Bongo Fury

We've just returned from France and the two sites we stayed at both had the blue 16A sockets as in the UK. One was a proper campsite and the other an Aire de Service. But the Aire de Service site had one hookup post with two sockets, one wired correctly and one with the live & neutral reversed. If you just take two Euro adapter cables with one wired in reverse, that'll be no use to you. You need the kit as in my post above to enable you to connect your tester plug into whatever they provide to check before connecting to your van

Phew - think i'll stick to wild camping. Much simpler

Top tip from Team Muz is to use a polarity tester like this....



....or this....



....where all three lights come on if everything’s in order.

From experience, don’t use one like this....



....where only two come on. If you’re pitching up on a campsite in the dark and are scrabbling about with cables & adaptors, you need to be absolutely certain that you’re plugging your van into a safe supply. It’s really inconvenient to have to examine the legend on the plug to see whether it’s ok, illuminating the area with the light from a mobile phone, and maybe having the plug upside down (note that if the live & neutral are reversed which is the most likely fault, two adjacent lights will be on and if you're holding the whole thing upside down you'll think it's ok). And maybe after a glass of rioja....

Use one of the top two, three lights on and you don’t have to think, you’re in business

Thanks to you all very helpful.
Cheers
Steve Wales

So I have my adaptor lead now, ready to reverse the wiring. But before I get it wrong, could I just check what I'm doing?! The European end is a sealed plug. The blue end where the English lead connects has screws. Do I reverse the wiring at the blue end, or the European end? And is it as simple as unscrewing and just swapping the wires over? I don't want to electrocute myself, or anyone else, for that matter!

If you're making up a cable to reverse a reversed polarity outlet you just need to swap the live & neutral cables around in your blue socket, and then clearly mark that cable with suitable tape so you know it's the reversed one. You need an unmodified one too.

But doing it with a Euro-type plug on the cable doesn't enable you to check or correct a hookup that's got normal (UK-type) blue sockets, and they do have them in France too.

You'd be better off making a 16A male to female lead with reversed polarity. In France at least, they use a mixture of conventional UK-style 16A connectors and 2 pin continental sockets. Either type could be reverse polarity so if you make a short lead with 16A plug on one end & socket on the other, you can use it inline with regular lead, or regular lead + 2 pin adapter.

The Range..... have the 2 pin to 16 amp adapters at £3.99 at the moment.... http://www.therange.co.uk/maypole-230v- ... duct/62626

This post is really interesting. I am off to France soon and am looking at getting this kit here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251649463784? ... EBIDX%3AIT

But I have a silly question (sorry I haven't a clue about this stuff).

Should you use the reverse polarity if your tester shows that either the live and neutral and live and earth reversed? I.E. It applies in both cases?

thanks
Matt

Don't use it if live and earth are reversed ,
Just live and neutral reversed
I presume where on about the pre wired reversed polarity hook up adapter thingy

In my opinion, that's £30+ of stuff and you will never need most of it. Euro hookup lead can be bought for £4.50 http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/maypole-230 ... ad-p333389, a crossover lead for a similar price (or make yourself) and a polarity tester is £5 - £10. Many trip units used in camper conversions already have a red neon reverse polarity indicator built in so you may not even need one. Connecting the vehicle up with the wrong polarity will do any damage, but if you have anything with an on/off switch only in the live wire, then it may still be live when switched off.

I was lucky enough to find a clear plug so stripped down a polarity tester and fitted the two neons inside the casing. Several advantages: you can't forget to take the tester with you, and you can see at a glance if the site's socket is wired correctly and not tripped out. Also means I can never loose my hookup lead in the dark .

Thanks Gasy, Simon for your responses.

cheers
Matt