Digger,
I'm not certain how your van is wired up - I modified mine to have the car powering the van fridge only VIA a Fridge Switch. This device detects movement & when your van is stationary, it prevents the van discharging your car's battery.
My solar keeps the van battery charged.
When we had the Jayco Eagle, I used the fridge as an esky - ie it wasn't powered from the car at all. It was only a 90L three way fridge & with frozen food in the freezer compartment, cold food in the fridge & a few frozen water bottles intermingled in the main area, everything stayed as it was fr over 700kms - ie Townsville to Rockhampton +.
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Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
Our Jayco Expanda was never wired to run on 12v when we picked it up from the dealer, we were unaware of this, and would faithfully turn the 12v isolator to on to keep the fridge cool.
Our fridge had 12v wires attached, but the other end terminated in a wiring loom. When I realised this I wired the fridge to the battery in the van and the car would charge the battery as we drove, keeping the 12v isolator to on.
With it setup like this it was imperative that I change the fridge from 12v to gas.240v when we stopped or the fridge would quickly flatten the battery
Our Jayco Expanda was never wired to run on 12v when we picked it up from the dealer, we were unaware of this, and would faithfully turn the 12v isolator to on to keep the fridge cool.
Our fridge had 12v wires attached, but the other end terminated in a wiring loom. When I realised this I wired the fridge to the battery in the van and the car would charge the battery as we drove, keeping the 12v isolator to on.
With it setup like this it was imperative that I change the fridge from 12v to gas.240v when we stopped or the fridge would quickly flatten the battery
Jeff
Exactly Jeff, our mate had a Jayco Silverline and it flattened the car battery in about 45 minutes.
I think Digger2 that you would leave it on all of the time, unless you were parking it up for a couple of months.
As Jeff says, run the fridge from the Van battery and let the car charge the van as you drive.
Yep, I agree .. Have someone check out your Van & Vehicle wiring.
I have set mine up so that the 12V feed from the Tug via the Anderson plug goes straight to the 12v input of the fridge & that works well ie maintains the temperature. I can switch that to both fridge & battery if I wish.
Meanwhile the Solar charges the van battery.
Whenever I stop of course the 12V feed via the Anderson plug disconnects.
I always switch to gas if I stop for 5 minutes or more.
I usually carry a few frozen water bottles in the general part of the fridge & the freezer full of frozen food.
I have recently purchased enough sealed plastic containers (labeled) to hold all of my food in the general section. Reduces drastically the amount of air that falls out when the door is opened. Recovery time on 3 way fridges is not good.
-- Edited by Cupie on Monday 23rd of November 2020 11:32:43 PM
Heres the outcome which hopefully may assist other Jayco owners. (Mine is a 2014 Journey). When using the 12V DC selector on my Dometic RM2553, the power comes directly from the vehicle. The 12V main isolator switch inside the caravan, has nothing to do with it. If the outside lower fridge vent is removed there is a 12V terminal block right there. I checked voltage at my 12 pin plug on the vehicle and have 13.6V. When I checked the voltage at the terminal block at the bottom of the fridge, I have only 11.6V. Some some serious loss in the Jayco wiring. So Im thinking of running some additional wiring under the van, directly to the fridge to bring that voltage up as high as possible.
