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I have a new Kuga which is a great towcar, problem is I had the Ford towbar and electrics fitted and find the fridge is not connected when towing. Having had the dealer investigate it seems the wiring diagram supplied by Ford is not to normal 13pin standards. in detail:

Ford have the fridge wired into pin 9 as a permament feed whereas the European standard is for the fridge to be wired as an ignition on only feed to pin10!  Ford pin 10 is listed as 'charge lead +ve ( for battery in trailer, prepared). yellow.'

Pin 9 says ' Power supply ( permament feed for interior lights, refrigerator, etc), red (prepared).'

This is amazing really as the wiring of all caravans is to the european standard and the fridge should not work off a permanent supply as it draws around 12 amps and if the engine is left off and fridge connected the battery would soon be flat.

If anyone has a solution I would be pleased to hear it! The dealer is talking to Ford Technical about it. I can't believe I am the only person to have this problem.

Bob

I have the Kuga and the towbar was wired by a contractor employed by the Ford garage

Its 13 pin and works Ok

It a good warning for anyone with any Ford factory wired towbar to  check the wiring before using the van

Hi Tentz,

You are correct that pin9 is premanent supply but the Ford paperwork says ' for lights, refrigerator etc' which is wrong as the fridge must be ignition switched only. For pin10 it says 'charge lead +ve....'   I have 13 pin on the car and 2 x 12 pin on the van with an adaptor but I get no supply on pin 10 eith ignition on at the socket.

Bob  

John,

How do you kow the fridge is working from the car? Is it just that the light is on when connected to the car?  i ravelled 500 miles to France with frozen stuff in the freezer and it was soft on arrival. Thats why I think it's not working right plus I don't get a reading on a meter across pin 10 and 11 with the motor running. Dealer says it needs to be connected to the van for the battery to give some resistance.

Bob

Bob

I know that the fridge is getting 12V power when the car ignition is on as I have caravan marker lights wired to the fridge 12V circuit and have fitted a warning light on the fridge

I have replaced the voltage sensing relay with a 4 pin relay that is ignition triggered as when I used the voltage sensing fridge circuit to wire my rear view camera it was hunting on and off every few minutes/seconds when the van was on tow (but not solo)

Also when I got to France the fridge was cold so it was working

Re this matter. I have just had a wiring mod fitted by my Ford dealer. It was issued under a notice from Ford which said that two pins were not wired under the standard kit. The new kit comes with wires and a relay but still seems to me to be wiring the wrong pins for the fridge feed.

My dealer however ignored the Ford instructions and wired it to the standard diagram I gave him except it works with ingnition on but I don't need to start the engine to get the feed.

Fridge works now but checking the wiring on a check rig at Lowdhams Caravans, it said it was wired to the pre 1999 not post 1999 set up.

Not sure if I'm good to go or not tbh

If its wired to pre 1998 set up do you have 12N ans 12S plugs rather than 13 pin?

The main difference is that you need the fridge earth return on the black wire pin 7 S plug for current vans(pre 13 pin)

If its wired pre 1998 plus the above it will work on pre and post 1998 vans

I always use an ignition sourced switching for the fridge relay rather than the voltage sensing type that requires the engine to be running and I have chnged the wiring done by a local fitter to work like that

With the voltage sensing type you can get hunting between on and off as the fridge load comes on/off

I used mine to feed a reversing camera and it was OK without the van on but with the load from the fridge it was on/0ff every few seconds