Towing electrics??

[LeeE]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to the forum and to caravanning, I’ve not yet bought a caravan but will be in the very near future.
I'm looking at buying a tow bar for my 2005 passat, do I require the electrics that have the 2 hook up or will the standard electrical hook up do?
Also what is the reason for the 2 hook ups on a caravan?
Thanks for your advice in advance, and i appologise if its been asked a 100 times before.
Lee

 

[Steve L]

Hi Lee.
First of all welcome to caravanning.
Don't worry if you think any question might of been asked before, there are plenty of us here who will answer any enquiry. I've been caravanning for 25 years and can still recall the first venture in a 10ft sprite caravan with glass windows.

I have always used just the single socket for road lights myself, mainly because Most of my cars in the early days came with a single socket electric socket. The second plug usually grey with grey cable sheath is to enable things like the fridge to be kept cool on the move while towing. It also provides power for battery charging from the car and a pickup to power reversing lights.

To be quite honest what I do is run the fridge on the electric or gas if no power available the day before we go away. This gets the fridge and freezer box down to working temperature and when all turned off (because you must not travel with a gas fridge switched on for safety reasons), it will keep cool enough even on a 6 hour drive as long as it isn't opened too often. We never open the freezer box while on moving day, but milk for cuppas is fine.

As for charging the battery, I charge mine the day before or even leave the van hooked to electric when stored at home. I don't believe in adding extra charge strain on the car alternator even though the caravan battery is charged via a relay system in the auxilary wiring socket if fitted to the car.

The reversing light on my caravan is realy of little use except for being a white light. It doesn't illuminate much and being on the left side, is not much help when revering to the right. I always try to plan to arrive in daylight. I do use my hazard flashers when reversing and have the wife stand guard at the back. just make sure she stands where you can see her and gat here to use hand indications for stop, left, right and how far away Ie 90,60,30cm or 3ft 2ft,1ft and do as many visual signs as pos as verbal comunications can easily get mis-interpreted.

On the subject of reversing onto pitches,driving on and off forward (like car ferry) is ideal, but if that is not an option reversing is then required. If your van has a mover fitted thats fine to use and there's no shame in using it. But you should learn how to reverse anyway. Because you may well need to at any time while driving. Plus it looks real cool if you reverse onto your pitch in one move. Trust me it does take years of practice to do it perfect. Even I get it wrong now at times. To gain experience of reversing go to your local supermarket carpark when the shop's closed or use an empty carpark and practice reversing. One top tip of mine is to put a piece of insulation tape at 6 'O' clock on your steering wheel when the car is ateering straight. Now turn the wheel when reversing a quarter of a turn pushing the tape in the direction you want the caravn to go. Move backwards very slowly and have your hazard flashers on.when the caravan turns at about 45 degree's, turn the tape to the oposite direction while still going back. This will straighten up your outfit and give you an idea how big an area you need to turn. By varying the quater turn more or less than that, you can get an idea of how the caravan behaves. Don't forget to try going forward to straighten up and do another reverse turn to complete the move. It doen't matter how many times you do this to get the van parked. Trying a righthand reverse first is much easier as you can see out of your window what the caravan is doing.

Practice makes perfect.

All the best.

 

[Damian]

It depends whether or not you ar ebuying a new caravan, or an older one.
Until last year most UK built vans came with two plugs, the 12N (Black) which powers the road lights, and the 12S (Grey) which provides fridge operation whilst towing and reversing light.
From last year,they all come with a single 13 pin plug which does all the functions.
From personal experience the 13 pin plug and socket is the better system as there are ongoing problems with the two socket system where bad connections cause problems.
I would opt to go the 13 pin fully wired system and if your van has two plugs, get that changed to the 13 pin single plug.

(ps I wont give you a lesson in reversing as you have not asked fr that)

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Lee
In addition to Steve's pearls have you decided what caravan to buy?
Newer ones will come with a single 13 pin plug olders will use the black 12n and grey 12s.
Our caravan has a reversing light and is also ditted with Al-kos ATC trailer control system so the 12s grey plug is mandatory for us.

Whoever does the wiring for you , just make sure they solder all the connections and make a decent earth return on both sockets on the car. Those blue scotch clip things are very convenient but imo do not make a good long term electrical connection.
Have fun

 

[Damian]

Quote " Those blue scotch clip things are very convenient but imo do not make a good long term electrical connection."

How very true,,,they are the Devils incarnation and should be outlawed.
I was called to a customer who had lighting failure on his van and when I opened the access panel to the wiring in th eboot of his car, it was like Scotchlock Heaven,,,,,,he had 40, yes FORTY of the bloody things hanging off wires,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,two hours later and a hefty bill, it was one scotchlock causing the trouble having cut right through the cable it was joined to but could not be seen due tothe plethora of Blue surrounding it.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

Could not agree with you more Damian, avoid the little blue blighter's like the plague. The method I use is to solder each individual cable, having first passed heat shrink along the cable, then pulling it over the soldered joint, then shrinking down with a heat gun or hairdryer to give a waterproof and professional looking joint.

On the reversing light issue, they are not really there to illuminate the area that you are reversing in to, more to make other motorists aware of your intended actions.

Allan & Gill.

