug with battery white neg and put the converter's black to the battery's red on the pos lug .
DC wires do not have a "hot".- There are no RV DC wire color standards. You'll have to determine which wire is + and -.
My RV has a lot of white ground wires. It also has black ground wires. BFL13 wrote:
Hot and ground apply to the 120v input side of the converter. There, white is neutral, ground is green, and black is hot.
On the 12v DC output side, white is negative and the other colour is positive (blue in some converter models).
White is return on 120v wiring but hot on 12v wiring. That is what has me confused.- There is a 3 prong plug on one side and a black and white wire to be lugged to the converter.
- Comments above probably accurate but I’d check the manual and use voltmeter as 2oldman suggested.
- Got voltmeter? Got owner's manual?
- Hot and ground apply to the 120v input side of the converter. There, white is neutral, ground is green, and black is hot.
On the 12v DC output side, white is negative and the other colour is positive (blue in some converter models). - Converter has 120 VAC IN and 12+ VDC OUT.
So, you will have both connections to 120 VAC breaker and battery.
