I had booked our caravan in for its annual service for Tuesday 8th atGlossop Caravans, the local main dealer that we bought our caravan from 3 years ago. Now, by chance after a couple of comments on Twitter and a brief conversation via email with Jonathan Robe, Glossop Caravan’s IT Manager, it was arranged for me to spend some time and follow our caravan through its annual service to see what goes on behind the scenes at a major dealer’s service centre. Continue reading →
Some of the most popular articles on Caravan Chronicles are the “practical” type posts. Anything from the electrical stuff through to little modifications and projects I’ve done. A while ago I had the chance to look through some of the caravanning magazines from the late 50’s through to the late 60’s and they were full of projects. Installing a new roof light, repairing door hinges, updating handles and magnetic catches… in fact all sorts. One interesting early article was about upgrading your caravans road lights to install indicators using the ‘new’ 7 pin plug! Continue reading →
Back in February I wrote a post “Testing Testing…“ about trying out some OLPRO products. One in particular was their “Inside & Out” which I tried on the Freelander with great success, however I haven’t had chance to try it on the caravan… mainly due to the weather and I did promise back then to do an update.
So the day after we returned from our North Wales trip (A Pitch With A View…) The weather was co-operating so we loaded up the trailer with 3 x 25 litre containers of water, a hand pressure spray, a set of steps, long-handled soft washing brush and set off for the caravan storage compound.
Right.. where do we start? (Sue is wearing one of my mahoosive old polo shirts)
One thing we had noticed using the caravan all year round was the front wall between the caravan interior and gas locker and the window shelf above it always seemed noticeably cooler than the rest of the walls of the caravan. The cupboard under the front draws also was a lot cooler even though it had a blown heating pipe running through it. I’m not sure if it’s just a perceived thing that we think its cooler or if it’s down to the fact that the insulation in the front dividing wall my be a little thinner.
In an effort to try to cure this, I had been on the look out for some sticky backed foam insulation. Searching round the web gave a few results, but it was mainly for sound insulation rather than thermal insulation. However I did eventually discover Foam Solutions UK in Nantwich, Cheshire that offered a whole range of foam for various uses. When I started looking I wanted something that was anti-static and fire-retardant as it was being installed in the gas locker. Foam Solutions UK had just the product, a fire-retardant foam sheet that was designed for use under engine bonnets. I emailed Carole at Foam Solutions UK and she kindly sent out some samples, including a piece of the under bonnet material. A quick measure up and I ordered enough for the front gas locker and to cover the wheel arches inside the wardrobe and under the fixed bed.
First task was to empty the gas locker and give it a bit of a dust out…..
I thought I’d work from both sides into the middle where most cutting would be required. I’d have to make sure non of the gas pipes would be covered so that they could be inspected when it came to the annual service. I also had to make sure that the safety labels and notices were visible, so a bit of careful peeling would be required.
Measuring the first section, the foam was cut with a straight edge and a scalpel in an Exacto knife. I’d taken a couple of large pieces of cardboard to cut on to make it easier.
It didn’t take long to get the first few straight cut pieces installed. One thing though, the sticky back is really sticky and it took a bit of manoeuvring to get the pieces into the locker without sticking them to anything they touched.
I made sure that I left enough gap to inspect the gas pipe or to get to any screw heads that might require checking for tightness in the future. Peeling the labels off in one piece was a bit of a chore… I will probably try to get new ones at some point in the future.
The completed locker….
… and the underside of the window shelf….
After a bit of a sort out and removing some stuff we haven’t used for a while (saving a couple of kilo’s in weight!), everything was replaced back in to the locker.
The next job will be to do the wheel arches inside the caravan.
Lucky or what!
When I was feeding in the second piece on the right hand side I had to take it out to curve it to get it in position. When I removed it I spotted something stuck to the bottom edge ( I did say it was really sticky!)….. it was my Wedding ring! I thought I’d lost it somewhere between our last stop in France – Camping Risle Seine and reaching home back in October 2012. It could have so easily dropped through one of the various vents in the floor in the couple of thousand miles of towing since then, but there it was, stuck to my piece of insulation.
So another little job crossed off the list. I’m not sure how effective it will be, only time and a bit of cold weather will tell. It might very well be a placebo thing…. but as the supermarket slogan say’s “Every Little Helps”.
Contact Info: Foam Solutions UK, Haymoor Hall, Wybunbury Lane, Nantwich. CW5 7HD or http://www.foamsolutionsuk.co.uk or telephone 01270 842 228 or email Carole: carole_395@fsmail.net
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There is a lot of confusion over what the differences are and when to use each one. So what are they? A relay is just a simple switch that allows a low power electrical circuit to turn on (or off) a high-powered electrical circuit. An SCR or Split Charge Relay is a switch that senses voltage and switches over from one circuit to another at a pre set voltage. Finally a VSR – Voltage Sensing Relay is similar to an SCR but turns on and additional circuit at a pre set voltage. So what do you use each one for?
