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Hope someone can help.

I am about to purchase a new caravan which has a 13 pin euro plug fitted. My car has the standard 12n 12s sockets fitted.

1 Can you wire the 12n & 12s wires from the car into a 13 pin socket

2 If not will I have to have the car rewired with a new 13 core cable & socket or is it best just to use an adaptor

Dave

Cant remember how much the adaptor cost but sure it was much less than £25. 

i remember it being a right pain the backside to fit though!  you've got to twist it in a special way for it to fit properly.  took me an hour of messing around with it - took it back to the car parts shop, and the fella fitted it in 10 seconds flat.

Our caravan has the conventional 12N/12S plugs, and I have recently purchased a new car, and had the towing facilities fitted as part of the deal.  The car came with the 13-pin socket arrangement, and the dealership provided me with a 13-pin plug-to 12N/12S sockets adaptor free of charge.

After initial missgivings, I like the 13-pin set up better.   By securing the two caravan leads permanently to the towhitch handle with cable-ties, I find the adaptor just right for connecting up without any droop in the cables, so for me there will be no changing of the arrangement.

Bertie.

As we have a small goods trailer as well as the van which is 13 pin, I removed the 12s socket on the car and fitted the 13 pin socket in its place, I then connected the original 12s wires into the 13 pin socket, then I took 7 link wires from the 12n socket and connected them to the 13pin socket. Now I can use the caravan on the 13 pin socket and my trailer on the 12n socket and all I had to buy was the 13 pin socket.

For the wiring diagram, plugs sockets or the correct rated cable: http://www.sargentltd.co.uk/ISO11446_Data.pdf  

I now have a caravan with a 13 pin plug and a car with 13 pin connection.

To trade in our old van I bought a 13 to twin 7 connector cable and with all the extra cabling, not to mention 3 sockets to check, it is not a solution I would recommend.

The 13 pin connection is much more secure as it is a tist rather than just a push fit.  The 13  pin socket is the one of the few decent things to come from European homogulation.