Relays - where are you ??

[Rubix]

I have a Crown Sovereign and I have hunted down and found just about everything, but can I find the relays .... er No !!

The Zig charger and RCD is in the wardrobe, the control panel with the battery voltage meter, switches and fuses are next to the kitchen sink. The battery fuse is in the van under the front seat behind the battery box/mains inlet. Oh and the taps are next to the sink

I have looked behind the control panel, no joy (unless it is further down)

The only place I haven't looked is behind the fridge, which would involve pulling the fridege out which I don't really want to use.

Now I am assuming the 'van has relays as the manual shows them on the circuit diagram, but the same diagram does not have the car/off/caravan switch so ???

Also would the mains socket for the fridge be behind the fridge itself ?

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Rubix]

I contacted elddis (part of the explorer group) who deal with Crown caravans now, and they tell me it may be under a black plasic cover under the front nearside bench seat. From memory this (white) plastic cover is not much higher than an 15mm (1/2") and I thought the relays were more like an inch or so square. I checked a similar cover on the offside and it had some wire connections but no relays.

They said they shouldn't be behind the fridge but I can't see where else they may be.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

If you get someone to do something to operate one of the relays you may be able to track them down by listening for the click in the obvious places.

 

[Rubix]

Garry,

Unfortunately these relays are the ones that energise when the 'van is plugged into the car (when the engine is running) and as my car was parked too far from my 'van, I decided to go on the rampage with my screwdriver instead.

Well Elddis did well, and give em there due, they know about their old 'vans (9 years old) and it was indeed below that cover.

One thing that does worry me is the fridge. I thought there would be a mains socket located somewhere behind the fridge, but upon hunting I couldn't find one, and I suspect it is wired straight into the back of the socket near the sink.

This concerns me, as if that was true it means there is no fuse (in a 3 pin mains plug) for the fridge. I know there is the RCD, but you can never have too many fuses. As the blue 3 pin mains hookup has no fuse, the only earth protection is the RCD, which I find hard to believe. I know around 98/99 was when all the EC legeslation came in regading safety, but crown seemed to have pre-empted this and included some of it, but not all.

Can anyone shed any light on this. Could there be a fuse in the fridge itself, albeit hidden.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[rob_jax]

Fuses in 13 amp plugs - Because of the unique way UK houses were electrically wired with ring mains, it is a good idea to have a fuse in the plug - and not to protect the appliance (as I'm sure you thought) but to protect the ring main from overloading

The idea of the UK ring main was that you could use under rated cabling (1/2 what was truly needed) by looping the cable into a ring - so that power could be drawn both ways.

Flawed as an idea, any single fault in the wiring means that the ring itself is liable to overheat and catch fire - hence the need to protect the ring from faulty appliances with fused plugs.

European houses (OK, Dutch) don't use a ring main - just a point to point supply to rooms made from correctly specified and rated cable - and they typically have many more MCBs than the UK would have installed.

if you want to fit an in-line fuse - then do so - but the MCB reacts faster and is easier to reset once the fault has been cleared.

Roberto