Split Charge Relay – SCR
These are usually installed in 4 x 4’s that have a lot of accessories fitted especially electrical winches. The general idea is the winch is powered from a second battery so that using the winch should never flatten the main vehicle starter battery. As the winch uses a lot of power, it is necessary to be able to recharge this battery as fast as possible using the output from the vehicle’s alternator, so once the vehicle starter battery is fully charged, the output from the alternator is switched directly over to the second battery. Modern SCR’s are usually all solid state and some times have a bypass switch allowing both batteries to be directly connected for either starting the vehicle if the starter battery is flat or to allow the winch to be powered from the starter battery in emergencies.
SCR’s are normally solid state, I have shown it as switches to make it clearer. Note: I haven’t shown any fuses or earth (neutral) cables. Never use the vehicle body as a conductor, always install correctly sized earth (neutral) cables.
How do SCR’s operate?
If you look at the drawing above, you can see the alternator output goes straight to the split charge relay. In normal operation the relay connects the output of the alternator to the starter battery. Once the engine is running and the relay determines the starter battery is fully charged, it switches the output of the alternator to the vehicle accessory battery. If the voltage on the vehicle starter battery drops, the relay switches back. However, these relays are slightly more sophisticated and have the ability to dual feed – i.e. charge both batteries at the same time or the ability to link both batteries for either vehicle starting or to power accessories under extreme load… heavy and prolonged winching for example. Expect to pay serious money for a good quality SCR with a remote bypass facility and battery monitoring.
A true ‘split charge relay’ is not suitable for charging your caravan leisure battery, but could be used for charging leisure batteries in motorhomes.
Voltage Sensing Relay – VSR
Voltage sensing relays were designed to sense the tow vehicles battery voltage and when the battery is sufficiently charged switch on a second circuit, usually the power to the caravan’s fridge. Some of the more sophisticated VSR’s allow the setting of the voltage the relay will operate at. The biggest draw back with these is if the electrical load with the tow vehicle suddenly increases – turning on the headlights, heated windows, air con etc, they can turn off the circuit to the caravan’s fridge until the electrical load is removed. It is for this reason they should be installed with an indicator light on the dash to confirm that they are actually supplying the fridge. With a caravan, if there isn’t a feed to the fridge, the habitation relay will not operate and therefore the caravan’s leisure battery will not be charged.
VSR’s can be a mix of solid state and mechanical switch or all solid state. Again, I have not shown fuses or earth (neutral) cables for clarity.
VSR’s work on the principle that they monitor the vehicles electrical voltage. The VSR’s sensor detects the voltage change when the vehicle battery is fully or near fully charged, it closes the contacts connecting the leisure battery in circuit and allowing it to be charged. However, if the vehicle voltage drops for some reason, the relay will open disconnecting the leisure battery.
Problems with VSR’s
Most of the time they are installed when the rest of the towing electrics are installed and are usually located behind a panel in the rear load area of the vehicle. Because of this, it is rare to see one that has a dashboard indicator light installed to show when it is ON and charging your leisure battery and consequently switching over the habitation relay allowing your fridge to work. The second problem is when they leave the factory the voltage that they are designed to switch on at is set at the correct level if it was installed near the vehicle battery. As it has been installed some distance away, the length of cable between the battery and VSR has its own voltage drop – dependant on length of cable and current through it. So one fault that is often reported is that the relay ‘vibrates’ or ‘chatters’. This is caused by the voltage drop on the connecting cable increasing below the “trigger voltage” when the leisure battery is connected and the relay is simply turning on and off repeatedly. Like most things you get what you pay for and the more expensive VCR’s have a timer circuit built-in so that they only switch over after a pre-determined time.
But wait…. there’s more!
Modern vehicles are sophisticated bits of engineering, electronics and software. In order to reduce emissions a lot of manufacturers removed things like hydraulic power steering pumps and air conditioning pumps and replaced them with electrical motors. This removed mechanical load from the engine and reduced the weight. The trade-off was the vehicle needed more electrical power, so larger alternators were fitted. As power steering and air conditioning wasn’t needed all the time and in order to prolong the life of the vehicle battery, the alternator is now controlled by the software in the vehicles ECU. So when the ECU detects the vehicle battery is fully charged it reduced the output of the alternator by reducing the voltage and therefore reducing the load on the engine and hence reducing engine emissions. If you have a VSR fitted, this drop in the vehicle voltage will stop the VSR working as it was intended to do. So even if the VCR has a timer circuit, it can still fail to work as intended.
