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Quote: Originally posted by dimbles on 01/8/2022

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Have been towing everything from water tankers to caravans on and off for over 60 years and have only ever used a 7-pin socket with no problems of any kind. My camper is fitted a thirteen pin that I have adapted to a 7 pin, that is adequate for my needs.
I will never have any motor vehicle that I own connected to a caravan fridge or battery. It won't happen. Others are going to say a 13 pin is better. Well, that's great if that's what they want to think.

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Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 01/8/2022

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A lot I would agree with there Monty15, although I must admit I have never had the problems others seem to have had with 7 pin plugs and sockets. I have towed numerous different trailers with several different vehicle, and all using 7 pin systems.

Thanks for letting us know when 13 pin became standard, I'll try and remember that for future reference.

Years ago in the early 1970s, I used the blue wire in a 7 pin plug which was previously unused, to charge my caravan's battery via a split-charging system that I "invented". I had never seen one before, and neither had anyone else I showed it to. It had a 12 volt relay connecting the caravan and car batteries together, and that was energised from the accessory terminal of my Mk2 Cortina. By the time I returned to caravanning in 2013 the blue wire was no longer spare, but it didn't matter as by then most sites had EHU, which had been virtually unknown back in the 1980s, certainly on the sites I used. I could charge my battery on site.

I don't know what is currently applicable to trailer lights either. All I know is that my caravan doesn't have reversing lights, and I'm not sure that it has fog lights either. Were they fitted in the 1990s, I don't know.

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Quote: Originally posted by Monty15 on 01/8/2022

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Think most of my 7 pin towing was done with 'hostile environments' involved, mostly towing boats, so lots of water around, fresh and sea! If not a boat, probably a rarely used trailer where the plug had had plenty of time to corrode to some degree or other between uses. Used to spend/waste a lot of time faffing with dodgy 7 pin plugs, even though efforts made to keep moisture out of the connectors with water repellents! Five years of 13 pin on caravan, and good to go every single time I've plugged it in.

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