powering fridges

lffoar · Member

powering fridges

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Impossible to comment sensibly without knowing anything about your wiring, but if that is OK then you should be able to do that while you are driving.
Cheers,
Peter

Hetho · Senior Member

Hi Iffoar.

i have the exact same set up, but I installed a Diode in the van feed line to prevent the van from sucking the car battery dry.

When I stop I connect the car fridge, a 30 ltr engle to the van.

Hopefully this will help.

Regards.

Hetho.

LLD · Guru

From my experience a battery in the back of your ute will be required. All you'll do is end up flattening your van battery. Simple thing is to run a second battery from your outlet in the tug and your tug fridge from that battery. As Peter said really need to see a mud-map sketch of what you have and what you are planning.

patrol03 · Senior Member

It is difficult to comment on your topic as you have not given us your vehicle details.It could well be a straight out wiring problem or a charging problem.

Yuglamron · Guru

There was a recent thread on here about a dual battery set up so you neve run the main cranking battery down. I suggested the Redarc system but someone else pointed the way to the Matson version at a quarter of the price, Around the $50 mark.

Seems to be a relatively low cost way to keep enough power for your fridges. Maybe a search will find the thread so you can see the results.

Check out the Post on "Van Battery Charging" in general posts, Should still be on Page one.

https://www.tridon.com.au/products/Matson/4079/304990/dual-battery-charging/427812/voltage-sensitive-relay

-- Edited by Yuglamron on Friday 19th of October 2018 07:32:12 PM

Swerve · Veteran Member

I run a Mobicool 34 litre compressor fridge in the back of my Kia Sorento and the Thetford 3 way fridge in the AVan off the 7 pin plug while I am travelling with no problems. The only thing is that they both turn off when the ignition is off. This only creates problems if I stop for any length of time.

lffoar · Member

Thanks people for your input. From what I can gather, it would probably be OK to run both but to be on the safe side, think I'll just load and run the waeco until I get wherever and
then plug that and the van fridge into power. Like I said, dual batts and the rest is toooo much hassle for me to get into, not on long trips, just doing week long trips maybe six or eight times a year.
ta
Harry

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Hi lffoar,
The only issues I have -

1. Running a relatively constant draw through the standard plug/socket could melt the plastic eventually .
2. What is the voltage that your Waeco's "Low Battery power" trips? If it is similar to my Traillazer (10.5v) - it is too low & the battery life will be shortened.
2 Get a Fridge Switch fitted to the van to prevent the car battery being drained. They operate on motion or lack of.

lffoar · Member

For anybody interested, I did take a punt and ran some 500km with the waeco running from the cig lighter socket and also ran the van fridge through the 7 pin trailer socket.
Checked it regularly and no apparent heat and/or other problems. I set the waeco to stop if the batt gets below 11.8v, (It stopped once when we stopped 30m for a break and
restarted automatically when I started the car). The van fridge only runs with the ignition on.
Checked the battery when I arrived with a multi-meter and had 12.8v in it so it seems OK to do it this way.

JBDUBBO · Veteran Member

Most 3 way van fridges are 15 to 20 amp power consumption continuously. Providing that sort of power without voltage drop requires some heavy cable and plugs, fridges need 12 volts at the terminals fridge and car running.. It CANNOT be done efficiently through a 7 pin plug without problems, and usually cables under 8mmsq will not provide a good voltage with many vans needing even bigger cables

just my opinion from experience.

-- Edited by JBDUBBO on Monday 29th of October 2018 08:32:07 AM