HI ALL, WONDER IF SOMEONE CAN HELP - i HAVE A THREE PIN male TO THREE PIN FEMALE EXTENSION LEAD FOR PLUGGING INTO THE CAMPSITE ELECTRICS. Is the campsite hook ups(at the box) a male or a female connector ?
One of the reasons I ask, is that I also have a female three pin to an English socket so I can plug a charger in to charge my Leisure battery whilst on site - so if the hook ups have a female then I am going to have to get a male to English three pin socket.
What else do I need, to ensure that I will be able to plug my battery charger in please - is it recommended to have a two pin to three pin and a reverse polarity thingy ? Please help going in three days "!!!
Most campsites in France have three pin Euro socket boxes, the same as you would find in the UK. However there is a small number of town municipal sites that still use the old two pin sockets, and for these you will need a 2 pin to 3 pin adaptor.
Even if the polarity is reversed, as it often is on French sites, it will still work. I carry two adaptors to cater for this or you can just rewire your plug (negative and positive) if you are concerned.
Thanks for that - the only reason I will use electricity is to run power to a battery charger which I will connect to my leisure battery to keep it topped up while on a site. If I connect something which is reverse polarity, will this still work either way around ? Thanks again.
Everything on my caravan works when polarity is reversed, including the battery charger. If I didn't have a polarity tester I wouldn't know if it was wrong.
I think the correct polarity is for safety to prevent electric shocks, but I'm not qualified to give a definitive answer.
With reverse polarity it's not normally a problem in caravans because the MCB and RCDs are double pole. In other words, both live and neutral are broken when one trips so it doesnt matter which is which.
HOWEVER, with our British 13 Amp mains sockets, the switch on the socket and the fuse in the 13 AMP PLUG ARE ONLY IN THE LIVE conductor. This means, if teh polarity is reversed, the live remains live when it is switched off or the fuse blows.
If you assume its safe to take something to bits because you've switched the switch off could be very dangerous and fatal.
You will not know the polarity is reversed until you are dead.
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Topic: fRENCH CAMPSITE HOOK UPS - HELP
