# Price for 2 additional 13A sockets in new motorhome



## Hessi

Lowdhams have quoted me £360.00 for 1 x additional 13A single socket and 1 x additional 13A double socket and certificate which they say is required on our new build, ouch  
Are they taking the pee?. I enquired about having them installed as part of the build but they informed us Chausson will not do and the dealer has to do the work :? 

Any suggestions 8O. Are we being ripped off? 8O 

best rgds

Hessi 8)


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## waspes

I think they are taking the wee wee :lol: :lol: I had a kitchen rewired and 6 extra sockets also a bathroom extractor fitted for less than that.

Peter.


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## Techno100

Sounds like they sub'd it out and the subee sub'd it out again :lol: 
Paddy is doing it


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## pippin

Ouch!

Bring it to me and I'll do it for £359!

If you have any practical skills and ask for help on here you could do it yourself for about £20 parts.

It ain't rocket science.

E&OE


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## rod_vw

waspes said:


> I think they are taking the wee wee :lol: :lol: I had a kitchen rewired and 6 extra sockets also a bathroom extractor fitted for less than that.
> 
> Peter.


You missed one special point here Peter. A Kitchen & Bathroom at home is 'domestic' a motor home is 'LEISURE'.
Once you have that word LEISURE involved it's a case of think of a number and double it!

Rod


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## rotorywing

One afternoons work and I installed a double socket above the kitchen worktop and a second double socket under the dinette table. The socket in the TV cabinet was redundant due to it being so high, so I used that for the worktop supply. Cost about £20.

Martin


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## Techno100

Retail price of parts Berker or CBE probably £30 plus a bit of flex. Testing is nothing complicated it's only a single radial circuit FFS


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## rayc

Hessi said:


> Lowdhams have quoted me £360.00 for 1 x additional 13A single socket and 1 x additional 13A double socket and certificate which they say is required on our new build, ouch
> Are they taking the pee?. I enquired about having them installed as part of the build but they informed us Chausson will not do and the dealer has to do the work :?
> 
> Any suggestions 8O. Are we being ripped off? 8O
> 
> best rgds
> 
> Hessi 8)


Yes you are being ripped off. Decline their offer and take the MH as it is. Get a local electrician to do it, the parts including the cable should cost about £30 - £40. I did a similar mod in my Welcome 75 and it took about 2 hours.


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## Techno100

BTW best price and range of stock I've found for Berker kit with paypal too is here
http://www.spares2you.co.uk/w4-caravan-spares/Berker_Fittings/


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## Hessi

thank you all,
Our only concern is that it is a new build and one socket required at rear of m/h where bunks / garage is and the other around seating area and what needs to come up (floor) to do the work  

RayC, i will probably do what you recommended and look for someone else who knows m/h's

Best rgds

Hessi 8)


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## Techno100

There's nothing brutal about routing cables, you basically follow existing cable pipework routes. If you cant get through you go down under across and back up. Additional cable protection where required.


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## rayc

Hessi said:


> thank you all,
> Our only concern is that it is a new build and one socket required at rear of m/h where bunks / garage is and the other around seating area and what needs to come up (floor) to do the work
> 
> RayC, i will probably do what you recommended and look for someone else who knows m/h's
> 
> Best rgds
> 
> Hessi 8)


I doubt any floor has to 'come up' . In my Chausson the Mains box was in the wardrobe by the bed which was above the garage. It was very simple to route cables from there into the garage and forward to the dinette following existing routes. I am sure that there will be plenty of space under the kitchen unit to run cables fore and aft.


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## Hessi

Guys,
I think i need to get m/h first and then look at what i / we / others can do with regard routing. I am sure the mains box is under rear facing front seat.

best regards

Hessi 8)


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## Qnapper

Thats outrageous, I have only just finished adding 2 double sockets to sitting area and 2 x single sockets to bedroom area and 1 x socket to garage area plus all wiring. Took 3 days fully fused and checked, total cost 70 euros.
As stated above following wiring loom double check everything, measure twice cut once. Sorted.

John


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## erneboy

Total cost 70 Euros and 3 days of your labour !!!

A competent person might do it in a few hours. What would their labour rate be? Maybe £25 or £30 per hour.

Say £100 or so for labour and £30 to £40 for stuff, Alan.


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## Techno100

plus 1


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## pippin

Get some of those flexible cable pullers.

Very easy to follow the hot air tubing around.

Doddle, apart from the swearing and cursing!


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## 1302

I fitted a socket for inverter use in our bed base - I managed to get a matching one from Glossop Caravans and it was overpriced at £6 but hey ho.

Bit of cable and an hours work tops.

The supplier in this case are taking the p....


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## premiermotorhomes

Chausson use CBE fittings and you would require the following parts;

1 x CBE Single outer frame
1 x CBE Double outer frame
3 x CBE Mains sockets
3 x CBE Proctective back boxes
Cable

The Chausson frames do not require the support frame normally required for CBE fittings, only the outer frame and I would estimate the parts to be £35inc to £40inc.

Lets say for example that the installation of the double socket requires 2 hours, and the single socket requires 1.5 hours; a total of 3.5 hours. I do not know what Lowdhams labour rate is but if we were to assume £60.00+ VAT per hour then this is a cost of £252inc VAT, which allowing for £40inc of parts comes to a total of £292inc VAT.

There are installation requirements which need to be followed under IEEE regulations and a certification process as they noted which they are required to complete as an Approved Workshop, I have attached a copy of this form below. The testing procedure for the high voltage test requires the 12V system to be isolated, and the test and subsequent form filling can take about an hour, which if you add this to the total above comes to £364inc VAT.

