D3 12N Trailer Plug and Reverse PIN 2

[Kalbee118]

I have just purchased a caravan and PIN 2 needs to be AUX for caravan fridge oeprations while travelling and breakaway battery charging. Is there any issues in removing the reversing signal wire in the 12N car socket and replacing that wire with 12V AUX wire?

Cheers

John

[Tinman]

Hi John In my setup I have removed all the wiring from the euro white socket and inserted a set of wires from my second battery in the vehicle which I then plug into my caravan in other words I have two seperate plugs. The pins are easy to remove. Once removed the pins were left connected to their wires.They were then tapped up. New pins were then installed which I took from a socket purchased at Supacheap autos. You can make up any configuation of pins you may require. So the answer to your question is yes.

[101RRS]

I doubt the original wiring is up to the task of running a fridge as it will be pulling in the order of 10-15 amps and the voltage loss to the rear of the car and caravan will be substantial.

You should really be running separate heavy duty cable from the man or aux battery and using an Anderson Plug at the rear of the car and a separate cable in the van to power the van when being towed.

Garry

[Tinman]

My second car battery when plugged into the caravan runs a 12v to 12v battery charger which charges my two storage batteries in the van so not much current involved here. Also I have run dedicated wiring from my second battery to the rear of my D3 to accomadate for this.

[Kalbee118]

Thank guys. I have gone done the path of rewiring pin 2 and earth with heavier cable. I have nearly completed the task using a break out from the Traxide wiring kit I put in 14 months ago. If the 3 way fridge uses more than 25 amps it can stay off while we travel! I wish I had have know I would need heavier wire on Pin 2 when I put in the electric brake wire to Pin 5 it would have saved some time and effort!

Cheers John

[jimc]

Did you take note what colour the wire was for reverse? Did you make the change in the LHS cubby hole inside the car or elsewhere?

This is one of the jobs I need to do, but as others have said, turning on the fog lights has the same effect!

[Kalbee118]

Hi jimc,

I ran a double insulated twin core to the trailer plug. I couldn't see the point of upgrading the AUX power and leaving the earth as the stand thin light gauge white wire. The Reverse wire was blue at the plug and only very light gauge, smaller than the white earth wires.

I had thought of jumping power from the white 12S plug but the gauge of those wires was all that much heavier than those used on the 12N plug. After completing the job my indicators didn't work but I had tail and brake lights.
My wife asked if I had turned on the LED module which I hadn't but they still didn't work. After some fault diags it turn out that the top plug in the LH tail light hadn't seat correctly (indicator plug)..................phew!:p

[DirtDigger]

Hi Kalbee

I am not sure why you want to modify the 12N socket in the first place. It is designed for left and right indictors, stop and tail lights and electric brakes on pin 5. Pin 2 is for reversing as per the suppose Aust Standards that LR don't seem to know about. My LR D4 is wired for European market

The 12N is not designed for large amp draw.

You have the white 12S (power) socket that has 12 volt power on 2 pins - Pin 6 is thru ignition (red with white strip) the other - Pin 4 is constant live (blue with pink strip). Both are fused at 30 Amps. There are 2 white wires for earth separately these 2 power leads. I have used pin 4 for charging my brake safe van battery -its not particularly big. I have wired pin 2 for the Break Safe remote monitor in the D4.

Vans (certainly larger ones >2t) are now wired to Flat 12 pin Plugs (if the Van maker belongs to the Caravan Manufactures association) - they don't use large round 7 pin plugs /sockets anymore. The Flat 12 Pin accommodates all the connections for both 12S and 12N. I have made a y shaped connector harass from the flat 12 pin socket - one arm goes to the 12S, the other arm of the Y goes via a pulse buster to 12N

I use a much heavier gauge wire - 6 mm to the Anderson Socket from my deep cycle car battery thru a 100 amp fuse at the battery, to charge the 3x210 aH deep cycle batteries on the van - running 213 litre Waeco fridge RPD-215DC (Danfoss compressor). totally independent of the 12N and 12S sockets. The Anderson SB 50 has much larger HD pin connectors (compared to either of the 12S or 12N) designed to take 50+ Amps and can take 6 to 8 mm cable easily.

You can get at the necessary wiring inside back left - easier if take out the whole side internal panel or behind the LH rear tail light assembly. I did as I wanted to bring the video cable (Van camera) thru as well as the Brake-Safe remote monitor wire to the drivers seat area.

Another thing I have done is cut the blue wire that goes to the 12 N - pin2 as I don't have fog lights on the Van - its tail LED lights are bright enough. I have taken a jumper wire from the Yellow brown strip wire that goes to 12S pin 1 and feed it back to the 12N Pin2 (distal part of the blue wire previously cut and continues to 12N pin2 - this now gives me reverse lights thru the 12N socket connector - pin2 ( This is the Aust Standard anyway) - the 12S Pin1 still remains as another reverse connection - I am wiring that for a reversing buzzer at the rear of the van.

I would be concerned with Tinman if he is still using the 12S pins particularly if he has larger deep cycle battery on is van - he'll need to be charging 25-30 Amps which I think exceeds the rating on the Connector Pins.

