Caravan and Motorhome Electrics

Book excerpt: Caravan & Motorhome Electrics is the totally rewritten successor of the original globally selling Motorhome Electrics. The book's content now also covers every aspect of designing, installing and fault finding of the electrics in fifth wheel and conventional caravans and camper trailers. The book explains how things work, and what they do (not what vendors claim they do). It shows how to dramatically improve charging performance, successfully install solar, and reduce energy draw of electric (especially) three-way fridges. Essentially it provides solutions proven to work, not suggestions that may work. The author shows how the ongoing move fully voltage controlled alternators necessitates dc-dc alternator charging. And that, post 2016, regulations are likely to limit or even preclude alternator charging with new vehicles. It covers the solutions in depth: i.e. solar, plus fuel cell's 24/7 power generation (light and compact yet silent and non-polluting (and now existing in LPG form), needing only a small battery for peak loads. As with all Collyn's books, the content is thoroughly researched, technically accurate, yet in plain English, plus explanatory illustrations, many of the author's own vehicles. The author's background includes automobile research, electronics and large scale magazine publishing (including founding the world's largest electronics magazine). He was technical editor of Australia's The Bulletin magazine in the 1980s - and has supplied Tech Notes to The Wanderer for a now 14 years.