Battery Hookup (pos/neg)

[Mainerunr]

OK, stupid question (but I hate electrical so I'm going to ask it anyway)...

I do not remember which wire went to which terminal on the battery. Red and White wires, I would think red would be positive BUT there is a small piece of electrical tape around the white wire at the loop that goes on the battery stud.

I just plugged the battery in to my charger in the garage and will leave it until tomorrow but I'd like to get the battery back in the box and hooked up.

(Trail Runner 26 SLE).

I have a multimeter and am thinking if all else fails a continuity check should tell me which wire is negative (I think)...

Thanks for any help.

 

[Silverado23]

Most likely red is positive, white is negative. Follow the wires, the red wire should go to the 12v circuit breakers nearby and the white wire to the connection on the chassis. Certainly a safe call to check continuity with your multi-meter.

 

[Mainerunr]

Thanks. And now that I think about it, the tape is on the red, not the white.

 

[jnbhobe]

Thanks. And now that I think about it, the tape is on the red, not the white.

The tape on the red wire end was in case you plugged in 120v shore power, that wire would then be hot via the converter.

 

[TedS]

What continuity check will tell you which wire is negative? Just asking to know what you are thinking.

 

[scottyb]

If you can't tell which cable is connected to the chassis, I would ground one probe to the chassis and the other to one of the wires. The wire that has continuity is grounded.

 

[donr827]

When I was a newbie I had the same question after taking my batteries home to charge them. I decided to mark the battery cables with a permanent marker in case my brain made another side trip.
Don

 

[Bob&Patty]

Red will be B+....white is ground.

 

[Mainerunr]

If you can't tell which cable is connected to the chassis, I would ground one probe to the chassis and the other to one of the wires. The wire that has continuity is grounded.

This is what I was thinking.

When I was a newbie I had the same question after taking my batteries home to charge them. I decided to mark the battery cables with a permanent marker in case my brain made another side trip.
Don

Yeah, I don't plan on making this mistake again...

Thanks for all the replies, heading out to make the connections (since I think today is the only nice day we will have this week).

edit: OK, I probably should have looked more closely before I even asked, the white was maybe two feet long before going to the frame.