Land Rover Discovery 3/4 how do you connect up?

[davemc]

Hello All,

Question have a Land Rover Discovery 3 getting a Jayco Starcraft end of May with larger 164 litre fridge so how have you connected up your Jayco.
Getting a reverse camera wired on Disco I brought from Safety Dave at the show thought get the wiring done for the Starcraft at the same time
Options I thought of..
1) Jayco said just re wire a 12 pin under the Land Rover to replace the two 7 pins there already.
2) I have seen a thread where people wire a loom on AURLO.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/154891-trailer-connection-jayco-12-pin-plug.html
3) Get the 12 pin on the Starcraft changed over, not sure Jayco will do it.

Thanks in advance

 

[DaveS]

new jayco's are wired with the fridge going to pin 9 (pink)and a earth return on pin 10 (white). best advice i can give is to put a 12 pin on the car and a dedicated supply to those pin able to handle about 30amp's, preferably switched thru the ignition so you won't kill the disco's battery if you stop for a while.
some people stay with the 7 pin and just add a anderson for the fridge, jayco can change the van to suit this.

 

[davemc]

Thank @DaveS the Land Rover has two 7 pin a 12n and 12s.
The 12S has a separate one for the Fridge think 15amp fuse which might be a problem
See the attached diagram.. not sure if I go this way with a cable though another weak link.
Wife is not overly happy to put on the 12pin.

 

[straydingo]

Not sure about the loads for the fridge, but I've seen two 7 pins to a 12 pin used before.
Mine, I use added a second battery with an anderson and rewired the van to a 7 pine round.

If after a 12s plug, I got one off ebay pretty cheap.

 

[DaveS]

just wondering why that diagram only has load resistors on the indicators, in the few euro cars i've seen we put them on all the light circuits as all the van lights flickered when used. also i have mounted them on the van on the steel chassis as they generate a fair bit of heat to disperse, wired in parallel with the light circuits, never had to use relays either.
where do they wire the brake controller on the disco? is it on pin 5 on the 12n ?
yeah 15amp might be too small with the big fridge, i'm not sure of it's element size but anything over about 180 watt would be on it's limit and i would be reluctant to just throw a bigger fuse in unless you can determine the wiring in the disco can handle the amps. if you can get me the fridge model (on a sticker inside the door) i can find out what element (size) it uses, or it may even be in the manual (which i've never read)

 

[davemc]

Thanks @DaveS from reading around yes to stop flickering. Yes I thought it get hot.
Not sure about Brake Controller going back to the same Auto Elec that installed it.
Fridge is the Thetford N504 164lt. Found manual it mentions DC current draw 14.1amps at 12v
30amp or 40amp fuse if 8 meters length.
http://files.flipsnack.com/iframe/e...=window&bgcolor=EEEEEE&t=13808637441380863744
Yes need to work out wiring and if they run higher gauge, when I look at Disco forum a lot gone dual battery etc.

Maybe its easier to get them to run a new fridge run down to a 12 pin Jayco style under bumper. I am not sure the wife to happy to have the extra plug as they other two are in the bumper and have a cover.

 

[straydingo]

LR uses the indicators to see if there is a load or not, I think specifically the left, but possibly either. The other circuits don't need any resistance. If the indicators show ok, then all are ok. I have a shunt pack installed on the van chassis which the 7 pin plugs into, then then another 7 pin from that to the car. But as that is on the van only, if/when I hire a van or trailer with LED (or if someone pinches it off the van) then i still have the flicking. I've bought some Narva load resisters ($40 pair) ready to install in the car, but haven't got round to it yet.

The fact Jayco gives the option to run the fridge through the light duty wiring on a 12 pin suggests it might be ok. Personally, I didn't trust it to be ok and put the Ando in from day one.

The brake controller is connected to a control cable in the front of the car, so not really relevant to the plugs at the back as such. But in effect it is ultimately the same wire/circuit.

 

[Burnsy]

Hi @davemc, I have our 186L fridge/freezer (18 amp draw I think) connected through a 12 pin plug but using 6mm twin cable and it seems fine. My intention was to connect through an anderson plug using 6B&S cable but it's not a priority at this stage although the anderson is wired ready to go on the tug!

Cheers.

