Project caravan!!

[Lazy-Ferret]

We had a bit of a result and got a brand new automatic motor mover for a song a couple of months back, so I took the old temperamental one off, and fitted the new one. While at it I decided to do a bit of customisation to make life a bit easier in using it, which meant a bit of extra wiring and a couple of extra relays... Having got it all done, I am very pleased with the results, and it is now a dream to get he caravan out of our drive.

Often when going on Holiday, we leave early in the morning, as we don't have a lot of options but to use the M25, and as we all know for most of the day it is basically a glorified car park. When we leave early in the morning it is usually still dark, and our council are on an economy drive, so we have no street lights after 10pm.

We live just round a bend, and a few of the locals tend to come round it a bit rapidly, so when it is dark, I have to get the car out of the drive, park it down the road on the bend with the Hazards on, then using the motor mover, reverse the van out of the drive. The way it is in the drive, The van ends up broad side across the road for a period before I can swing the front round and get it facing the correct way and on the correct side of the road. I then have to pull the car back round to the front of the van to hitch up. This leaves the caravan just round the bend with no lights on for a period of time, let alone for the amount of time it is broad side across the road.

So... I decided the time had come to do something and make it a bit safer when we hitch up at night. I have fitted a set of LED amber side marker lights along each side of the caravan, which I have set up the same as the side markers on the car, so they act as marker lights with the side lights, and then also flash with the indicators. I then made it so that when you turn the Motor Mover on, using the caravan battery, it turns the caravan marker lights on as well, so now the van is totally visible when I manoeuvre it onto the road.

I will feel a lot better now when we are leaving at silly O clock in the morning.

[Blocky10]

That's a great idea. Well done. Safety first

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

that is great idea.

got markers in mind for our van, and had thought rather than wire to side lights on van
have on their own circuit from van's battery.

Also seen a remote control switch, with off, flash, and on modes. So van can be better
seen on its own, or even use on a dark (rally) site to show it up. Looking at putting
markers on skirt in line with door/loo door, side locker/water point and other places
again to assist using said features. Looking at extra rear red markers and maybe front
whites to boost visibility, quite fancy some high level indicators to rear too.

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

do the markers have a dim and bright function? if are there as markers and flashers.

most ive seen are just for markers in dim mode but have seen some on amazon that
have dual mode/brightness.

[rustic]

Originally Posted by Blocky10

That's a great idea. Well done. Safety first

Just what I was thinking, a couple of Uncle Rustic brownie points there lol

[Lazy-Ferret]

Cheers Guys...

Originally Posted by Thomas-the-Terrano2

do the markers have a dim and bright function? if are there as markers and flashers.

most ive seen are just for markers in dim mode but have seen some on amazon that
have dual mode/brightness.

I went for some very flat markers, These on Ebay... They are so flat, as far as I can tell, they are just Yellow LED's with a built in current limiting resister, although I have not tried them on a lower voltage (Will give it a try later). If they are, then you could easily make them 2 brightnesses.

I built a simple 3 relay circuit, that takes the lights, and indicators in, and when the car lights are off, the markers flash in time to the cars indicators. At night, when the car lights are on, so are the Markers, but when you indicate, the makers are the inverse of the cars indicator, so when the indicator is on, the markers go off, and when the indicator goes off, the markers come back on... Makes it very effective as there is always an amber light on somewhere. especially when the car has the same set up on the side steps.

I know a man who deals on Military Scrap, and managed to get some great flexible trunking used in the Tornado jet, so used that to run the cables on the underside of the van, with these junction boxes, at each place I wanted to connect the lamp in.

[Terrano Steve]

Nice project with some excellent thought & can't be many caravans that use recycled Tornado jet parts either.

[zippy656]

So, um,, you know what's coming



Where are the pics!!!

[Monaro Pete]

Originally Posted by zippy656

So, um,, you know what's coming



Where are the pics!!!

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

that should be good at night when indicating as the contrast between the vehicles but then
again hope the law dont have an issue.

once saw a coach that had two indicator lens together in in location and when used as
indicators they flashed together, but in hazard mode each with in pair flashed alternatively.

thought was handy as you get the scenario where can cannot see both left and right rear
lights due to another vehicle close behind so think is wanting to pull out but get close and
realise is parked. So alternating within one cluster more attention catching....

[terranosaurusdoug]

That is a great idea mate, and using bits of off tornado jets is just down right cool

[Lazy-Ferret]

Here you go...

Please excuse how dirty the caravan is, I have not had a chance to clean it back up after all it's outings this year. You can see I did polish where the lights were going to go.

So, I guess it must be "Up-Cycled" Tornado Jet conduit, as it is second hand...







I did a video of the lights, since pictures don't really make them show up...

This video is when the Motor Mover is turned on, when it is off, all the lights operate as you would expect.

[don simon]

Excellent stuff, but won't low flying jets be changing direction when they see all those lights flashing away?

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by don simon

Excellent stuff, but won't low flying jets be changing direction when they see all those lights flashing away?

Actually, after a scary experience in the North of France one time, that would be a good thing...

I was driving along in convoy with another caravan, somewhere around the Somme area, and it was very flat and open... There were military jets flying around in pairs, and they kept circling around, and then flying directly at us, making real low level passes right over us, before screaming off, and doing it again.... The thing was, I had a Whistler police radar detector, and every time they did it, the detector would start screaming "Laser, Laser", which it had never done before.. I must admit we got pretty paranoid and were pleased to get off of that bit of road...

Later, talking to some friends we discovered that they use the vehicles on that bit of road as practice targets, and will pick out an easily identifiable vehicle to practice dropping bombs on...

[don simon]

Scary...