240v Mains Camping Hookup Lead

How I made my own lead and domestic adapter for less than the cost of a lunchtime pub session.

You will need:

240v plugs - the blue ones, male and female (I got mine from Screwfix Direct)

Cable to suit (I used some spare armoured cable)

Tools: Junior hacksaw, wire cutters, pliers, terminal screwdriver, Stanley knife.

IMPORTANT NOTE! I know a little about electricity, and have competence at making stuff with plugs and wires. If you are not sure or are all thumbs, buy a cable or get a mate to make one. If you are not sure, then LEAVE IT ALONE. Electricity can KILL!

First, you have to think about what you want to achieve. If you want a simple mains hookup for the odd camping trip, then the easiest and quickest way is to join
a 240v "blue" plug to a trailing 4 way socket via some 3 core orange cable. It is a fairly easy matter to add an RCD (Residual Current Device, protects you from shock in the case of an earth fault) although most campsite 240v outlets have these already fitted. Then you can dangle your trailing socket through the window, and robert is your mum's brother. Worked for me first time out: quick, cheap and simple.

However, I am now planning to install 240v sockets in the van and a proper hookup. The first part of this project is to make a 240v "blue plug" m-f extension lead and a 13a adaptor.

When finished, the hookup will look like this:

Van - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -240v

| Male |--| Female |------------------------| Male | Camping Outlet |

(Remember, you must NEVER wire live 240v to appear at a male pin socket as fingers can touch these when live. Ouch!)

When at home, I plan to hook the van up to a standard domestic 240v outlet in order to pre-cool the fridge, charge the batteries and do hoovering etc. To do this, I will need an adaptor which is simply a "blue" female plug to a 13a plug top.

So, on with the build!

Two "blue" plugs - Male and Female. The female has a snap lid, the male does not.

Open up the plugs to expose this inner gubbins: simple cable terminals and a strain relief clamp.

Click for Bigger!

The terminals are labelled Earth, Neutral and Live. Usually, if using 3 core mains wire, the colours are of course:

Blue - Neutral
Brown - Live
Green/Yellow - Earth

On my SWA cable that I had lying around, the cores were both black but numbered. I decided to stick to a convention of 1 for live and 2 for neutral. Earth was the traditional green/yellow.

Steel Wire Armoured Cable closeup.

The cable was a pig to strip as it has a wire protected exterior. Orange 3 core is much easier.

After stripping the cables and wiring in, the extension lead was complete. Remember to thread the cable through the caps before joining to the actual plug part!

After making the extension lead, I used a 9 inch offcut of the cable to join a female plug to a standard 13a mains plug. This makes the domestic adapter.

Click for Biggy!

The completed cable and adapter.

The spare male plug in the bottom right of the photo is the one that I will use next time to connect the mains inside the camper to the extension lead. Watch this space!