Caravan electric hook-up in France
If you are taking your touring caravan to France for a short break or holiday remember that your caravan park in France may not have the English 3 pin hook up you are used to.
What's more, even if it does have 3 pin electric it may not be wired up the same as at home. However, if you take a few precautions before you leave you will have no problems.
2 pin electrics in France?
As you will know if you have spent a holiday in France, the French electrical system like most of Europe is based on a two pin plug... and it is the same for a caravan electrical hook up. Obviously your 3 pin caravan connection will not connect directly to it but the good news is you can buy an adaptor (as shown) from a caravan shop for under £10. What you will get is an adaptor with a 2 pin plug at one end - this goes in to the French caravan parks hook up point - with a blue adaptor that connects to your existing electrics wire at the other. Simply plug it in at both ends and that's it - do see about testing below though. |
 |
test the 2-pin and 3 pin Electrics
Whether the caravan park in France has 2 or 3 pin electric available it is very important to test that the electric is wired correctly for your caravan. It is quite common for the polarity to be reversed even on sites where you can see a strong English presence and 3 pin electrics.
You can buy a simple main tester as shown at the top of the page from all good caravan dealers and of course online. You simply plug the tester in to the French electrics and the lights on the front of the plug confirm the polarity.
While it is possible to use your caravan with reversed polarity it is definitely not recommended as it could be turning some of the items in your caravan live*. If there is more than one connection point, try another as you may find one of these is wired correctly for you.
Alternatively, you can get a short lead with a blue CEE17 connection at each end, one of which had had the wiring switched for reversing the polarity. You will find such wires at caravan shops/dealers.
* On a recent trip, having seen many other British caravanners doing so, we did run our caravan with reversed live/neutral polarity in to our Bailey Ranger caravan. While this is not recommended it worked ok with no noticeable impact on its performance.