Red wire, black wire and white wires

[swimmer_spe]

I am hooking my battery to my trailer. I have 2 sets of cables. One has a white and a black wire. The other has a white and red wire. Which is negative and positive? I don't now, and when I hooked them up, I may have crossed them.

The trailer is a 1975, so there are no circuit boards to fry.

[RobWNY]

Please don't mess around with power without knowing for sure. Take
wa8yxm's suggestions so you know without a shadow of a doubt. Electricity is nothing to take lightly. Every RV owner should have a voltmeter and know how to use one. They're cheap and eliminate the guesswork. Even the really cheap Harbor freight voltmeter is good enough for this application.

[CA_Traveler]

The tape is 3M Scotch 35 and comes in a various colors.

The best black tape I've ever used bar none is 3M Scotch Super 88.

These are vinyl electrical tape.

I use heat shrink on new projects when the wire ends are available.

[CA_Traveler]

wa8yxm wrote:
Now Using heat shrink tubing. tape or nail polish

ALL THE POSITIVE WIRES Get dressed in RED

Home Depot has red 3M tape that I use. It's good quality and I've even started putting it on the black irrigation water hose lines as they are much easy to find. ie Outside in sun, water and what not.

[dougrainer]

cavie wrote:
Both whites re Negitive.

Not always the truth. He has a 45 year old RV and I would be hesitant to state which is Black and which is White. There are still some current RV's that have Black as ground and White as Ground and White as Positive and Black as Positive. If the RV has a genset, then the large Black will usually be Ground for the genset. Doug

[wa8yxm]

CA Traveler wrote:
There is no wire color standard for RV's. As a guess for white black black is + and for white red red is +. My rig has a lot of whire wires that are +.

The only sure way is to find where the wires go.

Like CA said. the standard. well there is no standard.

Now.. Two suggestions
one is to use a volt meter. Meter between FRAME and wires.. With and without tow vehicle hooked up and engine running.. With and without shore power connected.

if it's positive. it's positive.
Alas you may have a pair that does not give you any reading
if so those are likely the electric jacks.. You may need to find the jack controller if any to identify which is which based on the terminal label.

Now Using heat shrink tubing. tape or nail polish

ALL THE POSITIVE WIRES Get dressed in RED

[Pipeman]

In my 5er the ground wire from the battery bank is easy to follow to where it goes to ground. I would suggest, if you can, follow the wires to see which one goes to ground.

[midnightsadie]

no boards but you could blow alot of fuses, even start a fire ,have a friend who knows a electric to help out.

[cavie]

Both whites re Negitive.

[CA_Traveler]

There is no wire color standard for RV's. As a guess for white black black is + and for white red red is +. My rig has a lot of whire wires that are +.

The only sure way is to find where the wires go.