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Subject Topic: University Research - caravan 12v leads
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17/10/2019 at 2:27pm
 Location: Llanidloes Powys
 Outfit: Skoda Yeti SEL4x4 +Bailey Ranger 460-4
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Completed (negatively) as there not enough details.
And the last question can't be answered when there isn't a NIL option.


17/10/2019 at 5:45pm
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Quote: Originally posted by moorlander999 on 17/10/2019
are you a manufacturer / supplier of caravan / leisure vehicle components as your ''survey'' appears to be a marketing attempt ?

please provide a university / academic institute name and email address for verification




yes of course, i'm a university student at oxford brookes

It is a business management module for my engineering degree so it is market research! It's not a product that will be taken to market but just collecting research to back the product as we have a fake investors court where our lecturers will 'invest' in our products


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17/10/2019 at 5:48pm
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Hello everyone. On a new post i have made i understand some of you were dubious as i hadn't responded to any of you. My objective was just to see if wiring issues were common within the community. I was making note of your responses i just didn't feel it necessary to provide any responses. I apologize if anyone misinterpreted my lack of response as being rude!


17/10/2019 at 8:43pm
 Location: West country
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Hi David thanks for that. I am a retired electrical engineer though not specifically for towing electrics. Electrics in buildings is my thing.

I think the 13 pin plug solved a few problems.
They increased the earth for the fridge and battery charging, probably due to caravan fridges increasing in size.
They included pins for reversing light and rear fog light. The reversing light was previously on the grey 12s plug which not all towers had.
The water proofing was much improved and this has probably contributed to the greater reliability of the 13 pin. I'm not sure of the IP ratings of the 7 pin and 13 pin plugs but this gives you a little info on IP ratings.

https://www.rainfordsolutions.com/ip-enclosure-ratings-and-standards

They seem to have improved the cable clamping arrangement which retains the 13 core flex in the plug. A lot of 7 pin plugs didn't seem to have any at all and relied on the cable terminations to hold it in.


17/10/2019 at 8:52pm
 Location: West country
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Hi David, done the survey but not the price. I'd expect it to be included in the tow bar wiring and caravan costs.

There are laws governing lights and the wiring on trailers. The caravan road lights etc have to be kept completely separate from the habitation electrics. This is to prevent problems in the habitation side affecting the legally required road lighting etc.

Caravans have a habitation relay which isolates the caravan habitation electrics when the car engine is running and the plug connected. This excludes the fridge and leisure battery charging.



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23/10/2019 at 3:51pm
 Location: Llanidloes Powys
 Outfit: Skoda Yeti SEL4x4 +Bailey Ranger 460-4
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Going back to the OP's original question, and ignoring the fridge and battery charging side of things, and looking at the Vehicle Lighting Regulations, in which trailer lighting is included, I read it as there must be a DIRECT connection between the trailer and the towing vehicle. That would not be provided by a wireless system and would therefore be illegal.

Additionally, whilst I can see what the OP is looking at, has he considered what would happen if the battery that would be required in the trailer to power the lights went flat, and therefore none of the lights worked? Again that would make the whole towing ensemble illegal.


03/11/2019 at 11:14pm
 Location: Monmouthshire
 Outfit: Caravan
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Of all the tasks involved in hitching or unhitching a caravan, the electrical connection is just about the most trivial. If you want to make the job easier, start by designing a robot to put the awning up. In fact making the connection when hooking up is the very last thing I do and is rather satisfying, like putting a chery on a cake.

As for reliability, in my experience wireless connections are far less reliable than hard wiring.


04/11/2019 at 7:41am
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If you could design a coupling at the ball joint so that when attached, the electrical connections were made automatically, the world would beat a path to your doorstep.

It would obviate the problems of cables trailing on the road and the problems for wrinklies in having to bend down so far.


04/11/2019 at 9:57am
 Location: East Herts
 Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail
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Quote: Originally posted by Dr Zhivago on 03/11/2019
Of all the tasks involved in hitching or unhitching a caravan, the electrical connection is just about the most trivial. If you want to make the job easier, start by designing a robot to put the awning up. In fact making the connection when hooking up is the very last thing I do and is rather satisfying, like putting a chery on a cake.

As for reliability, in my experience wireless connections are far less reliable than hard wiring.



Absolutely agree! Nothing difficult about connecting up the electrics, so why try to improve it? I don't even see the 13 pin plugs as a significant improvement, it just means one plug instead of two. I still use 7 pin like a lot of other people, as it saves me having to change the plug on my trailer, which doesn't need 13 pins anyway as it only has road lights.

Now a robot to put the awning up....... that would be a real improvement! I could go for that.


-------------
Best Regards,
Colin


04/11/2019 at 12:51pm
 Location: London
 Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Reading into the survey what the product purpose is (a radio remote control link for trailer lights), as a professional design engineer, I'd avoid it like the plague if it were offered to me as an option or add on!

Radio links are notoriously fickle (think of Bluetooth!!!!!), and the hardwired plug/socket is well proven and no great inconvenience, it also has the capacity to be fixed by the majority of vaguely handy people should it be troublesome, a faulty wireless link is a nightmare that even a fully equipped professional technician would likely spend a while fault-finding and fixing, no doubt with relatively expensive components too!

The old adage of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' is rattling around in my head

Sorry davidh1996 to rain on your parade, full marks for innovative thought, but can't help but see it as an unnecessary/undesirable product. Don't take criticism to heart, as a professional who has headed design depts and been an independent consultant for decades, 'most' innovation ends up having no future, get used to it as it goes with the job, just learn and move on. As a technical exercise for your uni work it's a perfectly valid 'development' you are going through, any designer of any worth must always have one eye on dead ends and even total failure as a possibility. I wish you well.


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04/11/2019 at 7:56pm
 Location: Monmouthshire
 Outfit: Caravan
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In summary, it is a solution looking for a problem.



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