Club 80-90 Forums

Found this on a friends van today.................

Sorry it's a bit out of focus. The van RCD didn't trip with a test earth fault applied. This is the van end of the hookup cable, and the earth connection is non-existant. The earth core has been cut off and never connected to the earth pin. There was no remnant of the core in the plug, so it hadn't just broken off. The cable was evidently bought about 17 years ago from a caravan accessory shop and used ever since. The RCD in the van wouldn't trip (but the test button worked OK), so in the event of a live-to-earth fault the van body would be 240V, and the trip would probably only operate when someone standing on the ground touched the van on a wet day. Ouch!

What intrigues me is how anyone in a workshop making these cables would do this, and why wasn't it picked up when the cable was tested? Well it wasn't tested, was it?

Get yer electrics tested folks! If you don't look, you don't find.

That’s (potentially) shocking ! 

My van has the external electrics connection under a flap like most, I am always cautious when disconnecting/pulling out the plug that it does not put to much stress on the socket, same at the other end where it plugs into the available supplies at campsites.

I am rewiring the 'camper' part of my van completely as I am in the middle of a strip out and rebuild. The original wiring done by Devon when the conversion was done is actually scary... functional, but scary! For a start I had a lot of wires just doing nothing. All the joints were done with bulet connectors and wires had been stretched in order to reach! I do have a lot of fuses and a proper consumer unit breaker box so it was well protected, but I can do better!!

This is what I have left at the moment!!