Some of you may recall how maybe three years ago I drove around the Toulouse ring road dragging my electrical cable on the road surface only discovering that I'd had no indicators or brake lights when I uncoupled the caravan on site at Moissac. There, an excellent local mechanic came out in the pouring rain and sat under an umbrella soldering the individual wires as a 'temporary, get-you-home repair'. (106€ if my memory serves me well).

Until this morning that cable was still fitted to the Triton.

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However, over the past month touring in France we've had constant problems with the right hand indicator that I finally tracked down to water having entered via the rear of the defective 13 pin plug. Time for a new plug and cable I thought.

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This shows the repaired cable liberally protected with plastic tube and insulating tape and my temporary repair to the plug.

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And this is what it was like inside. The mechanic has joined every wire and then protected each soldered joint with heat-shrink insulating sleeving.

The first thing to do was to source a new plug and cable. I toyed with the idea of buying 3 metres of cable and a plug and assembling it myself but eventually decided that for £34 delivered (eBay) I might just as well buy one ready made up.

Here are the tools I used to do the job.

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L-R: crimp-on female spade terminals (I actually used 8 x red and 5 x blue); ratchet crimping tool (a non-ratchet type will not develop sufficient pressure to make a good, reliable joint); flat screwdriver; Stanley knife for stripping back cable sheathing; wire stripper; wire cutters; new cable and plug; large nylon cable ties (not shown).

Before working underneath a caravan, you need to make sure that you will be safe. I found that I had ample room to work by raising the front of the van on the jockey wheel and lowering the corner steadies. I then put axle stands under the chassis rails.

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To remove the old cable you need to trace it back to the white junction box under the caravan floor.

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The bottom of the junction box is retained at each corner by a 90° quick-release screw. As you can see, the heads of the plastic screws accept a broad blade screwdriver and need turning so that each '1' faces its corresponding '0'. The cover can then be waggled free.

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This is what you will see when you remove the cover.

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The terminal blocks are loose within the junction box and simply crammed inside.

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You could draw a diagram of which wire from the cable goes where but a better way is to leave the wires attached and simply snip them off where they enter the junction box. This way you can replace them correctly, one at a time. (Well, that's the theory. When I cut mine I found that the white/red earth wire fell off in my hand and a brown wire shed its spade terminal. The latter was easy but where did the other wire come from?)

The next job was to prepare the ends of the new cable by stripping back the outer sheathing, baring the ends of the wires and crimping on the correct sized terminals. The eight x 1.5mm dia. wires needed red terminals and the 5 x 2.5mm dia. wires needed blue. You will find that a 3 metre cable is a bit too long for an Eriba but if you don't cut it short, you will be able to secure it to the chassis and have a bit spare in case you drag the new one along the road sometime in the future. (Thanks to JohnE for this tip and the one about snipping the cables and leaving the stubs in place.)

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This is best done at the bench/kitchen table as you need to make strong, clean joints. Give them a good tug to ensure that the fitting has really gripped the copper conductor.

Back underneath the van, thread the new cable back through the various supports and once around the main chassis member before replacing the spade connectors on their terminals one at a time. (By a process of elimination, the white/red wire went on the only vacant terminal strip). Replace the junction box lid and turn the fastenings through 90° to lock them in place. (Please note that on my van, the unused white/blue wire from pin 12 of the plug had been fitted with a terminal and parked on an unused piece of terminal strip.)

I found that I had to move one of the plastic P-clips that hold the cable to the underside of the floor to free up an extra few inches of cable for connecting to the car and then I secured the cable to the chassis with the cable ties.

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This slightly out of focus shot shows how the cable is looped around the chassis member.

Finally, all that was left was to connect caravan to car and do a full systems check. Thankfully all was well with the lights and indicators. I also checked that the fridge 12v red light and the green light on the Schaudt booster came on when the car engine was running.

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The smart new cable and plug that I'm hoping will give me years of towing without those annoying pre-departure check electrical problems that have plagued me of late. I have secured it to the drawbar with a bungy to prevent it from contacting the road in future, Once bitten............................

Quote: hob wrote in post #2

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Excellent work I've been in that box under my van to swap the fog and reversing lights over.

The only slight comment I would make is you would have been safer with the van handbrake in the on position.

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I've been told I'm full of something on many occasions, Derek, but never 'the right stuff'.

You are an officer and a gentleman, sir!

Although I had, of course, previously checked that all my caravan electrics were working as they should when I did the job, I can't tell you how relieved I was this morning when I hooked up and everything was working perfectly. Woo hoo!

I have working lights, indicators, brake lights, AND high-intensity rear fog light, all of which are easily taken for granted until you've experienced a problem.

Agger would be proud of my pre-flight checks.