Thread: 12V wiring

I would use a minimum of 4mm twin core wire - around about a 15A rating from memory. It's been perfect for lighting hook-ups etc that I've done, in particular for LED lighting which has such a small requirement compared to the older set-ups. Jaycar are normally a good supplier of this type of gear.

Have a look at: JTS Online - 12 Volt LED, HID and Florescent Lights and see if you can find something that you like. Then compare that price against other companies or even e-bay.

In particular check if there are any companies that help support this site and if they offer any of the stuff you are after. Quite often they will give AULRO members a good discount and I always try to support them where possible.


Cheers
Chris

Originally Posted by Gullible

Looking at putting in some 12V lights in our stationary caravan to run off a battery. The caravan is 26ft long what type/size of electrical wire do I need to run lights from the battery to the other end of the caravan with minimal losses?

Also, anyone know a supplier of good 12V LED lights?

Hi, I have bought LED lights off this mob have found them good to deal with;

JGM Direct

They have lots of lights, plugs and switches. Hope this helps.

Cheers Jeff

Thanks for the pointers.

Just on the off chance, anybody have a wire diagram for a 197_? Viscount Royal 26ft caravan?

If not can anybody give me some pointers as to where I might find the 12v battery location?

The caravan still has the original double light fittings and a light switch for each bulb. The 240v works but I do not know where I need to connect my battery to find out if the 12v wiring is still intact. I'd rather not pull off all the inside paneling to find out.

My alternative is to just wire up new lights and lay the cables on the outside of the panels. Messy but quick.

The most likely source of 12V power in an older caravan is from the trailer plug. 7 pin trailer plugs often have an auxiliary power connection on one of the pins. i would suggest you start from the plug and trace the wiring backwards and see which wires are not present at the tail lights.

Traditional wiring for trailers is: yellow: left indicator, green: right indicator, red: stop, brown: tail, white: earth, blue or black: accessories and/or electric brakes. If you open the trailer plug apply the negative of a spare battery to the white wire, and positive to each other wire in turn. Check what comes on at the rear then the interior.

As for batteries, a caravan isn't that big that you could lose a battery. Unless it has a charger built in it is unlikely to have its own battery.

Thanks for that Bee Utey.
I have seen where the wires come in from the trailer plug. There is a line of connecters that connect the trailer wires to a mass of dual white and white with blue stripe wires. Next time I'm at the caravan I'll have a play around. I remember the previous owner saying he did not worry about the 12v and just wired everything to run on 240v.

I have seen a good spot for some batteries so I think I'll just put my own lights and wiring on the outside of the panels.

Mmmm the dreaded all white wires yep been there. Is a 70's model van yes?.
(An option for activating your battery power) I have played with van wiring a fair bit and with the older ones, ""as stated"" majority have 12v coming from the plug on the tow vehicle, running through the inside tube of the drawbar and normally out the back of that and up through the floor generally into a cupboard or some normally accessable cavity inside the van. Now depends who's played with the wiring over the years it might be joined in the cupboard or similar so you could access youre 12v there, ""BUT"" if you are going to pick it up there be carefull how you do it as if its not switched somehow, youre vehicle battery will be trying to charge it through a very small rated wire so will probably be needing to switch it to van battery after unplugged off car or what I did on one of my vans was I mounted the battery in a battery box on the drawbar and wired up a fused 7 pin trailer plug (Car female part) to the van battery,only using the aux/earth pin on it. The van 7 pin plug was mounted off the gas bottle frame, so was outside of the battery box, when I got to camp all I did was unplug off the car and plug straight into the 7 pin plug connected to the battery box and voila battery powered lights that takes 5 seconds to activate. It was a quick, easy setup and worked great. May not suit ya but a bit of food for thought!

Sorry just relised probably onsite somewhere yes?. How I described plugging in may still be of use to you