electric break question

[Deleted]

I have not had much to do with electric breaks before but going on everyone opinion there the bees knees

now I'm going to purchase a TEKONSHA PRIMUS IQ ELECTRIC BRAKE CONTROLLER to use which I'm told will be good enough for my 11ft van

But my question is to do with the electric breaks on the van now

Now I always thought the wires run through the plug from the vehicle to the van to operate the breaks but on my van it looks like it has it's own connector

 

I just want to know can I just tap these wires into the wires of the vans plug or will I have to find a different controller to work with this set up

Darren

[2lateagain]

Darren, looking at the plug and the wire colours I would think that that is possibly for charging a battery in the caravan, the normal colour of the brake wire is blue and is "normally" in with all the wires for the lights (7 core wire). The brake controller you are talking about using is a good one. Are you sure that there are electric brakes fitted to the hubs as an 11' van is not normally very heavy.

Graham

[Rattles]

These may be of some help.

Rattles

[doublechevron]

Have a look at the caravan and change it's wiring to match a standard so anyone can tow it in a pinch if requried. It sounds like you have an anderson plug there. This will probably be to run the 12volt onboard stuff in the caravan ( and charge any onboard batteries that maybe fitted).

Check and fix the caravan and work forward from there. I always pull the wiring back through the 'A' frame and check it (tape a draw string to it before you pull it through). You almost ALWAYS find a bunch of crappy crimp on connectors in the 'A' frame from the wiring being repaired over the years.

I fitted a primus iq to the on range rover here. It's brilliant. The install is simple, just ensure you use nice heavy wire with enough conductor size (forget the physical size of the wiring, it's how thick the actual shiny wire inside the insulation is).

seeya,
Shane L.

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2015 11:11:26 GMT 10 2lateagain said:

Darren, looking at the plug and the wire colours I would think that that is possibly for charging a battery in the caravan, the normal colour of the brake wire is blue and is "normally" in with all the wires for the lights (7 core wire). The brake controller you are talking about using is a good one. Are you sure that there are electric brakes fitted to the hubs as an 11' van is not normally very heavy.

Graham

Turns out your on the money Graham

I traced these wires back to the fridge but still have 2 wires running to the brakes which do run all the way up to my 7 pin plug but are not connected

these are the first wires I got mixed up with which run up behind the fridge


I'm 99.9% sure these are electric brakes with these wires & tow hitch


inside the plug

Now I know the wires look messy now but I'll be stripping the & replacing the plug shortly
But not sure what to do with the red & black wire which run to the brakes now - I might just remove them & run the blue wire across & re-join but will I have to run an earth for the second wire
As a guess I think the red will be positive & black would be the earth but not sure

One more thing - I've come to the conclusion I need glasses as I crawled all under this van before I purchased it & thought it had a full axle but how wrong was I

I'm sure they call this independant susppention but correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks Darren

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2015 12:54:32 GMT 10 doublechevron said:

Have a look at the caravan and change it's wiring to match a standard so anyone can tow it in a pinch if requried. It sounds like you have an anderson plug there. This will probably be to run the 12volt onboard stuff in the caravan ( and charge any onboard batteries that maybe fitted).

Check and fix the caravan and work forward from there. I always pull the wiring back through the 'A' frame and check it (tape a draw string to it before you pull it through). You almost ALWAYS find a bunch of crappy crimp on connectors in the 'A' frame from the wiring being repaired over the years.

I fitted a primus iq to the on range rover here. It's brilliant. The install is simple, just ensure you use nice heavy wire with enough conductor size (forget the physical size of the wiring, it's how thick the actual shiny wire inside the insulation is).

seeya,
Shane L.

Looks like I'll be taking your advice also Shane & running new wires from the plug to were they join & run into the vans wall cavity

Also the wire I thought to be the break wires turn out to be running in behind the fridge so I think I'll be pulling the fridge out to see if it's connected to the 12v
There's no battery in the van at this stage but will be adding 1 or 2 in so I can free camp & one will be dedicated for the fridge & the second will just be for lights & charging sockets

[Rattles]

Dec 21, 2015 13:45:31 GMT 10 @mymillardmicro said:

Dec 21, 2015 12:54:32 GMT 10 doublechevron said:

Have a look at the caravan and change it's wiring to match a standard so anyone can tow it in a pinch if requried. It sounds like you have an anderson plug there. This will probably be to run the 12volt onboard stuff in the caravan ( and charge any onboard batteries that maybe fitted).

Check and fix the caravan and work forward from there. I always pull the wiring back through the 'A' frame and check it (tape a draw string to it before you pull it through). You almost ALWAYS find a bunch of crappy crimp on connectors in the 'A' frame from the wiring being repaired over the years.

I fitted a primus iq to the on range rover here. It's brilliant. The install is simple, just ensure you use nice heavy wire with enough conductor size (forget the physical size of the wiring, it's how thick the actual shiny wire inside the insulation is).

seeya,
Shane L.

Looks like I'll be taking your advice also Shane & running new wires from the plug to were they join & run into the vans wall cavity

Also the wire I thought to be the break wires turn out to be running in behind the fridge so I think I'll be pulling the fridge out to see if it's connected to the 12v
There's no battery in the van at this stage but will be adding 1 or 2 in so I can free camp & one will be dedicated for the fridge & the second will just be for lights & charging sockets

If you are using a 2/3 way fridge the 12v element is only energised from the tow vehicle alternator, if used on house battery it will flatten the house battery in a very short time, when Free Camping the fridge is run on Gas.

Rattles

[Rattles]

If I had to make a guess I would say the Heavy Red and Black wire probably Wire to the fridge or a now unequipped House Battery,
if I am right then these would terminate to an Anderson Plug or Pins 8-12 of a 12 pin plug.
The only is to chase each wire from the plug and identify each, if not wired as per diagram above,
re terminate to the above colour code when possible.

Rattles

[Deleted]

Dec 21, 2015 14:55:06 GMT 10 Rattles said:

If I had to make a guess I would say the Heavy Red and Black wire probably Wire to the fridge or a now unequipped House Battery,
if I am right then these would terminate to an Anderson Plug or Pins 8-12 of a 12 pin plug.
The only is to chase each wire from the plug and identify each, if not wired as per diagram above,
re terminate to the above colour code when possible.

Rattles

the first wires I showed were traced back to the fridge or fridge cavity

this is the wire running into the base of the fridge cavity

Now the wires running to my brakes were traced to the 7 pin plug but not connected at all

note the thick red & black wires

now with the wires - there all the normal colours running from the 7 pin plug until the join to run into the vans wall cavity & like most van manufacturers the used one colour & in my case the all brown which makes it haerder to trace wires if we ever needed to find a faulty one - things aren't meant to  be easy lol

Darren

[doublechevron]

forget the colours and existing wiring. figure out what is what, snip it off back at the 'van and run new correctly coloured wiring forward from them. See how the wiring you have there is black, so full of copper rot You want that gone. Sad really, the old wiring is far better quality than the replacement stuff.

Oh, and that isn't an anderson plug either.  It looks old ... maybe early 80's.  The piccies didn't load for me before.

seeya,
Shane l.