Old 12s caravan to New 12s car

[Graham_374297917]

I have just brought a new (07 reg) car with a pre wired 12s socket. Can anyone tell me is it posable to connect me old 1993 caravan 12s plug to my new car and if any , what mods I need to do. or is this just a no no?

Thanks Graham

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

Everything should work OK - or as well as it did before with the previous tow-car. But having said that, it's not optimal because:

New cars will have a heavy duty "fridge return" on pin 7 and a general "lighting return" on pin 3; but your caravan will use the old wiring system where pin 3 is the return for all of the electrical systems in the caravan - and can easily be overloaded

Aside from running a new, dedicated return from the fridge to pin 7 in the caravan socket, a solution is to link pins 3 and 7 in the socket with a short length of insulated wire - this just helps spread the load across two connectors

The new car will supply 12V feed for the interior lights on pin 4 and a separate battery charge on pin 2 - whereas your caravan expects to get a combined lights and charge on pin 4 - so that will still work.

If you open up the 12S plug on the caravan - you may be surprised to see corrosion on the contacts (it's not waterproof) and burning on the screw terminals - so be prepare to replace the whole 12S plug if corrosion has taken a hold - and then look at the 12N connector too

Robert

 

[mcghee]

I also have a feeling that in Jan '97 terminals 2&4 (green and blue, internal electrics and battery charge) were swapped.

 

[Graham_374297917]

Thanks for the replys

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Have a look at

www.towitall.co.uk