I'm about to embark on upgrading the outdated electrics on my 2005 Puck in a similar way that Mr Calder did a few years back (very good post if anyone is thinking about upgrading their electrics).
I've studied the wiring diagrams in the Hymer manual and understand the transformer cct, which I intend to remove, but can't seem to find much info on the BIP charging cct (not the 14.5v schaudt unit which charges from the car whilst towing).
I realise that most on the forum don't even think about the electrics so apologies, just hoping someone may have an answer.

This is how I approached my upgrade last year and relates to my 2002 Troll Import

The ‘BIP’ is an unusual piece of equipment and the transformers appear to be prone to being noisy. At least, that was my experience earlier this year. A pal who is both an experienced caravanner and has a background in electrical engineering happened to drop by when I was pondering the noise. He identified the source but then, having looked a little more closely at my electrical installation – BIP, charger and battery – pointed out that having the transformer supplying 12v when plugged into the EHU was, in effect, duplicating the battery, which would be constantly topped up from the battery charger. His solution to the noise? Simple, disconnect the transformer! One single wire disconnected and the noise went away. The only slight knock-on effect was that the outside light then stopped working. Not a huge problem…

We decided that when I came back from my trip to France, we would carry out an upgrade on the electrics in the van, removing the BIP all together and providing a (to my mind) more straightforward and safer set up.

I should start off by saying that this mod will only work if you have a battery fitted to your van and have ’13 pin’ electrics on the tow bar (either with one 13 pin socket or 2 x 7 pin).

First, we looked around the web for a generic wiring diagram and found

https://caravanchronicles.files.wordpres...ring-13-pin.jpg

that is part of a longer article on caravan wiring that explains some of the issues that need to be consider when wiring a van. If you’re not clear on the principles of caravan wiring, it is worth a read..

https://caravanchronicles.com/guides/und...-car-electrics/

It certainly helped me have a clearer understanding. In short, following this diagram gives the following:

• 12v to the fridge only when the car is running (using circuitry in the car rather than the relay fitted in the BIP). This comes from pin 10 on a 13 pin socket.

• Apart from the fridge feed, all other 12v feeds are disabled whilst the engine is running so the exterior light is not able to work, for instance.

• When the car is running, a relay operating then allows the caravan battery to be charged using the constant live feed from pin 9 on a 13 pin socket.

• And, with the components I used, all the 240v side is protected by RCDs.

 
General approach

The design we adopted involved replacing the BIP with a 40 amp Garage consumer unit with 6amp and 16amp RCDs. The 6amp RCD would feed the battery charger and the 16amp feeding mains sockets and the 240v circuit in the fridge. 12v distribution would be handled by a 10 way spade fuse connector with a single feed input and LEDs to highlight any blown fuses. Supply to that would come straight from the battery, controlled by the Habitation relay as per the wiring diagram (a relay is simply a switch)

The process

First of all, we removed the battery and its storage box not only to remove the 12v supply, but also to give us a little more room to work. We also ensured the EHU was disconnected. Then we removed the BIP in its entirety, carefully disconnecting all the wires, labeling them as we went. This was fairly straight forward as all the 12v wiring had simple spade connectors. Then, we removed the aluminium mounting panel the BIP was screwed to, leaving just a jumble of wires, carefully separated into 12 and 240v ‘clusters’. We made a simple backboard of a bit of 9mm ply to which we screwed the new components (making sure there was room for cable runs) As well as the Consumer Unit and 10 way fuse board, we also mounted a multi way spade connector component, scavenged from the BIP, to join all the neutrals and the relay to control the switch over between battery power and power from the car. The back board was then mounted in the space vacated by the now defunct BIP with a few judicious blobs of silicone and a screw in each corner. This sounds all fairly straightforward (and it is) but it took us the best part of a day to do this, though, in fairness, working with an existing wiring diagram for the van in Dutch slowed us up a bit as we worked out what was what.

Readying the existing jumble of wires for fitting to the new set up took a while, as we had to trim back the convoluted sheathing that some of the wires ran in plus cutting back the external individual wire insulation to enable the wires to be fitted to the new terminations. All the wires (both 12 and 240v) had plenty of length, but to leave a tidy installation, all of them had to be cut to length and new spade connectors fitted where appropriate.

We did the 240v side of things first where we had fewer wires to deal with. My van, for instance, had the main feed in, a feed out to the Battery charger and then 3 other feeds – 1 to the kitchen side of the van, where a junction box behind the external fridge vent supplied the fridge, the socket on the kitchen unit and back to the socket at the rear of the van beneath the table. The 2 other wires ran on the other side of the van, one feeding a socket at the top of the bathroom wall and then another at the base of the same wall by the front dinette.

Having completed that wiring, we carefully tested everything but switching off all the RCDs, plugging in the EHU and gingerly turning the RCDs on (and testing each socket and fridge) to ensure we had no faults. So far, so good.

Then, we turned our attention to the 12v side of things. We connected the 12v feed from the battery to the fuse board and then carefully cut all the wires to length, re-terminated them with spade connectors and plugged them in, one pair at a time – one to the fuse board, one to the neutral termination block. Having done all that, we tested the 12v circuits from a battery. With the type of fuse board we used, we were able to test without fuses fitted and see the red LEDs illuminate as we tested each supply.

