Leisureshopdirect Caravan Blog

Caravan & motorhome blog

Holidays and Electric Cables are for unwinding.

Your caravan hook-up cable is normally 25 mrtres in length and if you pull up close to an electic post on site you may be tempted to leave excess cable rolled up on your cable drum. Not a good idea.
If you then switch your caravan refrigerator to mains electric, your caravan water heater and your fire, and then decide to boil a kettle for a cup of tea while your wife is drying her hair and watching TV, you will be drawing a fair amount of current through your cable. It is likely that you will 'trip' the electric supply through overloading, but if you do not the your rolled up cable will be getting fairly warm. You could be drawing 16 amps through the cable with the result that the cable on the drum could melt or even catch fire.
Remember the old type of electric fire where the radiant was a long coil of thin wire which glowed red when switched on. Your cable drum will heat up on the same principle, so, please ensure that you unwind all of your hook-up cable and slide it loosely underneath your caravan to avoid anybody tripping over.