D3/4 as a caravan tug: How good?

**Grumndriva** · 7th December 2010, 11:56 AM

After lots of help from this forum and from TRS in Adelaide, I have decided to keep my D2. In the end, there were just too many mods that had to be done to make the D4 suitable for what I wanted to do, and the cost just blew out. We may still go the D4 route later, but for now, TRS is building me a new engine which hopefully will be fitted to my D2 by the end of next week.

Sincere thanks to all of you who shared your experience to help with my decision: sorry I won't be joining you just yet.

Cheers,
Terry

**drivesafe** · 21st October 2011, 08:41 PM

bump

**mowog** · 21st October 2011, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by drivesafe

bump

One wonders why you would bump such an old thread?

**drivesafe** · 21st October 2011, 11:07 PM

Hi mowog, I’m doing some research into electric brakes on trailers and breakaway battery set ups so I bumped this thread up and will ask some questions when I have the time.

Cheers.

**drivesafe** · 22nd October 2011, 07:26 AM

Hi Folks and I have been doing some R&D with these In-Cab Breakaway Battery Monitors ( Legal requirement for NSW regos only ) and I was wondering if any D3/D4 owners have one fitted and if so how well does it work?

**discojools** · 26th October 2011, 03:04 PM

What are In Car Breakaway Battery Monitors?

**drivesafe** · 26th October 2011, 10:09 PM

Hi discojools, basically any vehicle towing a caravan over a give weight which requires a breakaway battery ( which is a national requirement ), in NSW, the tow vehicle must have an audible and/or visual indicator in the cab of the tow vehicle to show the state of the breakaway battery.

My research is based on how well these monitors work, if they actually work at all?

**TerryO** · 27th October 2011, 02:46 PM

HI Drivesafe,

While a relative newbie to vanning I can say from my limited experience that no one I know has an audible monitor in their tug and prior to you bringing it up I had never heard of this law.

Are you sure in NSW's this is the law given that I have now had two vehicles fitted with brake controllers for towing our van and in both cases the installer new I was towing a van with a break away system and the van dealer didn't mention this as a requirement either when I ordered the van. He did try and sell me a short lead specifically for charging the break away battery though.

One would expect that these businesses which all could have earned more money by selling me this system would have taken every chance to separate me of more money if they had a chance.

cheers,
Terry

**drivesafe** · 28th October 2011, 03:43 AM

Hi Terry and this does not surprise me.

Many RTA inspectors are unaware of this requirement and while the legislation came into effect in 1998, only after the 2007 revision was there any real efforts made to enforce this requirement, but if you are pulled over for a spot inspection, there is a good chance you will get a defect notice for both the tow vehicle and the caravan if it’s an NSW registered vehicle and caravan.

The link below will get you a copy of the regulations.

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/registrati...s_nov_2007.pdf

**DirtDigger** · 10th August 2013, 10:40 AM

Has this situation changed as of 2013? Have other States adopted this regulation and fallen in line with NSW? I haven't heard anything more about it. I am about to buy a van with a breakaway system - The Van's 12 Pin plug is set up with Pins 8 & 9 for the breakaway power supply and monitor. There are monitors ike the ? RV 6000 that actually interrupts the power supply when brakes to the van are applied and tests the battery for the break away at the same time. The breakaway needs its own power supply from the tow vehicle independent to the Van's normal power supply and battery

12-Pin Trailer Plug Connections

Loom 3 & 4

Trailer

Plug

Pin No.

Description Cable colour Cable Cable

Nominal CSA

(mm2)

1 Left Hand Indicator Yellow ECA3 1.13

2 Aux/Reverse Signal

3 Earth Return White ECA4 1.85

4 Right Hand

Indicator

Green ECA3 1.13

5 Service Brakes Blue ECA4 1.85

6 Stop Lights Red ECA3 1.13

7 Clearance/Marker

Lights

Brown ECA3 1.13

8 Brake-safe Charging Black ECA4 1.85

9 Brake-safe Remote Purple ECA4 1.85

10 Earth Return Black ECA6 4.65

11

12 Dometic AES

Sensing wire

(If Applicable)

Pink ECA4 1.85

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