New to towing a caravan

Hi there. I am no electrician but plenty of people on this forum are quite knowledgable on the subject and hopefully will be on here soon to give advice. No doubt they may ask if you have the 16 pin plug from your car to caravan. be prepaired to submit information to aid them. Sorry that I can't help. Bet it is not a big snag. Good luck.

how many brake lights are fitted to the caravan, just the two or maybe there are another 2 at the top?  Just thinking that there might be too much load on your towcar's brake light system ..... assuming all is wired up correctly. Does your car & caravan have a 12S & 12N plug/socket or a 13 pin plug/socket?

Sorry, meant 13 plug socket as MM has asked.

Sorry, meant 13 plug socket as MM has asked.

We knew what you meant 

Your local towbar fitter will have a test system he can plug into the car socket and should only take a few mins to try so then you'll know if the fault is with car or van. 

If the car is wired correctly then I would suggest the caravan light sockets are corroded. You need to remove the bulbs and clean up the sockets and see if that cures it. Not sure how long the caravan had been stood before you bought it but if for some time that could explain it.

Welcome to Club Together, Graham and Fiona.I've had that problem too. If you are a member of a breakdown service, you can call them out. Mayday's Green Flag can usually fix the problem.

All,

Thanks for the advice and help. I think i have found out the problem, My truck is a 2016 ford ranger, with a 16 pin socket on the tow bar, and the brake lights on the clycle rack work fin. When i connected to the caravan, the brake lights would come on for a brief second and then go off again. There are 4 brake lights on the back of the van, so as mentioned, its pulling more power than the truck can offer. I have dissconnnected the top 2 bulbs, and the brake lights at the bottom work fine just now. I have been advised to get LED bulbs for the top lights and this will solve the problem. I will let you all know if this is the case but thanks for all the advice.

I am sure the led bulbs will work fine as there have been a number of posts on CT with the reverse problem. This was that LEDs  having a lighter load were actually fooling the tow car into thinking the bulbs were not working due to their low demand.

 ..... There are 4 brake lights on the back of the van, so as mentioned, its pulling more power than the truck can offer.  ....

I was right ..... do I get a prize?