Well it is to me anyway, lol.
We have just returned to caravanning after a few years break and I have acquired a 1985 ABI Marauder, now the van is great, but I have a strange problem when towing.
When I plug the cables in, it has a black and a grey one, the fog lights come on and I cant turn them off! It seems as though it only happens when the grey plug is in. Our other caravan had the fog lights activated through the black plug, so it seems strange, to me anyway!
I am wondering if it wired wrongly, (the tow bar electrics I mean).
Any help will be gratefully recieved.
Thanks
Mark
I would say almost certainly it is wired wrong. The black plug is for all the vehicle lighting and the grey is for caravan auxiliaries such as fridge and charging. You need to find out which is wired wrong, your car or the caravan.
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Unless somebody has "adapted" the caravan wiring to suit their vehicle in the past then all the lights should be on the black plug. I would start by getting your car checked, an mot centre can do this or do you have a friend with a trailer or caravan you can plug it into to check? If that checks out ok then you need to see if the loom on the caravan has been messed with.
There is a slight difference in the wiring for older caravans. I think the change over year is 1997. It's in my Haynes Caravan maintance book which I cant check at the moment as it's in the caravan but if you google pre 1997 towbar wiring you'll get the answer. Have you just had a new towbar fitted?, if so they may have done it to the post 1997 spec.
I believe under the single plug system, one of the pins was for the carvan interior supply.
When rear fogs became standard that pin was used instead. The caravan interior feed, fridge, charge and reversing lights all went onto the 12S (grey) plug.
Its easy enough to check using the pin diagram and a mulimeter or a test lamp.
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The grey which is the 12S plug should activate the reversing lights (if fitted) and not rear fog lights. The rear fog lights should be connected to the black which is the12N plug so there is a possibilty that the grey plug is incorrectly wired up. The links below show the pin connections and what they are linked to.