Whether or not the regulations for residential properties differs to motorhomes I do not know, although its certainly possible; using gas as an example, a natural gas trained engineer can not work on LPG installations and vice versa.

I hope this provide some insight in to what I believe to be Lowdhams position.

Regards,
Chris


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## Bern2544

I had a couple of extra sockets fitted to our van a couple of months ago and it was only £60..............


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## Paddy7

Lowdhams do seem to have high costs for installation of extras, i was quoted £250 over the cost of a waeco reversing camera to install when the MH already has the cable installed from back to front as part of the initial build.

Paddy


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## premiermotorhomes

Good afternoon Paddy, 

It is not always possible when installing a reversing camera to utilise the factory pre wiring. Waeco and other manufacturers utilise their own proprietary connections which you can't really splice in to however in this example the exception to this is Bailey motorhomes who are pre wired using the Waeco loom and Waeco offer a camera kit without this cable supplied.

What motorhome do you have?

Most of the labour would be spent fitting the camera, monitor and obtaining the reverse feed, not necessarily running the main cable.

Regards,
Chris


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## Hessi

All,
Thank you all for the information

Chris, i can see your point from a dealer point of view. We will take the m/h as delivered with the extras we got as part of the deal.
We can then review from there  

best regards

Hessi 8)


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## Paddy7

premiermotorhomes said:


> Good afternoon Paddy,
> 
> It is not always possible when installing a reversing camera to utilise the factory pre wiring. Waeco and other manufacturers utilise their own proprietary connections which you can't really splice in to however in this example the exception to this is Bailey motorhomes who are pre wired using the Waeco loom and Waeco offer a camera kit without this cable supplied.
> 
> What motorhome do you have?
> 
> Most of the labour would be spent fitting the camera, monitor and obtaining the reverse feed, not necessarily running the main cable.
> 
> Regards,
> Chris


Hi Chris, we are buying a Bailey 745, which as you say has the waeco cable installed, i do appreciate the overheads that dealers have and that there are warranty considerations, but even so what seems like a simple job to me which i would estimate as a couple of hours for a competant tradesman £250 seems a tad high.

Paddy.


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## KeithChesterfield

Bern2544 - I had a couple of extra sockets fitted to our van a couple of months ago and it was only £60.............. 

Thank goodness there's not just me in the real World.

We had two fitted for £70 in December - a competent Electrician should be able to do the job with a minimum of fuss and effort.


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## premiermotorhomes

Good morning Paddy, 

If we were again to assume Lowdhams labour rate was £60.00+ VAT per hour then a £250inc VAT installation charge would indicate the installation took 3.47 hours which from experience I would suggest is about right for this installation.

Of course there are going to be many variables which will contribute toward an installion cost;

Time
VAT 
Labour rate
Mobile engineers

For example; the lowest installation charge could be achieved by using a mobile engineer who is not VAT registered, has a lower labour rate than a dealer and kept installation time to a minimum by not wiring up the reverse feed.

What would be interesting is some input from everyone to let us know how long either from experience or your own estimate a reversing camera takes to install so we can put this in to perspective.

As Lowdhams are a Dometic Motorhome Centre (DMC) you will recieve a three year warranty provided by Dometic on your reversing camera which although the Dometic systems may cost a little more overall is a tangible benefit as reversing cameras do go wrong. This is not a benefit you would recieve if a non DMC was to undertake an installation.

Regards,
Chris


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## rayc

KeithChesterfield said:


> Bern2544 - I had a couple of extra sockets fitted to our van a couple of months ago and it was only £60..............
> 
> Thank goodness there's not just me in the real World.
> 
> We had two fitted for £70 in December - a competent Electrician should be able to do the job with a minimum of fuss and effort.


Before I retired I supervised sub contract electricians to install electrical systems on the rail infrastructure. Any one of them would have been able to install a couple of extra sockets in a MH and certify it in less than two hours. It would have been a neat and safe job as well.
Motorhome dealers have high labour rates which may or may not be justified in line with their overheads. Personally I avoid them and if I needed anything doing I would, like yourself, use a local tradesman.


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## hogan

In December I was quoted £250 labour to install 2 11kg cyl and fitting kit. I did it my self in less than a hour.


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## weeirv

*Sockets!!*

Hi, We have used a 2 metre multi extension from B&Q giving us 5 extra 13 amp sockets...cost £4.50, simples!!
Regards,


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## aldra

Albert put an additional four in the van and two inthe garage

took them as a spur off existing 13 Amp circuits

Now we need extra 12 volts

I'll sort those :lol: :lol: :lol: 

Aldra


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## ob1

Methinks that the old saying that you can make figures prove almost anything apply here. We've had two extra sockets added to our last two vehicles, from different sources, for approx £160 the two each time. I'm now training to be an electrical millionaire!


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## Jeannette

I fitted 6 sockets and 2 inverters in an afternoon on our van. Total was £30 for the sockets and £90 for the pure sine wave inverters each.

Cheers
Steve


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## robinpompey

I asked Lowdhams to fit an external socket to my mhome and they wanted £250. Got a small firm to do it. £50 fitted in less than an hour.


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## Mrplodd

They ARE taking the P*** !!!!

Fit 'em yourself, dead easy job. If you are worried about certification then get an extension lead and use that.

Remove both ends route the cable where you want it and re-attach the ends. dead simple no certification needed as its a "temporary" extension. Simples again !!


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