A short while ago two people contacted me separately asking if I had any information relating to rewiring restoration caravans so that they could plug into a modern 13 pin electrics tow car and take advantage of leisure battery charging and run a modern fridge or coolbox.
This was followed up be someone asking me how they could upgrade a late 1970’s caravan and still incorporate and use the “CAR-VAN” switch to change between using the leisure battery or vehicle battery.

I came up with a couple of drawings that covered the basics to show how they could be upgraded to modern tow vehicles. The one above is a basic ‘front end’ from 13 pin plug back to a fuse block for the road lights and a habitation relay.
The drawing below add in the option of a “CAR-VAN” switch (sometimes labeled as CAR-CARAVAN) which uses the same 40 Amp relay as the habitation relay rather than a chunky high amp switch found in some models. However installing a CAR-VAN switch does have limitations… for example you could not install an inverter.

If you want to download these drawings (or any others I have done recently) they are now in PDF format sized A3 and can all be found on the “Electrical Drawings” sub menu below “Document Library“. I kept getting emails asking where such and such a drawing was, so I decided to put them all into one place.
I don’t normally do electrical drawings for specific projects (unless being paid), however if you have something that you think might be of interest to a wider audience drop me an email.
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Thanks Simon
I will investigate.
Hi Simon
I would like to avail myself of your experience please
Not too sure about the placing off this request as it doesn’t fit any of your current blogs, this is the nearest but not electrickery.
.
Recently collected our 2005 Argente 480-2 and currently preparing for the easing of lockdown starting with the water system. The pump leaks when operating ( marked up as a Uniflo TH7 set at 16 psi) and instead of repairing with a kit, the thought of replacing altogether with a TK10 30 psi came to mind as the difference in cost is minimal and the shower experience would be improved. The Avondale handbook quotes the Argente as being fitted with a pressure reducer (for mains hook up) set T 2.8 Bar (40 psi) for Truma heater protection (I would think) although I have not noticed such a device.
In your experience, is 30 psi too high a pressure for a 2005 unit?
Looking forward to your reply
Mike
Hi Mike
Running your water system at 30 PSI should be OK as it is within the pressure limits of caravan components which from my dealings seem to be around 50 PSI limit as an average max pressure. The only thing I can think off is there are two different manufacturers of caravan ‘click fit’ pipe and connectors and one has a lot lower PSI rating than the other. It might be worth double checking which system you have. Something that it might be worth getting into the habit of doing is switching off the water pump if you leave the caravan… we do now when we leave the caravan (or turn off the tap if on mains water hook up)
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