So Far ...

There's little to report.

I bought the Dandy on eBay for a very low sum with the intention of using it until I could get back to the caravan. I then intended to clean it up and sell it on - hopefully for a fair profit. I have decided to really tart it up and keep it! I'm still keeping the caravan, but without a towbar fitted to the Lucida (yet) I may be using the Dandy quite a bit more this year. In the meantime it means I can use the Rover cabrio to tow it there & back and have the use of an open top car when the weather permits.

So far I've only worked on the electrics - 12 & 240 volts plus 12 volt lighting - and applied some very pale coloured wood effect sticky backed plastic (very Blue Peter) to the worst damaged fittings. To date the electrics now include 2 cig lighter sockets, a 140 A/H leisure battery, an 18 amp 12/24 volt charger, a standard 16 amp hookup socket, 1 twin 13 amp switched wall socket, a 1200 watt inverter with a 4-way 13 amp socket extension and a home made removable lighting fitting. I took a few pics on my camera, but it's chosen to delete them so I'll take a few more the next time I erect it and have another go at the rest. Why they chose to use such a mix of dark brown colours inside escapes me, but that will soon be fixed as detailed below.

The exterior will have to wait until I've finished on the interior, but these are my plans for the latter, in no particular order:

• Add an RCD.
  

• Cover all 'wood' except the vertical end boards with pale wood effect SBP.
  

• Replace all the sliding cupboard doors with proper hinged ones.
  

• 'New' carpeting throughout (including the end boards) with wool mid blue deep pile. (free via Freecycle).
  

• Add a Whale pump & tap.
  

• Clean up the detachable table.
  

• Make/acquire seat cushions for the 2 small cupboards for use as seating at the table.
  

The drive-away awning that came with it could do with a little work, but it attaches to the Dandy in much the same way as the official one even down to part of it being pushed under the roofing over the door end to form a rain tight seal. Nice!

Oh ... and despite the soubriquet 'stinky' mine doesn't smell of anything much apart from cig smoke which I've combatted with an ordinary household smelly.

Hi Sir Henry, hope I'm not teaching Granny to suck eggs, but please be aware that:

• The RCD needs to be double pole so it also breaks the neutral

• The incoming earth needs to be connected to the chassis of the Dandy as well as the earth bar in the consumer unit.

Which means that the chassis should have its own earth via a spike driven into the ground - like my gennie has.

Sir Henry wrote:Which means that the chassis should have its own earth via a spike driven into the ground - like my gennie has.

I always thought that but you never see it,think its because of the protection you now get from the consumer unit but ime sure some one will know.

The EHU on the site should use what we call TT earthing which means it has a spike in the ground and an RCD. Normal domestic earthing is usually TN-C-S otherwise known as PME in which the earth is connected to the distributors neutral conductor which is earthed along the cable route and at their transformer.
 
The connection of the earth from the EHU to your dandy chassis willl make sure that, if there is a short circuit to earth in the dandy, a current will flow through that earth connection and trip the RCD in the site EHU. If there is no earth connection to the dandy chassis, there will be no current flow to trip the site EHU and the dandy chassis will be live. Don't forget dandies have rubber tyres and plastic bed support feet so are pretty well insulated from the ground.
 
You come along with feet on the wet ground and touch the dandy metalwork and that current will flow through you. If you're lucky the site EHU will trip and you may live, if not, enjoy flying around and sitting on a cloud playing the harp, or stoking the fires.
 
Of course if your supply comes from your own genny, you must make your own earthing arrangments to suit.
 
I think, you must have dandy earthing to suit site EHUs if you have a normal 16A inlet. You never know when you may need to use EHU or some future owner.
 
Mike, the site EHU protects the hookup cable up to the dandy consumer unit (circuit breaker box). The MCBs in your consumer unit protects the individual sub circuts in the dandy. The site EHU also acts as a back up protection for the wiring in the dandy and one may trip before the other. Ideally the dandy should trip first.
 
Sorry if this is a bit heavy.

navver wrote:
 
Sorry if this is a bit heavy.

No it's not too heavy, even I get it ...... The Dandy electrics cut out, if not the campsite electrics cut out ....... failing that I am out and will need to take harp lessons  

In practice the MCBs in the Dandy should be of a lower current trip-out than the EHU to avoid those avoidable runs to the camping unit in the middle of the night in heavy rain - as they usually entail.

Agreed Sir Henry. Not very PC these days but we call it discrimination.

And that's why the cheap EHU leads you can get on ebay with no circuit breaker should be banned.

Helen wrote:And that's why the cheap EHU leads you can get on ebay with no circuit breaker should be banned.  

I see your point, but do not completely agree. Even my 1988 build caravan has its own consumer unit with MCBs for 2 circuits - lights and charger together and another separate one for the wall sockets. Admittedly any camping unit should have one of some design, but why go to the expense of an RCD in 'the middle' of the run when there's already one at each end?

I was talking of the diy leads, with only a connector on one end and a row of plug sockets on the other ...... cheaply available on ebay, I  bought one when I first started using EHU but when I showed my dad, his reply was I could have made you one of those but don't consider them to be safe enough.
An example of something similar to the one I bought, not to use with a caravan or Dandy with any type of electric connection but to use by pushing the socket end up inside the pvc wall into the Dandy.  I've seen people using them with tents!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

If you don't have your own RCD you're putting your life in the hands of the site operator, who probably used a cheap electrician who hasn't got a clue what he is doing but did him a favour. The site operator won't know anything about it either.

Exactly and they shouldn't be being sold

Apologies sir Henry your threads been a bit sidetracked  

Safety can never be deemed to be a sidetrack. Off topic maybe, but none the less vital.

I've done a bit of work on the internal cosmetics

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] more to follow.