[SteveC7010]

Let's all be real cautious about this hot and ground info. For years, the RV industry used black for hot and white for ground. The electronics and automotive industry did the opposite: black for ground and red or some other color for hot depending on the complexity of the item. Now, we're hearing that trailers are beginning to come through with red for hot and black for ground.

So which is it on your unit? The easiest way to tell is to uncover your battery. The terminals should be labeled with a + and a - molded into the body of the battery right next to each terminal. Locate the minus sign which is the ground side. Note the color of the thick wire attached to it, and then follow that wire. It should only go a foot or two and be attached to the frame of the trailer with a large screw or bolt. That is your main ground from the battery to the frame.

In a perfect world, all the ground wires in your trailer would be the same color as the ground wire on your battery. My Cougar has the older style color coding so white should be ground everywhere in the unit. I've had enough of 12vdc fixtures off to look at quite a bit of the wiring. The hot wire is usually a white wire with a colored stripe running the length of it and ground is a plain white wire. But I don't treat that as gospel throughout the rig. I get out my multimeter and double check the wiring for myself.

This is one of the reasons that we suggest that every RV owner should have a multimeter ($15 or so in the electric aisle of all the big box home improvement stores) and know how to use it.