As I said in another item, I once had a Sprite 400 caravan that had never had the rear light lenses removed.
The lights were very dim, and eventually, when a brake light went, I was forced to take action.
It turns out that I was the first to have had them to bits in some time, and evidently, the lights had filled up with water but hadn't drained away. This had caused all the steel to rust, and so by the time I got in there, the bulb holders were quite badly corroded.
Although just one brake light had burned out, if I managed to remove the bulb, I was never going to get another one back in! I needed to replace both light units in their entirety.
The old units were the originals fitted by Sprite, and only contained stop and tail lights, and the indicators, but the new ones also included reverse and rear fogs. The new ones were bigger and gave the 'van a bug-eyed look from the back, but night driving was much improved!
The new units were designed by Hella and were originally intended to grace the stern of MAN trucks, and as most caravans still used the same type of lights as my originals, they did look a little odd!
I also needed to get power to these new lights.
But first, to get the "electrickery" to the caravan, it is necessary to have a connection to the car.
7-core cable has seven (d'oh) individual cables running its length. Each cable is standard automotive cable and the colours indicate its use. There are two outer colours, black for 12N (12-volt Normal) and grey for 12S (12-volt Supplementary) and some of the cabling in the grey is thicker.
Automotive cable has 14 strands of wire that are 0.3 mm thick. This cable is known as 14/030, and the earth cable has 28 strands of wire (28/030).
8-core cable has an extra cable inside usually coloured purple. This is used primarily for wiring the switches in sockets with rear fog cut-outs. These are used to stop the rear fog lights of the towcar reflecting on the front of the trailer.
I had already wired the black 12N socket on the car for left and right indicators (green and yellow) right and left taillights, (brown and black) stop (red) rear fog (blue) and earth (white). The grey 12S took care of the reversing (yellow) and interior lights (blue). This also gave scope for the future fitting of a fridge, in-caravan charger, and other such luxuries.
I drilled 2 holes in the caravan floor in the front offside bed locker and poked about 15 inches of 7-core into them (grey in one, black in the other) and using cable ties, fastened both cables along the 'A' frame to the hitch. Leaving a good loop for articulation, I attached new 7-pin plug to each cable.
Back inside the caravan, I split each of the outer sheaths, and cut about 6 inches off them. I bared the ends of all of the cables and then put a terminal on each. I used two terminal strips to try and keep the cables tidy, and then prepared more 7-core for the journey to the tail of the 'van.
Here, I had to ignore some of what I'd learned as some cable colours would have to be duplicated. The 12N yellow is for the left indicators, but the 12S yellow is for reversing lights, and the 12N black is for left hand tail lights, and the 12S black is an earth.
As I didn't have any 8-core, I had to make do with a 7-core and a separate twin-core. Either that or double-up on the side lights. I drilled another hole in the floor and threaded about a foot or so of both cables into it. Then I led the cables along the length of the caravan, tacking them at intervals so they didn't foul anything.
Back inside, I juggled the cabling about, and made a note of which cables I put where. The twin-core would take care of the rear fogs and reversing lights.
I had to pre-wire the lamp units before fitting, so that I could hook them up to make sure they were working properly while I could still get at the cables!
I grabbed another length of 7-core cable and attached it to one light cluster and looped it over the back of the van to approximately the other one. Then I cut a section of the outer sheathing away to allow access to the cables for the number-plate light. Then I had the task of getting the cable into the rear panel across the 'van! Thank God for curtain wire!!
Once I'd got all the wiring in place, I attached all the terminals to their mates.
Then I plugged the car in.
I tried each circuit individually, and then all together. Much to my surprise and pleasure, everything did as it was supposed to!
The front marker lights seemed a little dim, and having whipped them apart, decided they needed replacing, too.
I originally thought that the wiring was a little on the lean side so I thought to replace that, too. It wasn't difficult to get the new cable into place, I simply attached a piece of string to the end of the old cable, and eased it out. Then just drag it the new stuff back in, put terminals on, and attach to the new light unit.
I initially got a pair of Hella's, but the first bout of night driving convinced me of the error of my ways! I had to resort to sellotaping some paper over them to try and save my eye-sight.
The Hella lenses were designed properly, and so I needed an alternative. Back down to the car parts place and select a pair of Rubbolite lorry marker lights, which scatter the light in all directions, but don't hurt my eyes!
While I was at it, I put a small light just inside the door, so that if I was touring and needed light before getting in, they could just hit the switch. That light was originally a Renault 5 interior light. The only other 12-volt light was over the cooker, but you need to get in and across the 'van before groping for it. There were also two gas lights fitted, but clambering over the furniture in the dark, and possibly groining myself on a table before lighting them is not my idea of fun.
I'd also built up a fitting on top of the wardrobe to hold the radio cassette. The siting of this gave me some headaches, as I was going to have to get both power and an aerial lead to it. If I'd been clever enough, I would have built another overhead locker at the front of the 'van and put the unit in there. I didn't feel confident about that, so I made a box for the top of the wardrobe instead.
I'd got a neat stainless steel roof mounted unit from Hella, but I didn't want it mounted on the roof above the wardrobe as it would have been quite vulnerable if I had to pass closely to overhanging trees. If it were on the wall behind the wardrobe, it would be in the way of the awning, so I eventually placed it over the front window. It was neat and didn't look out of place, but it was a sod getting the co-ax to the radio! Power was a single lead in, and earth was a single lead out. I had a couple of pod speakers, which I simply attached to each side of the radio box.
It would probably have been easier to make another locker, but I didn't realise that until afterwards!
I also tinkered with fitting a light inside the wardrobe. I wanted to make the light come on when I opened the door, and go out when I closed it, but at the time, I couldn't find a suitable switch!
Had I also had an Electric Hook-Up (EHU) I'd've put a couple of strip lights in, too! But that kind of thing was very expensive at the time.
I shall have to repeat most of this experiment when I start tarting up the Eldiss that I've got now, although the manky front window will probably have to be replaced first!
