Revamping Electricals in Vintage Vans

[aussietanker]

Hi All ..

I have looked thru a few of the electrical threads but can't really find the answer to what i'm looking for - so here goes ....

During my search for a van i often saw comments like "all new electricals" ... "fully rewired " etc ...


what is most commonly involved in doing this ... i am trying to understand the best approach in doing this in a vintage van ...

ie does it usually mean that all the old wiring is removed and all new wiring installed ... or is it more common to just disconnect each end of the old wiring, leave it where it is in the van and install new stuff where needed .....

looking at my 150 Don (pics coming real soon ;D) ... to my very untrained eye it looks like wires are tracking everywhere - pretty messy looking really ....

i don't like the idea of using 50 year old wires - they are fastened every few inches with old clips that could potentially wear thru ... so i really want to get the van "rewired" .... and my sense of neatness also doesn't like the idea of just cutting off the ends and leaving the the old stuff in place while adding in all the new wiring .... i would rather that this was removed .....

so in rewiring a van - do the external panels need to be taken off (that seems like a huge and expensive job ) .... or do they kind of "poke the new wires thru the existing holes etc ..

anyone have any idea of a ball park cost in rewiring an old van like a Don? ... and how long does it normally take ...

Regards
A|T

[aussietanker]

Thanks JBJ ...

i think that you pretty much summed it up ...

that has been a great help .... i will talk to a sparky and also talk to a caravan repair place re this ...

bad wiring + wooden caravan = warm night as we watch it blaze

thanks again ... that's the info that ii was after

regards
A|T

[belinda]

One of the first jobs we did (after new tyres) was to tow the van to an auto electrician and get it re-wired.

He had three things to do.

1) A 12v system connecting the battery to a light, and also to the car so the battery would charge as we travelled.

2) wiring for the brake lights/indicators etc. running from the coupling to the rear of the van

Work on the van must have been incredibly simple compared to a car - no fiddly spaces or threading wires through gaps.


3) Some modifications were also needed on the tow car so the van wouldn't drain the car battery when stopped. We've now had this done to two of our cars.

Things I wish I'd done at the same time:
- 240v outlet for use in the annexe
- 12v outlet for use in the annexe
- safety cut-off switch

To make it easier for the sparky, I delivered the van with as much as possible stripped out of it - the heavy cushions, the table top, the wooden base for the sofa/bed

The original 240v system is untouched. It only consists of 30cm of wiring between the outside socket and a light + power point under the kitchen cupboard

[aussietanker]

Thanks Belinda ...

.... also incredibly helpful ...

i wonder if there is some kind of template wiring diagram posted somewhere ... not so much because i want to do it myself - i have decided against that - but so that i can just understand how my van "works" better - and be a little better equipt to talk to the sparky when i get to that point ...

anyway, thanks for the post - that gives me a lot more clarity on the wiring issue

regards
A|T

[Don Ricardo]

Aussietanker,

For what it's worth, we made some changes to the electrical wiring of our van but basically only to add a couple of things we needed - an additional powerpoint, and an external socket to provide power in the annexe. (I gave a few more details in my original post on our van: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=1170069697&page=1)
Otherwise the wiring in our van is original and hasn't given us any problems at all. It sounds exactly like yours - running through the cupboards and held in place by small staples every few centimetres.

The additional wiring was done by an autoelectrician who did a great job. The new wiring is basically invisible unless you open a cupboard where it runs through and even then he installed little bulkheads to hide it behind. So it can be done!!

I endorse Belinda's comment re the value of an external 240 v powerpoint on the annexe side of the van. We have used ours heaps.

Keep at it A/T - sounds as if the 150 will be a picture once it's finished.

Don Ricardo

[cornishlass]

Hi Aussie Tanker

Have been working hard on my van of late so have not been keeping my eye on the ball with regard to the VV foum Have decided to chill out tonight and try to catch up with all the postings I have missed, yours being one of them.

Now it may be too late for you but there is a web site which does give quite a lot of information on electrics, albeit for a van, but you may be able to gather some help on the subject. On the other hand, you may have already got all the info you require, in which case I'm too late Either way good luck!!!

www.kampenwagen.co.uk/index.html Just go to the technical pages and folow it through to electrics.

Cornish Lass

[Roehm3108]

Hi A/t
Another thought worth considering (perhaps this ties in with what Belinda has said) is to re-wire and have a setup like the modern vans have today. Go only waist high with 240volt and 12 volt above that level. That means that you would have 12 volt lighting with an inverter/battery backup/charger in one of your cupboards (a gel battery would be better for safety) and only comparatively thin wiring to instal (which would be easier to pull through as JBJ suggests) Your power points would use the normal 240volt wiring, but these can be hidden much more easily in cupboards as the Don suggests. My Propert is done like that and works a treat. Would possibly be cheaper to instal too.
Ray