Hi, if you have been following the EribaFolk Facebook page you'll know that I've been renewing the electrics on our van. There's a full description (12 page PDF) attached. I've also made a copy permanently available at archive.org

Here's the summary:

g123-Electrical.html

In 2011 we bought our Eriba Familia 310 caravan from a used Eriba dealer in the Netherlands. Like many continental Eribas it was not fitted with a battery so the dealer fitted a battery and charger as part of the sale. This was not a good conversion and we had further work done by three different caravan specialists, plus some rectification by myself, which gave us a workable system but little confidence that we had reliable or safe electrics. I also felt that the BIP control box fitted to the Eriba was an archaic and complicated setup which was difficult to understand and not properly documented.

So this year (2015) I decided to replace the original electrical system and the added charger with a modern caravan control box (Sargent EC155), attached to the existing wiring of the van. The first attempt resulted in a working system but a tangle of patch leads and junction boxes where it was joined to the existing system so I then added a complete caravan wiring harness from Sargent which was quite easy to fit, replacing a great deal of the existing Eriba wiring and resulting in a sound system.

I strongly recommend the wiring harness which is much easier and quicker to fit than patching the existing wires onto Sargent’s connector kit. Finally I’ve replaced the existing towing cable with a new 13-core cable as the existing one lacked a specific earth connection (pin 11) that is needed for the Sargent system, I think this is because the original installation used a 10-core cable that was retained when the van was changed to a 13-pin towing connector.

I would recommend this DIY upgrade to anybody who has experience of electrical installation and is able to judge the safety of an installation like this, but it would be unwise to take it on as a novice. My own background includes an engineering apprenticeship, rewiring a whole house as well as installing additional plug sockets etc in other houses, and some work on the electronics of public address and music equipment. I feel this gave me the knowledge and skills to do this work and deal with the inevitable problems and mistakes that can occur the first time you take on a new technical task.

The cost to me was around £400 but I made some expensive mistakes and had to buy quite a few specialist tools, as well as doing additional work on the towing cable and replacing the underfloor junction box. A budget of £300 might be reasonable if you take advantage of my experience and are already well-equipped to do the work.