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I want to refurbish the rear light wiring of a campervan. The wiring is a mess with way too many connectors and no labeling, and has intermittent connection issues (lights not working).

On one end, I've got a 4-core cable coming from the van's fuse box. This has to be connected to 6 individual light units (indicator, brake, rear light and 3 contour lights connected to the rear light). The 4-core cable doesn't have a ground so I have a screw terminal on the chassis. The ground has to be split to 6 wires and that's now done in a crazy daisy-chain using a bunch of spade connectors.

For 230V wiring in a house, I'd use these to distribute one wire into several:

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but these are for single-core wires while the cables in the campervan all use stranded wires. I'm having trouble finding an equivalent that's suitable for automotive use (it'll also be exposed to the elements, under the chassis). What should I use?

Ideally, I want to clean it up more: get one 12-pole connector on the incoming cable, and 6 2-pole connectors that plug into this. Is that possible at all?

Hobbes
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2 Answers2

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I would have an earth point on each side of the vehicle, which would reduce the number of wires on one point.

I would also consider running a heavier gauge wire from the earth point into one of the lights and bringing the other lights earth wires to there as this would be shielded from the elements better.

You can use terminal or "chocolate" block connectors if you wish - they are common.

Solar Mike
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  • In my experience, those chocolate block connectors tend to rust when exposed to the elements. Should I use a junction box? – Hobbes Aug 16 '18 at 09:12
  • I woukd put the choco block connectors inside one of the lights and use some grease or somesuch to help prevent corrosion - when I fitted trailer sockets I used to smear liberally with petroleum jelly - made a big difference especially on my landrover... – Solar Mike Aug 16 '18 at 09:42
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In the end I decided to replace all spade connectors with 2 Mate-N-Lok connectors (sealed version) per side of the vehicle: one for the rear light cluster, and one for the side running lights. Where necessary, I distributed power/ground by daisy-chaining pins (crimping two wires onto one pin).

It's now instantly obvious how the wiring works, the spaghetti is gone, and I've halved the number of contacts. All wires are crimped using the proper tool, so no more loose connections either.

Hobbes
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