Towing Relays | Caravan (12S) Relays | Details
Introduction: Caravan fridges and auxiliary batteries.
Protecting the vehicle battery.
When a vehicle tows a caravan and the caravan is equipped with a 12 volt fridge or an auxiliary battery or both, it is necessary to provide a connection between the caravan and the towing vehicle to provide power to these.
When such a connection is provided it is advisable to protect the vehicle's own battery from being accidentally drained by the caravan fridge and auxiliary battery.
The usual way of providing this protection is to install a suitable relay or pair of relays which will turn off the connections when the vehicle's alternator is not running.
Such relays, often referred to as "split-charging" or "combination" or "Combi" relays, are normally switched by a connection to the alternator or to some suitable ignition-switched source.
It is absolutely essential that any such relay system should work reliably, fail safe, offer full protection to the battery, and, if possible, to the auxiliary battery as well and meet relevant ISO, and BS standards and EMC regulations.
The self-switching combination relay from Ryder Towing and its sister device, the Trigger, make the installation of these relays much easier and safer, especially in the context of the complex electronics in modern vehicles, and meet all the essential criteria described above.
These devices do away with the need to find a signal current from the alternator or ignition to switch the relays. See Caravan Relays for full range of relays and fitting details.