Damage to 13 pin lead
Despite nearly two decades of caravanning I recently suffered from 13 pin lead grounding whilst towing. Trip was relatively short and damage cut through protective sheathing and began to wear away insulation on two of the wires, exposing the copper. (Any longer trip and the wires would have completely worn through). A temporary repair with insulation tape to the wires and duct tape wrapped round the lead was sufficient to complete the journey with fully functioning driving lights on the caravan.
A replacement 13 pin lead is the obvious solution, The problem is that the caravan end of the cable appears not to be accessible without deconstructing the front central chest of drawers, the holiday season is approaching....and so -
Questions for discussion, if this were to happen to you:
1. How long would you run with a functioning temporary repair?
2. Would you attempt to fit a replacement lead yourself?
3. What is your guess for a dealer fitted replacement?
Comments
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Answers:
1. Till I could get it fixed which for me would really mean the next day even if that means getting a mobile engineer on site.
2. No, as I'm not competent on things like that.
3. This did happen to me with the plug falling out and it wasn't that expensive, but really for me anyway isn't the cost totally besides the point? What price is there for safety?
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If the cable is sound through the front locker then cut the cable back and fit a plug inside the locker. Use a 13 pin extension cable from the plug to your tow vehicle.
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When it happened to us the damage was fairly severe, although I did manage a bodge job in the motorway services to get the lights functioning again. As it was going in for something else I got the dealer to sort it. They put a waterproof connector on the underside of the caravan and a new bit of lead from there to the 13 pin plug. I can’t remember how much but it wasn’t particularly expensive and a lot easier than me lying on my back under the caravan.😂
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It happened to me in France, I cut the outer cable back to get at the individual cables which had shorted and blown a fuse. Three damaged cables which I taped over the taped over the outer cable. On retuning home I looked at replacing the cable, but it enters the van (Elddis) under the bed locker behind the fuse box with collection of wires for mains 12volt and motor mover cables and box. I decided to cut back cable and reposition plug at rear of A frame ang used a curly extension as attached photo. I clipped the cable to the chassis rail using clips from the front end of A frame either side of the join. I always hook th curly cable over the lever for jockey wheel clamp to stop it bouncing and contacting the ground. Been ok for four years now.
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If you could get some electrical tape between the single cables to insulate them from each other then use "self amalgamating tape" round the outer lead to make it weather proof and this should suffice till you can get it changed providing you have not worn through too many strands of the wire in the lead.
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In our case, no screws are involved!
The chest has an oversize base board which slots under a piece of wood at the front of the van then the front of the base sits down behind another piece of wood. The extended sides then go out under the front seats base cushions to sit on those base supports.
So it is just a matter of lifting the front of the chest a little and pulling it towards you once you have the base cushions out of the way.
We had an unfortunate incident with ours a couple of years back. The magnets holding the back of the drawers failed to do their job and the drawers, and pull out table top, had come sliding out presumably due to a bumpy bit of road. Due to the combined weight of the drawers, contents, and table top, the whole thing had tipped over and ended up upside down in the space between the front seats. Quite a mess greeted us when we opened the door on arrival at our site!!
Actually the whole thing did not tip off the supporting structure, the chest with drawers and contents had ripped itself free of the oversize base board, it remained firmly in place.
Once I had repaired it and improved the hold of the magnets, I devised a system for tying it into place while travelling, so there has been no repeat of the debacle.
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When this happened to me the service engineer rerouted the cable under the caravan to create more cable at the plug end, fitted a new plug and off we go.
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