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Hi, I wonder if anyone you can advise me regarding the fitting of a car radio/ CD player into a caravan?

I have just written off a Swift Challenger 530 year 2000, and with the insurance payout, I have now bought a Swift Challenger 490 SE, year 2000, which I’m delighted with. Before the caravan breakers took away my 530SE, I removed the radio/ CD player and speakers, but I did not bother removing all the cabling, I just took the radio and speakers. I am now trying to install this into my 490SE. I have religiously followed the advice in an article written by a very kind guy called Tom Baker at http://www.satcure-focus.com/icetech/page8.htm I have carefully cut the holes and successfully fitted the speakers, carefully run and hidden the speaker cables, I have carefully fitted the radio, tucked away nicely in a cupboard, and connected the arial and power cables as per his advice. In fact I am really proud of myself!! Only problem is... It doesn’t work!! I’m sure it must be something simple, but what?

Tom Baker in his article suggested tapping into the 12 volt lighting circuit, to connect the power cables, and I have done this, connecting the positive (Yellow) cable from the radio, to corresponding positive cable in the lighting circuit, and the negative (Red) cable from the radio, to the corresponding negative cable in the lighting circuit. This seemed very simple, and as there is a 12 volt light in the cupboard that I have installed the radio in, what could be simpler? He did not however mention the Earth (Black) cable from the radio, and therefore I have not connected this, as I don’t know where to connect it? I am now wondering if this may be the problem! Also, should I just have connected the whole thing via the distribution panel, and if so, how do I access it? And would there be an earth terminal in there? Any advice that anyone could give me would be very much appreciated as per usual. Many Thanks, With Kind Regards. Mike

Hi,

You need to connect the red and the yellow cables to the 12v positive and the black to the 12v negative.

All will then work fine and you will have music.

Quote: Originally posted by Shytot4x4 on 16/9/2010

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In the caravan joining them both (red and yellow) together will be perfectly OK.

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Thanks for all your advice guys, I've tried that, and yes your right Grampion91, it blew a fuse! - by the way, I dont have any strip lights, and I was following the advice of a very kind guy called Tom Baker at http://www.satcure-focus.com/icetech/page8.htm

Thanks for your advice about the switch DamonST, I will beetle off down to Halfords first thing in the morning!

I suspect that I have connected the positive to the negative, but how do I find out what the polarity is? I've invested in a multimeter, but as far as I can see this is only for checking the circuit, how do I use it to test the polarity?

The wires in the lighting circuit are 'Grey with a red stripe' or 'White with a white stripe'. (Why dont they use red and black?!) I assumed that white with a red stripe was positive. Is there any way of knowing which is positive and which is negative? I suppose I could just try it again the other way round, but I dont want to blow another fuse and surely there must be some way of knowing?

I've reconnected the lighting circuit as it was, and changed the fuses and the lighting is all working again. I'm now poised waiting for your advice to know how to proceed from here!

Mike

Many Thanks to everyone for all your advice, particularly DamanST for your advice about using the multimeter!

I identified the positive lead on the lighting circuit ('Grey with a red stripe'), made all the connections and Bingo! it all works perfectly. Thank you all so much once again

Mike

Quote: Originally posted by johnt780 on 23/8/2020

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I have a Bailey Pageant and i cannot get the radio part of my wireless to work although the CD side works OK Do i require an outside aerial to get the wireless to work Thank you all in advance

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