 

[LeeE]

Thanks for all your replies,
I'm lookin at spending 6-9K on a 5 berth so it won't be a new caravan with a 13 pin plug.
I'll be wiring it up myself as i'm a mechanic and will avoid the electrical blocks at all cost, Thaks for the advice on them!
Is there a cross over plug from the 13 pin to 12N? Just incase in the future i upgrade to a newer modle, i don't want to be re wiring the electrics on the tow bar.

 

[littlebasher]

http://www.towsure.com/product/10699-13-pin_to_7-pin_Adapter

 

[mcghee]

I have a feeling there is probably a dedicated trailer wiring harness available for the Passat which will plug into a pre-wired loom somewhere in the boot area. This would make wiring the socket(s) very quick and easy. I'm not very familiar with VW but I'd be surprised if there wasn't.

 

[Damian]

Quote "
Is there a cross over plug from the 13 pin to 12N? Just incase in the future i upgrade to a newer modle, i don't want to be re wiring the electrics on the tow bar."

Yes there are adaptors, but you are still left with the problems associated with the 12N, and 12S plug/socket situation, which is why it is more sensible to go straight to 13 pin from day one on both car and van.

 

[TD42]

On most modern cars wireing up a towbar can cause severe damage to the cars electrical systems if done incorrectly I suggest that you research your cars requirements thouroughly before you do the work.Personly I would fit the towbar myself & have it wired proffesionly Or buy the correct dedicated wireing harness for your car,but even then many foreign car harnesses do not cater for a british vans (foreign vans do not all have battery charging circuits) so seek advice from the likes of witter towbars who make towbars & harnesses designed for british caravans

 

[ChrisUK]

Hi Lee.
First of all welcome to caravanning.
Don't worry if you think any question might of been asked before, there are plenty of us here who will answer any enquiry. I've been caravanning for 25 years and can still recall the first venture in a 10ft sprite caravan with glass windows.

I have always used just the single socket for road lights myself, mainly because Most of my cars in the early days came with a single socket electric socket. The second plug usually grey with grey cable sheath is to enable things like the fridge to be kept cool on the move while towing. It also provides power for battery charging from the car and a pickup to power reversing lights.

To be quite honest what I do is run the fridge on the electric or gas if no power available the day before we go away. This gets the fridge and freezer box down to working temperature and when all turned off (because you must not travel with a gas fridge switched on for safety reasons), it will keep cool enough even on a 6 hour drive as long as it isn't opened too often. We never open the freezer box while on moving day, but milk for cuppas is fine.

As for charging the battery, I charge mine the day before or even leave the van hooked to electric when stored at home. I don't believe in adding extra charge strain on the car alternator even though the caravan battery is charged via a relay system in the auxilary wiring socket if fitted to the car.

The reversing light on my caravan is realy of little use except for being a white light. It doesn't illuminate much and being on the left side, is not much help when revering to the right. I always try to plan to arrive in daylight. I do use my hazard flashers when reversing and have the wife stand guard at the back. just make sure she stands where you can see her and gat here to use hand indications for stop, left, right and how far away Ie 90,60,30cm or 3ft 2ft,1ft and do as many visual signs as pos as verbal comunications can easily get mis-interpreted.

On the subject of reversing onto pitches,driving on and off forward (like car ferry) is ideal, but if that is not an option reversing is then required. If your van has a mover fitted thats fine to use and there's no shame in using it. But you should learn how to reverse anyway. Because you may well need to at any time while driving. Plus it looks real cool if you reverse onto your pitch in one move. Trust me it does take years of practice to do it perfect. Even I get it wrong now at times. To gain experience of reversing go to your local supermarket carpark when the shop's closed or use an empty carpark and practice reversing. One top tip of mine is to put a piece of insulation tape at 6 'O' clock on your steering wheel when the car is ateering straight. Now turn the wheel when reversing a quarter of a turn pushing the tape in the direction you want the caravn to go. Move backwards very slowly and have your hazard flashers on.when the caravan turns at about 45 degree's, turn the tape to the oposite direction while still going back. This will straighten up your outfit and give you an idea how big an area you need to turn. By varying the quater turn more or less than that, you can get an idea of how the caravan behaves. Don't forget to try going forward to straighten up and do another reverse turn to complete the move. It doen't matter how many times you do this to get the van parked. Trying a righthand reverse first is much easier as you can see out of your window what the caravan is doing.

Practice makes perfect.

All the best.

I wouldn't practice too much if you have a car with a conventional clutch, or an automatic with dual clutches. To keep the speed down you need to do a lot of clutch slipping. A 4x4 with low ratio gets over this though.

 

[Willi-Wonti]

With reference to over working the alternator by charging the caravan battery.
I was always led to believe that the alternator will charge the car battery 1st & only then when fully charged, charge the caravan battery.
So unless I am missing some thing, how is it overworking the alternator?

G

 

[hgv dave]

hi lee
one bit of advice that i would give you is to use the search facility on this forum
im sure that any question that you have,will have been answered on this forum before and if not im sure that asking any questions you will be sure of a reply because we have all been in the same place as you.........we all started knowing very little about caravaning and needed help at first
hope your first trip goes well,and dont forget the teaspoons like i did lol

hgv dave