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 Topic: Sprite Alpine XL 1988 - water and others
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05/6/2012 at 9:45am
Location: Hartlepool
Outfit: Outwell Hartford XL & Terranova Voyage
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Hi, Finally I'm the owner of a caravan! It's a 1988 Sprite Alpine XL and given that we are not too sure how we are going to take the changes from canvas it will be ideal for us to start out in.
Few niggles, I think mainly electric.
When the lad at the yard checked it over all the gas and electrics were fine with exception of one socket not working, When I investigated at home, the live and neutral were crossed, ( why I will never know), swapped these back over and now works fine. Needless to say my faith in previous owners electrical ability doesn't exist!
I'm not sure if the 12v wiring is all messed up. I'm going to try and rewire this later this week. The whale pump doesn't seem to be working, even direct from the battery. There are taps in kitchen sink and bathroom sink. If I am to replace the whale and redo the wiring how should I rewire this?
Appears to be 12 v wire going from the fuse to bathroom sink, then to kitchen, into chock block then to the whale. Does this sound right? I have no faith in previous owners bodge wiring!
Also the fridge only works on gas, wont work on 12v or 240v. Any ideas?
Rear lights, I dont have number plate light or fog light working. This no biggie at the moment as have a trailer light strip I can use.
Thanks for your patience! It's an old van I know but it's the best I can make of it at the moment lol
Michelle
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"One should always have a definite objective in a walk, as in life it is so much more satisfying to reach a target by personal effort than to wander aimlessly. An objective is an ambition, and life without ambition is ... well, aimless wandering." - AW
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05/6/2012 at 3:42pm
Location: Cambs
Outfit: Tin tent diddy tent BIG tent
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An 88 Alpine will have a very basic electrical system and it should be easy enough to rewire to meet your requirements on the 12V side of things. From memory I think it will have micro switches on the taps and essentially if any tap is opened the pump will activate. I rewired a 1990 Sprite a few years ago and it took me about a day once I had drawn a schematic of what I wanted. At the time I fitted a Zig unit and external batter box. The Zig took the longest to wire in as it had several fuses to protect each circuit and these had to be brought back to the Zig. If you are considering using a solar panel in the future it might be worth wiring a regulator and connectors at the same time.
As for the mains side of things keep it as simple as possible usng modern rcd and twin pole mcb's. If you are unsure about anything get a qualified electrician to do it for you.
As for the fridge, check if there is mains power to it and if there is then it may be the heater element shot but it might be cheaper to get a working fridge from a breaker or ebay. On the gas side I would not touch it and would get a qualified engineer to take a look and service it at the same time. Fridges from the 90's are not as well isolated from the living area as modern ones and the last thing you want is CO being produced or gas leaking.
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'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
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