Tags
Caravan, Caravan Electrics, Caravan Wiring Projects, Caravanning, Caravans, Daylight Running Lights, Maintenance, Modifications, Towing
A while ago a chap emailed me asking if I could come up with a way of wiring Daylight Running Lights on a caravan without having to change any wiring in the tow vehicle or making a new connection via the 13 pin plug. He also wanted them to work correctly, i.e when the vehicle lights were turned on, the DRL’s turned off automatically. His idea was to install a 300mm strip of super bright white LED’s up each front corner of his caravan to make the caravan more visible.
Was it possible to come up with a wiring solution?
I’ve posted one possible solution in the ‘How To’ section of the “Help Guides‘ page or you can click on Wiring Daylight Running Lights on a caravan. I hope you find it useful.
S
Caravan Chronicles 
HI Simon,
A bit off topic here but I would like your opinion on this. I have a mains – 12 V transformer in my caravan. I also have a 12 V leisure battery and a mains battery charger. I have been told that when on site, and connected to the mains, I should seperate the battery from the caravans 12 V circuit when charging the battery. Is this necessary?
Hi Andrew
There is no need to disconnect the battery to charge it when on EHU on site. The unit’s installed in caravans are capable of charging the battery while supplying the van’s 12 volt system at the same time. The only time you need to disconnect the leisure battery is if you are not going to use your van for a couple of months and you wish to take the battery home and use one of the multistage conditioning chargers, such as the C-Tek range to fully recondition and recharge your battery.
The leisure battery in our caravan has not been disconnected in 27 months since buying the caravan.
S
Thanks a lot. The person who recommended isolating the battery from the caravans 12 v circuit when charging on site gave the reason as the battery and charger work better if undisturbed by the rest of the caravans 12 V electrics. Particularly as advanced charcers use pulse charging etc. when on a maintance charge. I couldn’t understand this “reasonig” either.
I wired my caravan using the scheme on your site for 13 pin electrics. I used 2.5 sq/mm cable
Hi Andrew
Caravan’s that have been manufactures over the last few years have had 12 volt supply/chargers that can do both jobs. In fact most over the last two or three years have ‘intelligent’ chargers that do look after your battery better. The separate multistage chargers that you can buy (such as C-Tek) can handle maintaing a leisure battery while the caravan is in use, but obviously, it cannot do it’s job 100% efficiently. But if you think about it, during the day when you are out, the caravan is only using a minimal amount from the battery, so these intelligent chargers can get on with the job OK.
S
I wired my caravan using the scheme on your site for 13 pin electrics. I am now being told that 2.5 sq/mm cable is dangerously undersized, and at least 10 sq/mm is needed! Cable of 2.5 sq/mm will handle about 25 A. My fridge uses 11 A, but I’m not sure what the leisure battery takes when charging. Cable of 10 sq/mm can handle 60 – 70 A. I can’t see how I need that large a cable. What do you think?
2.5 sq/mm cable is fine, the multicore cable used for the 13 pin lead has two sizes of cable in it. 2.5 sq/mm for the power circuits (battery charging, fridge supply, earth returns) and 1.5 sq/mm or 1.0 sq/mm for road lights.
The wiring in your tow vehicle for the leisure battery and fridge is usually 2.5 sq/mm or upgraded to 4.0 sq/mm but that is done to reduce the voltage drop.
The leisure battery will not take more than 15 amps when charging.
S
If you wanted to make your car & caravan more visible, isn’t easier to just turn your lights on 😉
I guess so, but then so many people don’t?
DRL’s on cars are noticeable during the day, I guess the small 5 watt sidelights on the front of caravans don’t cut it during daylight hours 😦
S