New car,single socket !

[Rabfaetheblae]

Hi im buying a new mondeo 2.2 tintanium x sport and it has a Continental multipin single socket but my caravan has twin sockets, is there an adapter which will allow me to use the fridge while towing?

Thanks.

 

[Zafiral]

If the single socket is a 13pin the you can get adaptors that split this to 2 7 pin connectors. However beware that some factory installations do not have all the pins wired up so this could be an issue.

 

[daniel_374312677]

my mondeo also has 13 pin plug, i had an adaptor but it was too long and as a result draged on the road. this left me with no trailer lights miles from any where !!!! result i had to change the plugs in the van for the 13 plug that was still attached to the car it was quite easy as i copied the wires that were left. it took me 30 mins using kitchen sisors and a toy screw driver in a farmers field !! hardest bit was getting the two cable into the gromet on the 13 pin plug i wish i had done it ages ago, so i would change you van plugs to suit the car, good luck

 

[Rabfaetheblae]

Thanks guys,

So i guess i just take the wires out of the doulble sockets from the caravan and put them into a single one, sounds too easy lol.

Rab

 

[daniel_374312677]

on other thing double check the isulation between the terminals when you have finished as they are really close and easy to get a short, and belive me on my mondeo the fuse box is a pain to get at, honestly its a piece of cake !! good luck

 

[BillD.]

As Zafiral intimated, check that it is wired up for a fridge.

I have a 13 pin on my Audi and it was only when we recently bought a new van with a fancy pants fridge in that tells you on its display that there is no car connection that I realised that we had a problem. Is it really so difficult for a factory installation to achieve what your local towbar fitter can.

So much for Vorsprung Durch Technik!!

Bill D.

 

[Lutz]

The "fridge lead" in the trailer wiring harness fell victim of a cost-cutting exercise in our organisation a few years ago. The argument was that compared to the total volume of trailers, caravans with fridges were too small a minority to warrant continuing to fit this lead across the board. In most cases, the lead was not used, so in order not to penalise the majority with unnecessary costs, the lead was deleted. Whether this was a proper decision or not is debatable, but that's how it came about.

 

[Zafiral]

Lutz I have a dealer fit GM branded 13 pin connection on the back of my Zafira. Will that charge my battery?

I note that the ATC wirrs and light goes green.

It was Opel you worked for wasn't it?

 

[Lutz]

I'm afraid I can't answer your question as I am referring to factory-fitted towbars and their electrics only. After-market components that are fitted by dealers are developed and marketed by the Service Engineering department of the respective markets (in this case, Vauxhall UK) and not Product Engineering, which is centrally located for all Europe in Germany, where I worked. The Product Engineering and Service Engineering organisations operate completely independently and I had next to no contact with the latter.

 

[Zafiral]

Thanks for your reply Lutz, I tried getting an answer from Vx dealer, so I might take the car to NTTA fitter and get them to check the setup.

 

[Lutz]

Just to clarify, the factory-fitted wiring harness can therefore be a different one to that fitted by the dealer, although both are released by the same OEM.

 

[xtrailman]

Rab

I agree with daniel, i also have the two original van cables into the 13pin plug.

The hardest part of the job is getting both cables into the plug and waterproofing it afterwards, i sealed it with silicon, and taped both cables together, this makes the lead a lot stiffer and idealy you should fit a 13 core cable back to the caravan. Still i am happy with what i have, no problems on two trips with this set up.

 

[S-MaxJon]

My new S-max came with a factory fitted towbar which included the fridge connection. I bought the adaptor for the caravans twin sockets and they did drag on the ground - solution was to reposition the leads under the van to take up some of the length.