13 Pin plug conversion

[mistralse]

Has anyone converted their 7 pin plugs S&N to a 13 pin plug?,are there any problems to be aware of. I understand it is a much better system and more secure,the plug and socket do not seem expensive and I would like to have a go.Both car and van would be done simultaneously of course,many thanks.

 

[spj]

Hi Denis,

I have just converted my car and caravan to 13 pin electrics, it is easy enough, I wanted to hide the car socket behind the removable towbar panel on my ML as there was not enough room to completely hide two sockets, this was done and with the towbar removed, you cannot tell one is fitted at all. I left the two seven core cables on the van so it can be converted back without trace as the van is a 2007 and still under warranty. If you need to do this like me then discard the rubber grommet at the rear of the 13 pin socket and run in the two seven core cables, when wired in fit the plastic nut to the back of the plug and carefully fill with silicone sealer from the back of the plug, the car socket can be done the same way if required. Doing it this way you can fit the seven pin plugs back at any time.

If warranty is not an issue, buy some 13 core cable and a good quality waterproof junction box and cut back the 7 cores and join in the junction box and fit into the chassis or better still inside the front locker and run the 13 core cable where the 7 core used to go and into the 13 pin plug.

spj.

 

[John_5040782]

Hi Denis - go back to page 3 on 14 October, there was a similar thread that you will find useful - John

 

[mistralse]

Thankyou for the info,very helpful I think I will give it a go .

 

[Sterlingstuff]

Hi

I have converted to 13 pin and would totally recommend it, it's the way forward I did it by cutting off the 7 pin plugs right at the plug mounting a waterproof box under the Gas bottle locker floor, feeding the 7 core cables into the box through waterproof glands and coiling up the excess cable so that at a later date if needed it could be returned to the old fashioned way i.e. 7 pins. Now here is the tricky bit It would appear after much research that the correct 13 core cable is unavailable in the UK. The cable needs to have 5 x 2.5mm Cores and 8 x 1.5mm Cores the large cable is for

Fridge Supply and - Return

Power Supply and - Return

- Return for Road lights

all the road lights are 1.5mm

I got around this by making my own cable running the right size cable through some flexible water pipe Its stronger than cable and more resistant to scuffing on the ground.

Once the cable is made one end is fed into the waterproof box and the 13 pin plug is fitted to the other end. In the box is a 14way terminal strip and the cables are connected to appropriate 7 core cables one is of course not used.

In the past we have lost a freezer load of food in Germany due to the 12s socket burning out I always used to carry a spare or two

Go for it you wont regret it