 

[davemc]

Thanks guys yes I hope it's thicker wiring on the jayco side. I worry if I make or get a cable made another link that can go wrong

 

[DaveS]

the wiring is adequate on the jayco's for the fridge, what lets it down is they tend to trim the wires to get them to fit in the 12 pin so thats a bit of a bottleneck, a 7 pin and anderson for the fridge is a better option i reckon.
@davemc maybe you can put a outlet inside the car and run a short jumper lead to keep the missus happy, thats how i used to have the sedan wired without showing a plug on the back.

@straydingo

The brake controller is connected to a control cable in the front of the car, so not really relevant to the plugs at the back as such. But in effect it is ultimately the same wire/circuit.

sorry don't understand what you mean ...... the controller still needs to connect to van .... somewhere and if things were wired like that diagram the brakes would come on with right side/ tailamps

 

[davemc]

So @DaveS you think I should be able to get Jayco to set it up with 7 pin and Anderson from factory?
Do you know how they wire the solar as well was thinking if I charged the battery with solar and car and it ran the fridge would reduce load from car would that work?

 

[DaveS]

factory prob won't do it, but your dealer can in 30 minutes.
solar goes straight to battery thru a regulator of course, bypassing battery switch with a fuse at the battery end.
you can run the fridge off the house battery, but it will kill it pretty quickly if you can't keep ahead of the demand, solar would battle to keep up depending on cells. if you wanted to go this way the fridge needs to bypass the setek and goto the battery (add a switch and fuse) the setek is only rated at 10amps per fused circuit
i''ve wired a few up using a bridge rectifier to allow multiple inputs to supply the fridge without them feeding each other
a dc2dc charger is more efficient way to go if you want to use house battery on fridge

 

[davemc]

ok thanks @DaveS yes will chat to auto electrician see what he says from the Disco side wiring.. I was wondering how it get power through both.
He might need to run new wires getting the reverse camera put in so he will have to run wires for that. I normally wired all my stereo's etc in every car I have. Wifes car she said I rather get it done by someone else

 

[straydingo]

@straydingo
sorry don't understand what you mean ...... the controller still needs to connect to van .... somewhere and if things were wired like that diagram the brakes would come on with right side/ tailamps

When the controller is installed in the car it is up at dash end. The wiring loom it connects to is behind of to the right of the accelerator. Theres no need to run a wire to the back of the car to the towing loom itself.

 

[DaveS]

When the controller is installed in the car it is up at dash end. The wiring loom it connects to is behind of to the right of the accelerator. Theres no need to run a wire to the back of the car to the towing loom itself.

gotcha, but they must modify the wiring according to that diagram, otherwise the brakes come on with the clearance lights.

 

[davemc]

@straydingo on the D3 I could not find a loom think it was for later models, hence i took it to Auto Electrician and he ran a cable.
Pretty sure the brakes go down one side only not both, read a lot some sunk in and some did not

 

[Flanders]

I have the 7 pin plug and an anderson for the fridge. Jayco will do this for you, and that is how it was suggested to me to do it, by the guys at Prestige Geelong. The Anderson is connected directly to the Fridge while travelling. Works very well, have had no problems

 

[davemc]

thanks @Flanders
Question what did you do with the Anderson on Land Rover end?
I seen people make a lead or buy one from the 12S. Although I think its only 15amp from ignition?
http://www.disco3.co.uk/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=45
Also seen re-wire of the 12S and put a Anderson plug rolled up in the space or use Traxide kit with dual battery see pic below.


Did you have to run a higher grade wire to the battery?

 

[davemc]

So I looked at the pic and thought maybe I could replace the white one with a Flat 12 pin. Went out had a look seems to fit.
Then looked online and bingo someone had the same thought.


So now do we do this. or split to Anderson?
Still need to work out if I can draw enough current on the Fridge connection through ignition? Some say 15amp some say 30amp?

Did anyone have to add anything because of LED lights?

 

[Flanders]

thanks @Flanders
Question what did you do with the Anderson on Land Rover end?
I seen people make a lead or buy one from the 12S. Although I think its only 15amp from ignition?
http://www.disco3.co.uk/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=45
Also seen re-wire of the 12S and put a Anderson plug rolled up in the space or use Traxide kit with dual battery see pic below.

Did you have to run a higher grade wire to the battery?

I'm pretty sure the wire is higher grade and the fuse (40 AMP from memory??). I had it all done by Driven Auto Electrics here in Melbourne, Mick is very good, and does a lot of work with Land Rovers. I'm not very technical with 12 volt electronics, sorry. When he did the job, he explained that all the wiring / fusing etc, he used was well sized and I have never had an issue.

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