RV FEATURE
Note the large earth pin on this caravan lead .
So , you ’ ve just bought your first caravan . Congratulations and welcome to the community ! No doubt your new van will bring you many years of happy memories . But caravanning does involve a learning curve and at first glance , some things might not make sense . In this article , we ’ ll attempt to clear up five common caravan mysteries …
WHAT ’ S WITH THE BIG EARTH PIN ?
You might have noticed a plug on the offside ( passenger side ) of your caravan . It looks like the plug on any domestic outlet but with one major difference : the earth pin slot is rather large and won ’ t fit your standard household extension lead . What gives ?
Every caravan built in Australia is given a 15A electrical circuit ( with a 16A residual current device or RCD ) for 240V appliances , such as the microwave , as well as appliances you might pack , such as a toaster , etc .
But why ? After all , every appliance in a caravan is comparable to the appliances in any household , which are plugged into 10A powerpoints .
But unlike a house , most vans have a single 240V electrical circuit . Therefore , in order to run more than a few appliances at once – depending on their current draw – a 15A circuit becomes necessary . If it was a 10A circuit , in the same way that the various electrical circuits in your house are 10A each , the circuit would be more prone to being overloaded and the RCD would continually trip .
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