Nigel Donnelly is ambushed by a new problem needing a fix on his 1998 project caravan, Penny
LIKE THE COURSE of true love, caravan renovation doesn’t always run smooth!
I had planned to spend the day repairing and improving Penny’s many 12V power issues, but instead, I ended it covered in paint and sawdust, having had to resolve a problem that just a few hours previously, I didn’t even know we had.
New problems
I discovered the issue while I was investigating the best way to go about the wiring work.
On returning from our music festival trip, it was immediately apparent that something was amiss with the towing electrics.
As mentioned in my previous reports, the towing electrics were a bit messy, but had been converted, crudely, to the 13-pin system. Our van would have originally had the traditional seven-pin 12N and 12S plugs.
This was not the tidiest job, however, leaving a lot of spare grey cable tied around the brake assembly. I removed all of the cable ties and tape to ensure the brakes operated properly.
This worked, but on the return leg from the festival, the excess cable broke loose, dropped and dragged on the road. The result was a severed grey cable. My fault entirely.
Seeing this as a chance to make a better job of it this time around, I ordered the parts I needed. I opted for a pre-wired plug and cable at a cost of £30, a couple of £1 strips of terminal block to join the old and new cables together and a weatherproof box to put the block into at £14, to keep them out of the elements.
All I needed to do was find where to attach the box and carry out the wiring job.
This was the point where the task changed. The reason was immediately clear when I got under the caravan to see where I should splice and rejoin the towing electric cable. From there, I could see that the bottom of the gas locker was quite badly damaged. This left the main gas line floating unsupported in mid-air, with sharp edges of broken plastic all over the place – and the broken floor meant that I had nowhere to mount my waterproof box. I needed to fix the floor beforehand.
The first task was to empty the locker, and this gave a clue as to what might have caused the problem in the first place. The locker was packed full of stuff. In the middle was the spare wheel. Around that, two pole windbreaks were stuffed in, along with a mains cable, a small Aquaroll, an unbranded water container, a levelling ramp, a pair of battered towing mirrors and a couple of lumps of