Hope this all helps. Rosco. Tows 17" Elite RV with D4 HSE

[Alanswim]

Hi Kalbee

I am not sure why you want to modify the 12N socket in the first place. It is designed for left and right indictors, stop and tail lights and electric brakes on pin 5. Pin 2 is for reversing as per the suppose Aust Standards that LR don't seem to know about. My LR D4 is wired for European market

The 12N is not designed for large amp draw.

You have the white 12S (power) socket that has 12 volt power on 2 pins - Pin 6 is thru ignition (red with white strip) the other - Pin 4 is constant live (blue with pink strip). Both are fused at 30 Amps. There are 2 white wires for earth separately these 2 power leads. I have used pin 4 for charging my brake safe van battery -its not particularly big. I have wired pin 2 for the Break Safe remote monitor in the D4.

Vans (certainly larger ones >2t) are now wired to Flat 12 pin Plugs (if the Van maker belongs to the Caravan Manufactures association) - they don't use large round 7 pin plugs /sockets anymore. The Flat 12 Pin accommodates all the connections for both 12S and 12N. I have made a y shaped connector harass from the flat 12 pin socket - one arm goes to the 12S, the other arm of the Y goes via a pulse buster to 12N

I use a much heavier gauge wire - 6 mm to the Anderson Socket from my deep cycle car battery thru a 100 amp fuse at the battery, to charge the 3x210 aH deep cycle batteries on the van - running 213 litre Waeco fridge RPD-215DC (Danfoss compressor). totally independent of the 12N and 12S sockets. The Anderson SB 50 has much larger HD pin connectors (compared to either of the 12S or 12N) designed to take 50+ Amps and can take 6 to 8 mm cable easily.

You can get at the necessary wiring inside back left - easier if take out the whole side internal panel or behind the LH rear tail light assembly. I did as I wanted to bring the video cable (Van camera) thru as well as the Brake-Safe remote monitor wire to the drivers seat area.

Another thing I have done is cut the blue wire that goes to the 12 N - pin2 as I don't have fog lights on the Van - its tail LED lights are bright enough. I have taken a jumper wire from the Yellow brown strip wire that goes to 12S pin 1 and feed it back to the 12N Pin2 (distal part of the blue wire previously cut and continues to 12N pin2 - this now gives me reverse lights thru the 12N socket connector - pin2 ( This is the Aust Standard anyway) - the 12S Pin1 still remains as another reverse connection - I am wiring that for a reversing buzzer at the rear of the van.

I would be concerned with Tinman if he is still using the 12S pins particularly if he has larger deep cycle battery on is van - he'll need to be charging 25-30 Amps which I think exceeds the rating on the Connector Pins.

Hope this all helps. Rosco. Tows 17" Elite RV with D4 HSE


Hi Rosco


I am about to pick up a van from Elite with the 12 pin plug and thought I would do the same as you so I'm glad to see it worked. My question is about the size of wire you used on the Y connection. Can you fill me in. Also what plug and pin did you wire your break controller to? Finally Elite is intending to use a 1.85mm2 wire (4.5mm auto) for the break controller but a auto elec has said its to small and I should request a 4,5mm2 (6mm auto) what did they do on yours and is it working OK if they used the smaller size wire.


AlanSwim

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I wonder what the ADRs are for if manufacturers can ignore them at their will. It is actually dangerous that a trailer wired for ADR (AS2513-1982) is plugged into a Euro (ISO 1724) socket. Pin 5 for the electric brakes will lock the brakes on when the tail lights are turned on and if you turn on the rear fog lamps on the car, the trailer will illuminate the white reversing lamps.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

BTW the white ISO 3732 socket has the centre pin reversed so you can't plug in the wrong plug.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/trailers-vans-campers/186267-trailer-sockets-iso1724-iso3732-as2513-1982-a.html

Why can't someone design a 9 (or 10) large pin coupling, then we can have most circuits we need without going to the double row 12 pin coupling which doesn't flat mount and is vulnerable to damage under the body. A large chassis ground pin.
Tail lamps
Stop lamps
Right turn lamp
Left turn lamp
Electric service brakes
reversing lamps
rear fog
Battery +ve
Ignition +ve/spare

[Alanswim]

Thanks for your post I have been checking my black plug on my discovery 3 as I'm about to buy a van and need to make a cable to connect car and van. When I check volts on the car plug pin 6 stop lamps I only get 6 volts when the break is pushed is this correct?

[Meken]

I wonder what the ADRs are for if manufacturers can ignore them at their will. It is actually dangerous that a trailer wired for ADR (AS2513-1982) is plugged into a Euro (ISO 1724) socket. Pin 5 for the electric brakes will lock the brakes on when the tail lights are turned on and if you turn on the rear fog lamps on the car, the trailer will illuminate the white reversing lamps.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

BTW the white ISO 3732 socket has the centre pin reversed so you can't plug in the wrong plug.

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/trailers-vans-campers/186267-trailer-sockets-iso1724-iso3732-as2513-1982-a.html

Why can't someone design a 9 (or 10) large pin coupling, then we can have most circuits we need without going to the double row 12 pin coupling which doesn't flat mount and is vulnerable to damage under the body.
A large chassis ground pin.
Tail lamps
Stop lamps
Right turn lamp
Left turn lamp
Electric service brakes
reversing lamps
rear fog
Battery +ve
Ignition +ve/spare



Ahhh my old fav bee in my bonnet