DIY Mechanic: Truma inet How to install Truma inet and Levelcontrol

Install these systems to control your caravan heating and ventilation, and monitor gas consumption, and you can tour in comfort all year round. Nigel Hutson shows you how

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I fitted an Alde Smart Control unit to our caravan. This enabled us to remotely control (via GSM) the heating in the caravan, using my mobile, and I must admit that after my cynicism wore off, it was used to great effect, especially in the cooler months.

Perhaps the best memory of it, for me, was when I went to the October Caravan & Motorhome Show for a few days and was camped on the C&MC’S temporary site.

The EHU was only 6A, which meant that if I wanted the heating on (and working effectively), I needed to use the gas, too.

Anyone who uses their Alde heating on gas will know that it likes to consume it at a reasonable rate. With the Smart Control, I could turn off the heating when I went out in the morning, then turn it on again, via my phone, half an hour or so before I was due to return to the van, thus getting back to a warm caravan.

However good it was, Alde Smart Control has now been overtaken (in my mind at least) by the Truma inet system. Although this is a Truma product, Alde and Truma are sister companies, so the inet has been developed to work with both Alde and Truma heating systems.

We recently changed our caravan, and one of the show deals was having the inet and Levelcontrol included.

Although our inet came ready installed, it is very easy to retrofit, provided you have either a Truma ‘inet Ready’ control panel (it will say so on the front), or an Alde control panel (post-april 2018; older control panels can be upgraded). Levelcontrol is an add-on to the inet and allows you to monitor the level of gas in your cylinder.

So, what will be involved in installing an inet and Levelcontrol, and what kit will you need?

Tools and materials

Tools required for the job are few:

⬛ Selection of screwdrivers (terminals in the fuse holder and to secure the inet box)

⬛ Wirestrippers and crimps (for connecting to the power positive and negative feeds)

⬛ Cable ties (to tidy cabling) n Gsm-capable mini-sim card

We’ll look at the Truma installation first. Disconnect any mains supply and the 12V battery before you start.

Before assembly (this step applies to both Truma and Alde), insert a Gsm-capable mini-sim card into the slot in the side of the inet box.

Truma recommends that the inet box should be mounted as near to the control panel as possible, so inside a nearby overhead locker is ideal.

You’ll need to unclip the front of the control panel to gain access to the rear. Unplug the data cable from the socket at the top left corner (as you look at the rear).

If your model has two sockets (Swift Command), it’s the one marked ‘Tin’ (still uppermost), and not ‘Bus’. That cable will need to be fed through to where the inet box will be mounted.

Next, you need a permanent 12V feed, and ideally not one that switches off at a main control panel.

As the control panel has one, Truma recommends tapping into that for powering the inet box, using the cable and fuse holder supplied in the kit. That way, cable lengths are also kept to a minimum.

Feed the plug on the end of the power cable to where the inet box will be mounted.

A 3m data cable is supplied with the kit. One end of this needs to be plugged into the ‘Tin’ socket on the back of the control panel, and the other fed to where the inet box will be mounted. If the cable is much too long and can’t be hidden, Truma supplies cables of any length, so give them a call. Don’t be tempted to use a computer cable – the wiring might be different.

You can now replace the control panel.

The two data cables in the overhead locker can now be plugged into the inet box, using the two ‘Tin 1’ sockets (it doesn’t matter which goes into which socket), and the power supply plugged into its slot.

Finally, mount the inet box using the supplied screws.

Alde system

If anything, the Alde system is even easier; although as in our case, the inet box is best placed near to the boiler unit. As with the Truma system, you’ll need to find a permanent 12V feed (you could connect directly to the battery if convenient). Unclipping the top on the Alde unit will reveal various sockets, one of which is marked ‘Tin Bus’. One end of the data cable needs to be plugged in here, and the other into the inet box (either of the ‘Tin 1’ sockets). Replace the top on the Alde unit and secure the inet box.

In both cases, reconnect the power. Initially, the green LED on the inet box will flash, before remaining constant.

Next, download the Truma App (Android or IOS) to your phone or tablet.

The app leads you through some simple instructions to get the inet system working. Once done, you can control things via Bluetooth if you’re close enough, or if not, by GSM.

Two very useful features in the app are the Level and Sun Alignment, which can be found in the Tools section. Again, the app leads you through the set-up. As well as controlling the heating and air conditioning, monitoring temperatures and battery voltage, and so on, a useful addition to the inet is Levelcontrol.

This is a device that attaches to the bottom of a steel gas cylinder (Truma provides means for attaching it to aluminium cylinders, too), and connects via Bluetooth to the inet box.

Once again, its installation and use are very simple, the app leads you through it all. Using Levelcontrol on a trip to France recently, I kept an eye on our consumption. In fact, we left with two full 6kg cylinders, and only used 3.6kg of one. But you’d get a warning before you ran out. It’s brilliant!

⬛ Thanks to Truma

Limited for its assistance