12V cables

Sep 7, 2005
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We had a problem last year in France when we stopped at the end of a fairly strenuous mountain descent to find that one of the 12V cables from car to caravan had dragged along the road surface and had shredded through 6 of the internal wires leaving us with no caravan road lights. We then had to cut out the damaged section of the cable and make 6 new wire to wire connections each of them insulated by waterproof Elastoplast strip (in the absence of the more conventional insulating tape). We finally wrapped the wires in a combination of clingfilm and more Elastoplast to end up with a working and reasonably weatherproof fix. On arrival at the next site we bought some insulating tape and redid the whole repair giving us a solution that worked until we returned to UK and replaced the cable.

Since that incident we've been a bit paranoid about ensuring the cables cannot drag on the road and have tried a number of solutions using bungee cords etc. but have never achieved a very elegant result.

The reason for this post is that we've now come up with a very simple and effective solution which proved successful on this year's trip to the Pyrenees and back via the Dordogne. We now thread each cable through the gap in the handle of the Alko stabiliser before closing it (making sure that in doing so we don't trap the cables). This method ensures that the cables are well clear of the road and allow sufficient movement when turning - to be absolutely sure of this last point we tested it by driving very slowly and turning from lock to lock while my wife observed the cables.

I don't know whether this only works on our car/caravan combination (Volvo V70 & Sterling Eccles Topaz) but I do hope this may prove to be a useful tip.

Cheers,

Simon
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I would have thought cable ties loosley fitted would have been better than passing them through your hitch handle,but the best solution has to be shorten the cables to your required length
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Funny you should say that,only yesterday I was repairing the cables for a friend after they had dragged along the road.

his problem was made worse because he had to use the 13 pin to 2X7 adaptor cables thus creating more slack.

I use curly cables myself but instead of bolting the sockets to the plastic drawbar cover which always splits I have fitted trailing sockets to the curlies and just plug the van plugs in before pulling the slack under the A frame and fixing with nylon ties.
 

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