Thread: What type of electrical connectors for accessories?

Originally Posted by EchiDna

taking a stab in the dark - any chance you use some kind of water proofing agent regularly on the powerpoles? (WD 40, silicone spray, armourall, something else?)

I do some plastics degradation testing as part of my work and the presence of organic solvents (typically from aerosols) can make many materials turn brittle quite quickly, especially in conjunction with UV...

I have found the connectors don't conduct so well after they get dusty and when that happens I'll put electrolube (cleaner with a light oil) or if I don't have that then I will use wd-40 or similar.

I'm not sure that is the case though as there were some I changed twice on our last trip. I'm not sure why but the red plastic seemed to be worse than black as I ran out of red ones quite early I think I took 4 packets on our trip and I ran out and had to do some interim wiring to get home. We were only away for two weeks so they just kept popping.

I use the 50amp(?) Anderson plugs and have not had any breakage issues. My only beef is that one of them is very difficult to pull apart so may redo that one.

I used the 50amp so that I could have a standard across all outlets:

• one on aux battery in vehicle
• the outlet at rear of car that I use to connect the trailer. This is handiest for compressor when pumping tyres back up
• one on battery on trailer
• one on other side of trailer that runs back to trailer battery
• and yet to come is one on the starter battery so that I can use the 6metre extension to jump start from the aux battery or trailer battery

Most of my devices have been converted except fridge and a torpedo light.

So that I can still use devices on other vehicles I also have made up some adaptors from Anderson plug to:

• alligator clips
• cigarette lighter plug
• and a small T-shaped connector that I cannot remember the name of

Below is a pic of some of the appliances that have been converted

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I have found the connectors don't conduct so well after they get dusty and when that happens I'll put electrolube (cleaner with a light oil) or if I don't have that then I will use wd-40 or similar.

I'm not sure that is the case though as there were some I changed twice on our last trip. I'm not sure why but the red plastic seemed to be worse than black as I ran out of red ones quite early I think I took 4 packets on our trip and I ran out and had to do some interim wiring to get home. We were only away for two weeks so they just kept popping.

Post a pic of your installation please..

I'm another that uses the 12V polarised 2 pin plugs.

However looking at the pics of the Anderson plugs it seems that the ones used by Discostew are the grey plugs that have a slightly flexible grey plastic cover but the ones shown by Captain_Rightfoot look to have a more brittle plastic. I think it's just a case of two different manufacturers and unfortunately one is not as good as the others.

Martyn

Originally Posted by Tombie2

Post a pic of your installation please..

This is my power takeoff device for our car. With the defender battery being under the seat I built it to avoid the need for digging out the battery - shy of jumpstarting. One of the big anderson connectors is the power in. The other big one was intended to be for the inverter or compressor.

There are then the two small andersons which keep shattering (after the fist two broke I stopped gluing them to the box). The two cig sockets are good (thanks Drivesafe).

Originally Posted by Bushie

I'm another that uses the 12V polarised 2 pin plugs.

However looking at the pics of the Anderson plugs it seems that the ones used by Discostew are the grey plugs that have a slightly flexible grey plastic cover but the ones shown by Captain_Rightfoot look to have a more brittle plastic. I think it's just a case of two different manufacturers and unfortunately one is not as good as the others.

Martyn

Actually the grey ones are a far bigger connector intended for higher loads. They are much tougher, but are hard to disconnect. They are painful if you are connecting and un connecting things frequently when camping.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

Actually the grey ones are a far bigger connector intended for higher loads. They are much tougher, but are hard to disconnect. They are painful if you are connecting and un connecting things frequently when camping.

There's truth in that. For stuff that I use day-to-day while camping I have a mini-jack outlet at the back of the trailer eg lights, iPod speaker, radio

Well I thank you all for your help. I found these connectors at Jaycar and will give them a try. They are rated at 15A (which should be plenty), are easy to connect and disconnect, and look durable. Time will tell. They are also about 1/3rd the cost (from Jaycar anyway). I will report on them soon.

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