Hi, I wonder if anyone you can advise me regarding the fitting of a car radio/ CD player into a caravan?
I have just written off a Swift Challenger 530 year 2000, and with the insurance payout, I have now bought a Swift Challenger 490 SE, year 2000, which I’m delighted with. Before the caravan breakers took away my 530SE, I removed the radio/ CD player and speakers, but I did not bother removing all the cabling, I just took the radio and speakers. I am now trying to install this into my 490SE. I have religiously followed the advice in an article written by a very kind guy called Tom Baker at http://www.satcure-focus.com/icetech/page8.htm I have carefully cut the holes and successfully fitted the speakers, carefully run and hidden the speaker cables, I have carefully fitted the radio, tucked away nicely in a cupboard, and connected the arial and power cables as per his advice. In fact I am really proud of myself!! Only problem is... It doesn’t work!! I’m sure it must be something simple, but what?
Tom Baker in his article suggested tapping into the 12 volt lighting circuit, to connect the power cables, and I have done this, connecting the positive (Yellow) cable from the radio, to corresponding positive cable in the lighting circuit, and the negative (Red) cable from the radio, to the corresponding negative cable in the lighting circuit. This seemed very simple, and as there is a 12 volt light in the cupboard that I have installed the radio in, what could be simpler? He did not however mention the Earth (Black) cable from the radio, and therefore I have not connected this, as I don’t know where to connect it? I am now wondering if this may be the problem! Also, should I just have connected the whole thing via the distribution panel, and if so, how do I access it? And would there be an earth terminal in there? Any advice that anyone could give me would be very much appreciated as per usual. Many Thanks, With Kind Regards. Mike
Yes, red and yellow to positive, black to negative. As for red and yellow - in a car fitting one of them would be switched via the ignition, the other a permanent live for keeping the radio's memory for preset stations, bass & treble, etc. In the caravan joining them both (red and yellow) together will be perfectly OK.
Simon H
------------- The optimist sees the glass as half full. The pessimist sees the glass as half empty. To the engineer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be...
Quote: Originally posted by Shytot4x4 on 16/9/2010
In the caravan joining them both (red and yellow) together will be perfectly OK.
With my van the installer thought the same and yes the radio itself worked fine. Only problem was that it quickly flattened the van's battery. I our case it was Pioneer unit.
I had to putin and use the equivalent of an ignition switch in the "control" positive line. Then it both worked fine and did not flatted the battery. Sorry but I cant remember the colour of that line.
Yellow - Permanent 12v+ Live (radio memory, general power)
Red - Ignition (switch)
Black - Permanent Earth
I would suggest leaving the yellow to the current feed, earthing the black wire, and connecting the red to the same wire as the yellow via a toggle switch, easily available from Halfords, Maplins and the like.
Thanks for all your advice guys, I've tried that, and yes your right Grampion91, it blew a fuse! - by the way, I dont have any strip lights, and I was following the advice of a very kind guy called Tom Baker at http://www.satcure-focus.com/icetech/page8.htm
Thanks for your advice about the switch DamonST, I will beetle off down to Halfords first thing in the morning!
I suspect that I have connected the positive to the negative, but how do I find out what the polarity is? I've invested in a multimeter, but as far as I can see this is only for checking the circuit, how do I use it to test the polarity?
The wires in the lighting circuit are 'Grey with a red stripe' or 'White with a white stripe'. (Why dont they use red and black?!) I assumed that white with a red stripe was positive. Is there any way of knowing which is positive and which is negative? I suppose I could just try it again the other way round, but I dont want to blow another fuse and surely there must be some way of knowing?
I've reconnected the lighting circuit as it was, and changed the fuses and the lighting is all working again. I'm now poised waiting for your advice to know how to proceed from here!
Set the multimeter to 20v dc (or the next one above 12v on yours, 20v is usually it).
Assuming the multimeter has the standard red and black probes, and you have them plugged in correctly, then it's pretty straightforward.
Place the black probe on one wire and the red probe on the other. If the measured voltage is displayed as a positive number, eg "12.4v", then the red probe is on the positive. If the voltage is displayed as a negative, eg "-12.4v", then the red probe is on the negative/earth wire.
I'm not familiar with caravan circuits (very familiar with 12v vehicle wiring though), so cannot specifically recommend whether the lighting circuit is suitable. I presume it is "permanently live" and not a switched live.
Many Thanks to everyone for all your advice, particularly DamanST for your advice about using the multimeter!
I identified the positive lead on the lighting circuit ('Grey with a red stripe'), made all the connections and Bingo! it all works perfectly. Thank you all so much once again
I have a Bailey Pageant and i cannot get the radio part of my wireless to work although the CD side works OK Do i require an outside aerial to get the wireless to work Thank you all in advance
Quote: Originally posted by johnt780 on 23/8/2020
I have a Bailey Pageant and i cannot get the radio part of my wireless to work although the CD side works OK Do i require an outside aerial to get the wireless to work Thank you all in advance
Yes but you'll get strong signals if you put about 75cm of wire in the aerial socket centre pin 👍
You probably have a TV aerial on the roof connected to an amplifier in an overhead locker. These have a switch on them to switch them on and off as they do tend to flatten the battery if left on for a long time.
The amplifier may have a spare coax aerial socket on it which you can connect to the radio.
I have a telescopic car radio aerial connected to my radio in my caravan. It is normally clipped up horizontally it the front locker, but if I'm in a weak signal area I unclip it and drop the under-wing part into a metal pole that attaches to the jockey wheel shaft with a clamp. Works beautifully.
When I installed my radio I connected the positive supply to the feed to the aux switch in the control panel, and the earth connection to the white wire in the caravan. Not sure about more modern van wiring but white is earth on mine.
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The wires in the lighting circuit are 'Grey with a red stripe' or 'White with a white stripe'.
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white with a white stripe!?-- hmmm
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Topic: Fitting a car radio into a caravan
via mobile 23/8/2020 at 1:01pm
