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Greetings, we were going to take our second caravan trip yesterday to take advantage of this heatwave as our last few attempts had to be postponed due to appauling weather. However since we last used the caravan the lighting seems to have developed a problem. The lighting was all originally working fine but now whatever lights I try and use I simply get the rear lights on the caravan flash dimly. SO no indicator lights, no sidelights, brakelights etc. Our mechanic had a look and said that the connector needs replacing due to it been old and all the connections starting to corrode etc. Also a few bulbs have blown but the worst part is the number plate light has been bodged by the previous owner (s) and our mechanic says the earth wire has got lost somewhere inside the caravan lining. Which means to repair what I'd hoped would be a simple fault is going to mean I have to tear out the interior lining etc of the caravan to find this earthing wire. Nor will this necessarily fix the fault. As an alternative to this I was thinking a cheap / simple solution would be to purchase a trailer lighting board and attach it to ther rear of the caravan to take the place of the caravans lights. If anyone knows if this is a viable / legal solution please let me know ASAP as I could have done it by now and we'd already be off! Any advice is most gratefully received!

kind regards

Johnny + Samantha + Brownbear

Soory to hear of your electrical probems.  A trailer board will be legal and will be okay for Thursday. This would be a good test of the socket on the back of the car aswell.  Need to think more about your fault to help.  What test equipment Multimeter etc do you have available.

As long as the lights conform then I can't see any issues with using a trailer board. Though it may be a little difficult to succcessfully secure it to the rear of the van.

Instead of ripping out the lining of the van to retrieve the earth wire (which sounds the most likely cause of the dim lighting) have you thought of just running a new earth wire under the van (using cable ties to keep it in place). This would certainly be ok in the short to medium term allowing you to use the van this season and then fix properly later!

I would agree with changing the 12N plug though  as they do corrode and will cause problems

Good luck

Mike 

It seems you are not having much luck!

If it were me in your situation i would first change the caravan-car 7-pin connector and see if that makes a difference....if not well at least you have renewed the connector which as you say is corroded and needs replacing anyway. Instead of pulling out all the caravan lining to find the missing earth wire, would it not be easier and quicker to simply attach a new earth wire and forget about the missing one? and re the towing light-board, i'm sure this would make an excellent sollution to your problem so that you can have that holiday you were looking forward to...then when you get back after a refreshing break you can get you head around fixing the problem

all the best with it.

Thanks for the advice folks! I'd be stuffed without your help!

Cheers!