Bongo Fury

You got the wiring of the switch wrong... you clearly had a a short ciruit past the bulb...

All that was past the bulb was 3m of twin core cable, snipped and isolated at the end. The switch was connected exactly as per its labels (load, supply & earth), and it is atype I have put into to various vehicles many times before.

On that basis, do you think there may be a fault in the twin core cable itself ?

What I don't understand is why everything was fine with the power live through the cabe and the switch illuminated.
The trouble only started when the switch was turned off.

Turning switch off has clearly dumped all power through the switch earth wire (presumably this was a lighter wire than the supply wire), hence the meltdown. It sounds like, if you have used them before with no problems, the switch was faulty.
You mention twin core cable - is this domestic electrical wire? If so, it may not be powerful enough to work much from your leisure battery.

Yes the earth wire was a thinner wire, hence the burnout.

The main cable is 17.5 amp vehicle cable.

Have just tested it using short lengths of cable direct onto a battery:

supply from switch to +ve on battery
Load from switch to volt meter
Earth from switch to battery -ve terminal

All OK, switch lit up when on and off when off.

Soon as we put it back in the Bongo, with a thicker earth wire this time, the same thing happened - spark at the earth connection and wire got hot - but at least no fire this time.

This is getting mysterious.

Very mysterious indeed! When not in Bongo, have you tried the voltmeter between the earth wire and the negative terminal when the switch is "off"? - shouldn't be a reading but why is there when in the Bongo?

Hi lovejoy welcome to the forum,

Sorry i cant help with the electrical problem i'm afraid, with regards to the beeps, if you disconnect the plug from behind the drivers footwell panel, the roof beeps will still work, as that is operated by a seperate circuit, and "beep box". The reverse beep, doors open beep,and lights on beep will be disabled from the the plug at the front.

I,m sure that pippin can shed some light on the electrical issue when he comes across this thread....

Well John, I guess i'll never get to the bottom of this one.

When connected direct to the battery, and the switch earthed to the -ve terminal, and switched off, there were no volts showing on the earth side.
When on, we got the 12v we expected with the switch illuminated.
As soon as it was connected to the 4m cable inside the vehicle, I got the short circuit through the Earth lead.

Tested the cable and no faults in that. So the mystery was never resolved.

We solved the problem by, erm, taking out the switch altogether. I have put a 10A inline fuse into the live cable and then run it all to a 12v boat socket at the rear, which is hidden near the floor behind the kitchen unit.

Into the socket I have plugged a 4 x 12v socket adaptor from Halfords - the one with a remote switch block, with an illuminated on/off button for each of the sockets:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId=70567#
So I can now isolate everything which is plugged into the main 12v socket.

In the 4 sockets I have:

1. Water pump from kitchen unit
2. 120w Inverter feeding a grey 3 pin 240v socket mounted flush into the side of the kitchen unit.
3. A neon light to go in the cupboard of the kitchen unit
4. A 12v plug feeding a grey 12v socket mounted flush in the side of the kitchen unit below the 3 pin socket.

The remote button switch is mounted below the sockets on the side of the kitchen unit, so you can see at a glance what is switched on.

Looks like it was done by a professional

The two good things about this system is that I can independently switch on/off each of the 4 sockets. This means the inverter is only running when I need it. As its fan makes a humming noise this is quite useful, as to have it on all the time, even when not being used, would be a nuisance.

The other good thing is that I can now take out the kitchen unit from the vehicle, and just have to unplug one plug. All the electrics are attached to the back of the kitchen unit so can be removed with it.
Once out, the rear seat can be bolted back in, leaving just the 12v socket on the wall by the floor under the seat.

I'm very happy with the way it's all turned out, and even happier that I only set fire to one wire last night, and not the whole Bongo

Out of interest, I got the grey 3 pin and 12v sockets from a company called C.A.K Tanks (http://www.caktanks.co.uk), who do a whole range of matching sockets, switches, guages, TV/satellite sockets etc, and then you buy a little frame and cornice to fit round them and finish them off neatly. You can get singles, doubles or triples.

When fitted to the side of the grey kitchen unit they look like they came with the unit they are such a good match. And all the gubbins to run them can be screwed to the back of the kitchen unit hidden out of the way.

I would post some pics of how the sockets look if I could work out how to do it

Thanks to everyone who has given me advice on this one.

Hi BigDaddycain,

Thanks for the welcome, I can see I might be spending some time in this forum

I was looking around yesterday and found the beep box in the drivers footwell.
But I was scared to unplug it completely as it has hundreds (well, tens) of wires going into it, and I was worried I might disable something I do not want to disable.

I'd quite like to keep the reversing beeps and the lights on warning beep. It's just the "don't forget your key is in the ignition and your door is open" beep I can't stand.
I keep shouting at it that I know the key is in and the bloody door is open and that I am perfectly happy with the situation, but it doesn't make any difference - it still feels the need to keep telling me.

I read somewhere it is the red/yellow cable going into the beep box, but after yesterday's fire, I am a little wary of cutting any more cables. Besides, it doesn't look like there is much slack to join it back up again if it is the wrong one. So I have left well alone for the time being.

If someone could confirm that it is definitely the red/yellow wire which just disables the key in ignition warning beep, I might be brave enough to cut it.

Just in the middle of similar project (wiring towbar, new radio/dvd, flip down screen and leisure battery) Have ended up with 17 cables behind glove box to connect to switches, a/v sources and new fuse box, mostly trouble free but two scotchlocks failed, took some finding wasted hours, I hate SCOTCHLOCKS!!! The lesson for me is to allow 5 times the time you first thought and don't use *%$£$%$! scotchloks,

PS can you buy clips for trim panels anyone know, very hard to find on a gravel drive!