We got the power...

Well 12 volts of it anyway!

When I bought Little Dai I wasn't too happy about either the 12v power setup (which was close but not close enough) or the 240v (which was simply a camping power unit). I knew what I wanted to achieve and also that the cost wouldn't be prohibitive. Orders went in to both Screwfix (for the mains stuff primarily) and Towsure (for the caravan specific bits) and I also had to pay a visit to Maplin.

Saturday

The leisure battery and much of the 12v stuff was buried away behind a panel. I'd removed this previously and thought there might be room to get all the mains stuff in there as well, but it quickly became apparent that there isn't. So before I'd even started plans changed! There was plenty of space in the cupboard next to the coolbox though, I did have to remove the shelf someone had put in there but that's no great loss. A couple of hours of general sorting out, drilling holes and setting up wiring left me with the consumer unit, input and first single socket ready to install. They basically just needed screwing to the panel:

I'd decided to put a socket inside the cupboard as it may come in useful for charging stuff I don't want on show and also I can plug the mains adapter for the coolbox in. I also decided that there was little point in using an expensive fancy socket here!

One of the things I'd needed was something to make a new switch panel out of. The simplest thing turned out to be an aluminium door push plate from B&Q. I could have found something better with time, should have though of it sooner. I cut this down, cut out the holes for the two switches and made up a vinyl overlay (useful having a laser printer at home). It's not as tidy as I'd like but will do the job until it annoys me completely.

Doing all of that took most of Saturday afternoon so I decided to leave the next step until the Sunday.

Sunday

I got a decent early start on sorting the 12v side out. There were two primary aims here, firstly I wanted to be able to leave the coolbox permanently plugged in and have it run with the engine but be able to switch it on manually (previously it ran entirely off the leisure battery when you switched on the power from that) and secondly I wanted to be able to switch the supply for the lights, pump, etc. between the leisure battery and the vehicle battery. I wouldn't want to do the latter for very long, it's quite a  small battery, but useful to have the capability. The simple way to achieve this was a voltage sensing split charge relay from Towsure, I've used these before and they are simple to install.

I had to slightly bodge the existing wiring from the engine compartment (under the passenger seat) but with that done the relay works fine. It provides a permanent feed from the engine and two switched feeds for charging and for the coolbox that come on when the engine is running. The fun part was then making the relevant holes in the panel to take the existing 12v "lighter" socket, the new switch panel and the 240v mains socket. Some moving about, drilling, sawing and sanding achieved the required result. I'm fairly happy with it. It's all a bit cramped but that was a necessity as it all had to clear the battery behind.

It may not be entirely clear from the photo but the left hand switch controls the coolbox with choosing between Auto (with the engine running) and On (running off the leisure battery) whilst the right hand switch swaps the auxiliary power between the leisure battery and the car battery. Here I did use a fancy socket, the only nuisance being I'd forgotten to order longer screws to go through the panel so that was another quick shopping trip.

With that all in place I could complete the 12v wiring. It's a bit of a rats' nest but with the panel back on it's not an issue. It wasn't strictly necessary to trunk the mains cable but I decided to do so for tidiness.

It nearly all worked first time as well! I'd reused the existing fuse box but hadn't noticed one of the fuses was already blown so that was easily sorted. I also wondered why the coolbox didn't run when I started the engine until I realised I hadn't switched it to Auto (they're centre-off switches).

It then just remained to get the panel back on and tidy everything up. The remaining job is to run the cable for another socket by the back seats. I know where it's going but just ran out of time. That's also why on the last picture the cable under the worktop isn't trunked yet - it'll all get done together.

All in all a successful weekend. Shame I wasted time on a couple of shopping trips, without that I might have finished completely.