75ZT Community

Have wired my car with the Rover 13 pin loom.

Previous caravan (2005 model) the caravan symbol did not show up but if memory serves me correctly it did if a caravan bulb blew.

Have an old box trailer that when connected the caravan symbol shows even with all bulbs working.

Yesterday collected our 'new' caravan which is a 2009 and no symbol is showing.

I thought there had to be a visual indication when a trailer was connected

Paul

There doesn't have to be a visual indication it's connected. What you must have is some way of knowing whether the trailer turn signals are working or not.

I've come across three ways of doing this:

1. An extra lamp that flashes when the trailer is connected and the indicator is working. If the indicator stops working, the lamp stops flashing.

2. An audible beep. Operates the same way as the lamp.

3. A system that detects when a trailer is fitted, but doesn't show anything if its working normally. If a fault is detected in the indicators, it then gives some kind of warning. On the 75 with the proper towing kit, and a message centre, a bulb fail warning and the trailer symbol is shown. I've seen other cars where the double flash rate as for a normal indicator failure is used.

I'm not an authority on the legal position, but have seen all of these on sale for a number of years so I can't see they are not legal.

I believe this 'indication' whether visual or audible will form part of the MOT next year

Just thought about your post some more. The towing symbol is probably showing on the horsebox because of a wiring error. My trailer caused the same thing because of penny pinching by the manufacturer.

The tail lights have two connections on the 12N or 13 pin connectors. One for left one for right.

Some trailer manufacturers wire all their lights to one pin. This works OK, but the 75 has bulb fail warning on all lamps (except reverse) so although the lights work, you get a fail warning all the time. An extra wire is required to fix the problem.

Oh and I've heard the twoing wiring must be working properly for the MOT. I assume they will have a test board and be able to simulate a bulb failure.

Ah Duncan you could be right. It is a box trailer as opposed to a horsebox and is a very old but serviceable Indespension trailer so every chance it has a single wire for both sides.