Theres is an interesting letter posted in the September 2013 issue of Land Rover Owner magazine:
Article appeared in Land Rover Owner International September 2013. (c) LRO / Bauermedia
How can we reliably charge the leisure battery in modern vehicles? Well the clue is in the article above. If we can fool the tow vehicle to ‘see’ the leisure battery as part of the vehicles own electrical system the software in the ECU won’t reduce the voltage until both the leisure battery and vehicle battery are suitably charged.
Ordinary Relay
The most straight forward way of providing the leisure battery with a suitable charging circuit is also the cheapest. A simple 30 Amp 12 volt relay can be bought for a few pounds and it will be a reliable way of charging your caravan’s leisure battery.
Ordinary 30 Amp relay. Again, I have not shown fuses or earth (neutral) cables for clarity.
The circuit above shows an ordinary 30 Amp automotive relay being used to switch the leisure battery charing circuit. The relay is controlled by the ignition circuit, so when the engine is running the relay is energised and the leisure battery is being charged. As the leisure battery is in circuit all the time the engine is running, the vehicles software in the ECU ‘sees’ just one big battery and will keep the alternator voltage high enough to charge both batteries fully before reducing the output in energy-saving /emission reducing mode.
Some vehicles including a number of Land Rover’s actually have a connection on the main fuse board specifically to control this relay.
Right you didn’t hear this from me! I have just heard about a show offer. If you are going to the show this week at the NEC hi tail it over to Hall 1 and see Tamworth Camping. They and OLPRO have teamed up and will be selling the Bottom & Top and the more concentrated Bottom & Top Plus for your loo for a show stopping £5.99 so go and stock up for the season! All the other chemicals will be on offer too. If you have any questions one of the OLPRO guys will be on the Tamworth Camping stand as well, so ask him about the other stuff they do too!
S
PS… Make sure you stop by OLPRO’s main stand (5300, Hall 5) where you might just catch them all lounging about in their new natty pop up beach huts!
I do like things that do more than one job. I like multi tools for example and I especially like things that do more than one job well. I’m also into things that save space and weight in the caravan, and I have been looking round for ‘stuff’ that does both.
You know those days when you have a cup of coffee in one hand, mouse in the other and you are looking out of the office window at the rain wishing you were staring out of the caravan window instead? Thoughts turn to Googling and by one of those tricks that Google has of finding things you never knew you wanted and completely off the subject I was Googling in the first place found me reading about OLPRO. Continue reading →
Safefillare well known for their red 15 litre (7.56Kg of LPG) refillable gas cylinders and we have been using one these for around two years now. We have saved quite a bit of money when compared to using the rental/exchange cylinders that are available.
One of the biggest advantages is we can always set off camping with a full cylinder of gas and never have to worry about running out. We can easily check the contents through the semi transparent cylinder and if required, take the cylinder out of the caravan, put it in the car and re-fill at the nearest LPG station. There are a growing number of Morrisons petrol stations (over 50 at the time of writing) that have LPG pumps and we have never had any problems filling our cylinder in Morrisons.
Image (c) Safefill
However one of the things people always raise is ” it’s not big enough, we would need two cylinders” OK fair comment and to answer this Safefill have now introduced a new blue 20 litre cylinder… that holds 10.08Kg of gas (that is the equivalent of two and a half 3.9Kg Calor gas cylinders or over one and a half 6Kg Calor gas cylinders) and one of the best things is the price is exactly the same as the red cylinder – £149.99.
At an average LPG pump price of 80 pence per litre, that means it will cost around £16 to fill up from empty… how much would it cost to exchange two 3.9Kg Calor or one 6Kg Calor? (At the time of writing a 3.9Kg Calor is about £15.50 and a 6Kg Calor is around £20.00)
So if you use a lot of gas or are travelling in Europe (European filling adaptors are available) coupled with the weight saving that a refillable cylinder gives over steel cylinders (are you struggling with your nose weight?) and the advantages of being able to always set off with a full cylinder of gas what’s not to like!
To find LPG refilling sites have a look on the Links page or download the Safefill Refilling POI’s for your GPS from their web site.
Do you get dazzled by the reflection of you vehicles fog lights on the front of your caravan at night?
Someone emailed me about this problem. As he had a 4 x 4 and the fog lights were higher than some cars, when he turned the fog lights on, the front of the caravan was lit up bright red and a distraction. He asked me if I could come up with a simple way of turning the vehicle fog lights off, but leaving the caravan fog lights on…. but making sure it complied with the law.
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