Why Would Old RV Steps Have Additional Red Wire Compared to New Step Install

Published 03/05/2024

Question:

I installed the steps and now as I study the wiring I see that the colors of the new harness match my original harness but I don’t understand why on my harness, my original harness it has two heavy gauge red wires as opposed to the one that I assume goes to the new plug harness so I’m not understanding why there’s an extra red wire. My my rig is a 1998 Newmar diesel pusher. I hope you can shed some light on my confusion. Thanks Allen

asked by: Allen A

Red Wire
(click to enlarge)

Expert Reply:

That's a good question Allen but it's hard for us to say for sure what the function of the extra red wire is/was. If you have everything wired up on the new steps I would try using them and see if everything works like it should. If everything seems fine I would just tape up that extra wire and not worry about it. If the steps aren't functioning properly the wire might be needed but it would require knowing more about what's not working to get a better understanding.

Due to the age of your RV and not knowing what steps you had on prior it's hard to get much more specific than that. Your old steps could have had an additional feature like a light or something that the new steps don't have.

expert reply by: Jameson C