The last thing we had to do was deal with the 12v fridge feed from pin 10 on the 13 pin socket. This was also the feed to operate the relay which disabled the rest of the 12v supply when the car engine is running and is quite separate from the rest of the 12v. It is protected by its own dedicated in-line 15amp fuse. The last thing to do was to make up a label that showed which 12v circuit was plugged into which connector on the fuse board.

Everything ended up ok but a test showed a minor drain of 0.3Ma which was shown to be the battery charger. A future upgrade may well be the replacement of the existing battery charger with something more ‘intelligent’ such as an offering from CTEK, though that is for the future.

WARNING / CAUTION / DISCLAIMER : If you are not competent with electrical stuff THEN YOU SHOULD NOT mess with any electrics. What I've written above requires opening the BIP unit (cover removal) access to both exposed 240V mains circuits and low 12V circuits and making wiring alterations / connections to both mains and 12V circuitry.

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Fascinating read, though I'm not qualified to attempt anything like this myself.

Thank you cabbie37 for your reply, bet you were up all night writing that!!
The setup you installed is very similar to what I installed in my previous VW camper and it did work well (obviously it didn't have all the wiring/relays for the car hook up so was much simpler).
It's given me something to think about as a possible different solution, thanks again.
David.

I've now replaced the thumbnails with better copies of the photos. Click on the first to blow it up then step through using the left and right arrow heads. Sadly, I can't add a description to each photo, it seems (tell me if I've missed something) so you'll have to interpret what I'm trying to show in each photo...

hth...

Thanks cabbie37, I shall definitely bookmark this :)

Couple of questions please? Are you keeping the original battery charger ?(Booster WA xxx)

You originally had 4 x 230Vac circuits, 1 to the battery charger and 3 socket outlet circuits. Did you connect all 3 socket oultlet socket circuits to the 16A outlet? I can see there is a common neutral rail in the consumer unit.
Thanks :)

Yes, all three socket circuit outlets (all the 13amp sockets and the fridge) all went to the 16amp feed and are protected by the RCD - part of the upgrade I was very happy with. The battery charger is on the 6amp feed. I have kept the existing Eriba fitted battery charger, but as I say, it has a bit of current drain on it, so I may change this in the future but I don't see that as a priority. The 'upgrade' I have made I see as a huge improvement on the original set up. Changing the charger, should I get round to it, will be quite straightforward..

Thanks for the update, very useful :)

On a 2004 Puck L 225GT. I noticed when removed cover of the BIP unit 36.12852.33 that the incoming 240v cables were +240v Positve Blue and -negative Brown, in other words reverse polarity according to EN standard. I had to double check the polarity at the incoming hook up - correct as per marks on blue connector plug, and correct electrically.
EHU correct polarity.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

This led me to look at the incoming EHU socket on the van
EHU-Input_Found to have incorrect polarity1.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

As both ends of the cable were reversed there was actually no dangerous problem other than the colours presented at the BIP were incorrect and confusing.

Scratched my head a bit wondering why eriba would have done that, but looking below the twin cut out switch, the colours of the wires to the 240v sockets was correct; and I have corrected this by crossing over the brown and blue wires at both ends of the cable EHU to BIP cut outs.

Wondering if any other eribas have same experience?

Anyway I'm about to swap out the old 240v cut-out switch for an apropriate RCBO - that is 16Amp, Double Pole 30mA, 6kA, to EN61009.1, Now the choice is between Curve B, and Curve C, probably won't matter but wondering what the best bet is 'B' or 'C' curve RCBO.

Electrical construction standards in the EU are different as 2-pole power switching is standard on electrical equipment. In the UK we often use single-pole power switching so the correct polarity of the mains supply is important.

On our Troll all the internal mains cabling is wired in the reverse colours, i.e. Blue +ve and Brown -ve. I have assumed that this is the colour coding used in Germany and so have left it as is. When I have tested the 13amp sockets they always come up with the correct polarity. Any installation I have done has been wired to match the factory installation.

My 16amp EHU cable is wired according to UK colour standards.

On a couple of European sites, when I checked the polarity of the EHU supply sockets some were reversed, so I now carry a short reverse polarity cable to correct this. The worst example was in Northern Spain where the box had ten 16amp sockets on it, 4 with the correct polarity and the remainder were all reverse polarity.

I have never found a reverse polarity EHU post in the UK though.

Alan

I have a socket tester always plugged into the socket by the door of my 2005 Triton. After initial plug in of the hook up lead I switch it on to see all is OK. If polarity is indicated as reversed I add a very short polarity reverseral lead I made up into the bollard end of the mains lead. This works really well and adds little weight. When hooked up I just remove the socket tester and pop it in the under seat locker by the door (it's a 430). Simples...

I, too, have found a number on the continent, but never one in the UK (yet!), though have found a faulty bollard before where the previous camper had blown the circuit breaker...! Nothing worked then, so didn't need a socket checker!!

I have added a few 240V sockets around the caravan and I always use the socket checker to make sure I have got the wiring the correct way round.