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Post Info TOPIC: DC wiring colour
Mamil


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DC wiring colour
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I'm about to do some re-wiring of DC circuits on my camper. I noticed that on both my caravan and camper trailer the manufacturers use white for the DC negative wires, and a variety of different colours for the various positive wires, presumably to differentiate the circuits. Is there some standard colour scheme for DC circuits in RVs, as I had always assumed red for positive and black for negative? Thanks.



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Hylife


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Believe it or not, automotive standards were many decades ahead of mains wiring in changing colour to allow colour blind people to work.
Up until fairly recently, if you were colour blind you couldn't be a sparky.
It's why they now use brown, blue and striped yellow-green, instead of the old red, black and green.

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PeterD


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Wiring code for trailer connectors. That link contains the standard wiring for most of the trailer connectors you will encounter. If the trailer manufacturer has adhered to the standards it should guide you.



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PeterD
Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top
Retired radio and electronics technician.
NSW Central Coast.

 
Mamil


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PeterD wrote:

Wiring code for trailer connectors. That link contains the standard wiring for most of the trailer connectors you will encounter. If the trailer manufacturer has adhered to the standards it should guide you.

 Thanks Peter, but it's not the trailer plug wiring I'm doing, it's the 'internal' electrics - water pump, DC sockets, internal lights etc. Just wondering if there's a common colour code for these things as I'd like to follow it if there is.



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Mamil


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Hylife wrote:

Believe it or not, automotive standards were many decades ahead of mains wiring in changing colour to allow colour blind people to work.
Up until fairly recently, if you were colour blind you couldn't be a sparky.
It's why they now use brown, blue and striped yellow-green, instead of the old red, black and green.

 Interesting, hadn't thought of that angle. But what are the colours for DC wiring?



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PeterD


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Andy, There are standards for the trailer wiring but there is none for the house 12 V circuits. You are on your own when it comes to that part of the camper. Every manufacturer has its own ideas. Many of them leave it up to the bloke who wires up their units so when they change tradesmen the wiring code changes.

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PeterD
Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top
Retired radio and electronics technician.
NSW Central Coast.

 
Aus-Kiwi


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White can be used for both . As in light switches .. Even speaker wire theres only a marked wire . No real colour coding !! Use Test lamps . Being DC . No safety issues with shock !! I usually put a red tape over active , positive wire for ID .. Can see either side what polarity is !

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Corndoggy


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Hylife wrote:

Believe it or not, automotive standards were many decades ahead of mains wiring in changing colour to allow colour blind people to work.
Up until fairly recently, if you were colour blind you couldn't be a sparky.
It's why they now use brown, blue and striped yellow-green, instead of the old red, black and green.

 So why is it that in "general cable" 2c+e tps has red, black and green/yellow and 4c+e orange circ has red,white, blue,black and green/yellow. 



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wasn_me


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I did some wiring on a gazal caravan. The standard trailer tail light wiring ran from the plug to a junction box at the rear of the A frame. After that everything was black or white, house lights & tail lights. Easy enough to sort out,with a test light, just takes a bit of patience.

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Mamil


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Thanks all for the comments. Seems the consensus is as I suspected that there isn't a colour code as such for DC wiring. By the way I don't have a problem tracing the circuits, I'm just adding/upgrading a number of circuits and wanted to do the right thing and follow the colour code if there was one.

Interestingly while doing a bit of Googling myself I found a couple of references that suggested black is to be used for a grounded DC negative (like on a car) and white is used for an ungrounded negative (like on a caravan) so that at least explains why the negatives on both my caravan and camper trailer are white instead of black. For the positives it seems you can use any other colour you like, except green/yellow as that is specifically reserved for earth.

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Roger Roger


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Automotive and subsequently caravans and similiar do not seem to have any logical standard. Although red / black is regularly used as + / -, it normally can not be taken as standard, on USA equipment, black is regularly +, (lights and fans), the best to be sure is to test all voltage with a meter, for + and -, document it, and if not sure of any equipment, find a manual on line. Check everything before powering up. Keep every piece of paper that comes with any new equipment, and do not cut cables without tagging them. Roger

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