Stanton Habitation Electrics and Steadies

1 Our 2016 Stanton has had problems with the habitation side, which the supplying Main Dealer have dealt with satisfactorily. However, one persistent and now a further recent fault with the habitation external lights are proving much more difficult to sort. The issue now is that Autosleeper are saying that they do not release wiring diagrams-even to one of their Main Dealers. The dealers are in contact with Autosleeper Technical Support but to date, nothing. Any experience of this or suggestions for the dealers (at this stage I’m insisting they do the running)
2 anybideas as to how to fit the winder through the rear apron onto the rear corner steadies, other than having to crawl around behind the Stanton to line everything up - I’m getting a bit old for that .
Still love our Stanton though.
Many thanks, Mike

Mike Cope wrote:1 Our 2016 Stanton has had problems with the  habitation side,  which the  supplying  Main Dealer have dealt with satisfactorily. However, one persistent and now a further recent fault with the habitation external lights are proving much more difficult to sort. The issue now is that Autosleeper are saying that they do not release wiring diagrams-even to one of their Main Dealers. The dealers are in contact with Autosleeper Technical Support but to date, nothing. Any experience of this or suggestions for the dealers (at this stage I’m insisting they do the running)
2  anybideas as to how to fit the winder through the rear apron onto the rear corner steadies,  other than having to crawl around behind the Stanton to line everything  up  - I’m getting a bit old for that .
Still love our Stanton  though.
Many thanks, Mike

1 Can you clarify what you mean by "habitation external lights" and what is wrong with them. The wiring looms are made by Sargent and they have given out schematic diagrams in the past.

2 I have a kneeling pad and use a hand to feel the nut on the steady and line the winder up to it.

Thanks to all who replied.
Hi Peter - The problem with the habitation lights is that front marker lights have never worked - rear markers are OK. I had the vehicles mechanical service done at our local MB van dealer in the summer, and they confirmed that everything on the base vehicle side was OK,. The habitation area lights was an issue for the dealer who supplied the vehicle. That was accepted by them.
I noticed recently that the No Plate lights were not working - don’t really know how long they have been off.
The dealer has looked at the marker lights twice and No Plate in the past week and the position that we are at is mentioned in my original post.
Thanks Mike

PLOUGHLIN wrote:Re the steadies, some have fitted plastic pipes through the skirt to over the winding  bolt head to act as guide for the winding handle.

Peter beat me to it - again! 

I did exactly that for my arthritic tugger friend, and it works perfectly. He uses a cheap battery powered drill with a long extension, and it makes the job very quick and painless.

I don't know if you will be able to do the same, but I cut the lengths of household plastic drain pipe so they would protrude from the skirt by about a quarter of an inch. It hardly shows then, if you trim the end neatly.

I then cut a one inch (or so) collar from a larger bored pipe which fitted fairly snugly over the long ones. This was slid onto the main pipe which was then pushed hard against and over the winder nut. I then crawled under the van with a tube of plastic cement (or other suitable glue) and fixed the collar in place hard against the inside of the rear skirt.

It has worked fine for four years, and he's a clumsy old sod at times!! 

Hope this helps.

The marker lights are fed from a fuse in the EM50 or EM40, I expect you have the latter, and then are daisy chained down the van possibly ending in the number plate lights.

It should just be a case of starting with a lit light and following the wiring till the fault is found.

After nearly 3 years with the Stanton we have used the corner steadies only once- last week! The wind at Old Hartley was very powerful and gusty.

I had no trouble at all locating the nut on the screw-jack, just pushed the winding handle through the hole and it went straight on, no need to crawl underneath.

I'm now wondering whether to remove these steadies, they look heavy and are they really worth carting about, given their lack of use?

Pete Taylor wrote:After nearly 3 years with the Stanton we have used the corner steadies only once- last week! The wind at Old Hartley was very powerful and gusty.

I had no trouble at all locating the nut on the screw-jack, just pushed the winding handle through the hole and it went straight on, no need to crawl underneath.

I'm now wondering whether to remove these steadies, they look heavy and are they really worth carting about, given their lack of use?

Memories again: 5 miles each way to school and back on my bike in that wind - its relentless.

Even though the Merc suspension is very soft when standing, you probably wouldn't miss the steadies on the Stanton. Essential on the longer Mercs though.

Hi
  I had problems with my front marker lights on my AS Surrey it kept blowing the fuse Mark at AS had great difficulty in finding the fuse in was not on the circuit diagram it was a seperate supply on an inline fuse In the end he changed both front marker lights and that cured the problem ,If they are Hella lights "Bolt on Bits" sell them on Ebay
regards
Alan

Pete Taylor wrote:After nearly 3 years with the Stanton we have used the corner steadies only once- last week! 
I'm now wondering whether to remove these steadies, they look heavy and are they really worth carting about, given their lack of use?

Hi Pete
I think you just answered your own question! 

Yes they are heavy, and fortunately they are easily removed with a spanner, so you could replace them just as easily if you changed your mind in the future. 

We had steadies on the previous van for a while, and used them with exactly the same frequency as you. Too much trouble to wind the handle for several hours - only to realise (and feel a right idiot!! ) that they won't reach the ground if you need levellers at the rear. They had to come off when we had a towbar fitted anyway!

One less "caravan" chore to suffer when you graduate to a motorhome. 

Hi Pete 
I removed our stedys off our sigma  as we .   didn't use them
Thay weigh 35k witch is better as payload 
Jim

Another job on my list- git them-thar steadies off!

Just had steadies removed from my Broadway to fit a towbar - based on past experience, we had them on several vans including the Stanton and never really used them....Think of the extra payload.

Sorry to raise the issue of corner steadies again - but - I can't even get the brace to line up with the winding shaft and over the nut because the side skirts are too low. 

I can think of some modifications like having a universal joint welded along the brace shaft or cutting a slot in the skirt but what have others done?

Does this help? It looks like the wiring for the Autotrail range is the same as my Stanton.

I just dragged and dropped this file into the reply box. Couldn't see a "add a file" button.

OK, it didn't work. How do I upload a file from my computer? It is the Sargent wiring diagram for my Stanton.

Dare-devil-dennis wrote:OK, it didn't work. How do I upload a file from my computer?

What sort of file is it? If it's an image (.jpg, .png. etc) then you can just do exactly the same thing as the forum guide for photos. If it's in another format you may need to do something else, depending what the format is!

Thanks Peter,  in my case no.  But had a reply from Mark at AS suggesting purchase of a 19mm corner steady universal adaptor which would fit on the end of the brace.

-mojo- wrote:

Dare-devil-dennis wrote:OK, it didn't work. How do I upload a file from my computer?

What sort of file is it? If it's an image (.jpg, .png. etc) then you can just do exactly the same thing as the forum guide for photos. If it's in another format you may need to do something else, depending what the format is!

It's a .pdf file

No he didn't.  Have ordered one online.  I suppose if I were feeling belligerent I would go back to dealer and ask them to supply me one.