led light wiring question

[rrunner69]

I am trying to replace my inside lighting with new led lighting units & ran into a small snag. I have the old light unscrewed from the ceiling & it has 2 wires coming from it. Black & white. The new led lights also have 2 wires but they are red & black. Could someone tell me what wires would be the hot & ground? I'm guessing white to red & black to black. I also don't know if I will cause any damage if I connect it wrong. Thanks in advance.

[Steve S]

Tie your white to the red and black to black.:):)

[hankpage]

With some leds, if polarity is wrong they simply will not work but no damage done ...... just reverse polarity and you are good to go. Travel safely, Hank

[SteveC7010]

Let's all remember that the RV world is bass ackwards from the rest of the world when it comes to wiring color coding. Unless there has been a major change in the last year or two, RV white is ground and RV black (and other colors) are hot.

I have not seen the latest generation of LED fixtures for RV's so I don't know for sure if they are color coded conventionally or follow the RV way. LED's manufactured for and marketed to the automotive market generally follow conventional coding.

I'd venture a guess that the red on the LED's is hot (positive) and the black is ground (negative.) The place to start would be red wire on the LED to black wire on the trailer, and black on the LED to white on the trailer.

Hank is right, LED's will almost always tolerate being reverse polarized without damage.

[chuckster57]

I can assure you that model year '16 still use solid white for 12V ground. The LED fixtures I just worked on the red was positive.

[spicercars]

I just changed the bulbs in mine. It took only an hour and cost less then $50

[Tbos]

Bulb change out is the easy way to go.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[B-O-B'03]

I just changed the bulbs in mine. It took only an hour and cost less then $50

This.

On our trailer the ceiling and under cabinet lights were already LED, so I just had to change the bedroom reading, dinette, vent hood, pass through, porch & step and outdoor kitchen lights to LED bulbs.

It was really easy and relatively inexpensive.

-Brian

[Dembones]

Can you just buy LED bulbs and plug them in or do you have to replace the whole fixtures?

[theeyres]

Can you just buy LED bulbs and plug them in or do you have to replace the whole fixtures?

You can just change the bulbs. No need to change fixtures unless you want different fixtures.

[Tbos]

I just bought LED bulbs. They have been working well for one season. I bought them off Amazon.

[bobbecky]

The replacement of conventional bulbs with LED's will definitely reduce to load on the batteries when boondocking and will make the fixtures last longer because they run so much cooler. There are different grades of LED's for sale, and some are available that have circuitry that allows them to work regardless of polarity. Bayonet style bulbs can only be installed one way, and if they don't work, you can take the fixture down and reverse the wire connections.

[gearhead]

Anyone changed out taillights to LED? I changed to LED housings and bulbs on my boat trailers and like the increased visibility. Will I gain a lot by just changing the bulbs in the current housing or should I change to LED tail light housings and bulbs? Are the current housings just screwed into the fiberglass with self tapping screws?

[Tbos]

Anyone changed out taillights to LED? I changed to LED housings and bulbs on my boat trailers and like the increased visibility. Will I gain a lot by just changing the bulbs in the current housing or should I change to LED tail light housings and bulbs? Are the current housings just screwed into the fiberglass with self tapping screws?


For tail lights I'd change out the fixtures. Some of the replacement LEDs for that type of bulb aren't as bright. You could buy one and hot the lights and flashers to see how it looked.