Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wire Colors Can be Confusing!

What genius decided to use black and white as positive and negative colored wires instead of the automotive red and black? Would it not have been less confusing to everyone to use red and black? S., (Slab City, CA)

Seann, perhaps you're being just too logical! I once had to troubleshoot a wiring issue under the dash of a motorhome. When I crawled under there, every single conductor was yellow! Just like in the converter pictured here, it basically boils down to what the policy is at that factory and what the parts manager at the factory purchases. Most modern coaches will have some type of color code that, at least, makes some sense, especially for the battery charge conductors. The pro techs in the shop are taught to measure everything with a meter anyway. Professional technicians should rarely trust or rely on color for the most part; especially when troubleshooting. Who knows what may have been modified or replaced beforehand! But I hear ya! At least black and white correlates to the AC wiring (black-hot, white-neutral) across the board.