Red wires galore!!

[Robin]

Now some of you might remember an illustrious S2C member who, some years ago, wired up his LR with all red wire, because he had a reel of it!

I've just stripped and dismantled a folding caravan, (S2A content - the chassis will be for towing my 1936 Morgan behind my Carawagon    ), and came across this cable - 6 red cores and an earth!



I wonder if I can use it to rewire my dash   

[TimV]

And some chocolate blocks!

[Peter Holden]

Simon Maltby's forward control (le frog) is wired completely in red cabling, it is very nea and he knows where every wire goes

Peter

[Wittsend]

It's the correct way to wire it.

Each end of the cable has (should have) a numbered tag. You follow the numbers - much better than relying on 60 year old coloured cables and it doesn't matter if you are colour blind - as quite a few leckies are.

 

[JonB]

Industrial cable, you can see the numbers etched in the red insulation 👍

[Theshed]

Now some of you might remember an illustrious S2C member who, some years ago, wired up his LR with all red wire, because he had a reel of it!

I've just stripped and dismantled a folding caravan, (S2A content - the chassis will be for towing my 1936 Morgan behind my Carawagon    ), and came across this cable - 6 red cores and an earth!



I wonder if I can use it to rewire my dash   

That looks pretty heavy duty ? Would be interesting squeezing it behind the dash panel !

[Robin]

Simon Maltby's forward control (le frog) is wired completely in red cabling, it is very nea and he knows where every wire goes

Peter

I wasn't going to name names   

[Peter Holden]

Simon is quite proud of his wiring, I can remember when he first showed me.  Has anyone else had a ride in le frog?  It is awesome with its 6 cylinder Cummins and no engine cover!!

Peter

[Robin]

Simon is quite proud of his wiring, I can remember when he first showed me.  Has anyone else had a ride in le frog?  It is awesome with its 6 cylinder Cummins and no engine cover!!

Peter

Patrick made a video, perched on the edge of le frog's roof hatch as Simon drove around t'Pit, when it was still held at Caphouse   

[Wittsend]

Back in 2010 at the Lakes rally quite few of us had a ride on Le Frog 

[Calum]

6 red and earth likely 3-phase supply to a two speed motor? I know usually the three phases were red blue and white (or yellow) but working on old machine tools I've seen all three phases in red quite a few times. As said, usually in such instances all the wires are numbered anyway.

[biloxi]

I use a drop of nail varnish of different colours to identify parts when dismantling and assembling. I've also got some panty hose,
(for straining) and a hair dryer....      ... Next on the list is a pair of high heeled shoes.
.W.

[Craig T]

Have to wonder what application a blue wire with 6 red cores and an earth would be used for? It must have been a specialist wire for some purpose?

We have lots of red covered wire around here for fire alarm systems but the cores inside are different colours and the mains stuff conforms to the standard, blue, brown, green / yellow.

I remember seeing a Virgin Boeing 747 stripped bare once as it was in the hanger for a major check. All the bundles of wires in that, thicker than your arm were all white cables. I guess in that situation you would soon run out of colours so they use all the same and label the ends. Only issue is if you get a mid loom, intermittent fault which does happen. Tracing which wire is which when you are half the length of an aircraft away from the end can't be easy.
My dad was engines and airframe, he left the electrics to the avionics guys who could spend days sometime tracing wiring faults.

Craig.

[Davidss]

... Only issue is if you get a mid loom, intermittent fault which does happen. Tracing which wire is which when you are half the length of an aircraft away from the end can't be easy. ...

The professional way is to use two units. One injects a signal into the suspect wire, the other unit has a sensor and amplifier to convert the signal into a tone within the human audio range.
The sensor can be used in two ways, it can be laid alongside a section of loom, and the sensor tip can be touched against the suspect wire, without breaking the insulation.
The strength of signal varies, and therefore the loudness of the tone. It is the skill of the operator which determines if the suspect wire is close or far away.

It isn't difficult to acquire the skill, but it does help to be doing tracing repeatedly, rather than once in a blue moon. The tracing kit is an expense that has to be deemed worthwhile.

Regards.

[GlenAnderson]

The cores could all be sky blue pink for all the difference it makes. As has been pointed out, those cables are numbered; which you can see clearly if you actually look.

The biggest issue with using cable like that has nothing to do with cable colours, and everything to do with it being in all liklihood a flexible cable for high voltage applications, and not one specced to work in an automotive environment at low voltages.