Have had some trouble with 12 pin plug supping power to fridge while traveling, have expanded pins on plug which
fixed the problem but happened again on another trip,was thinking of installing another anderson plug for the fridge from the car but wondering why I cannot run fridge from van batteries 2 x 105 amp with 300 watts of solar. So when travelling car would keep batteries charged through anderson supply which is already there but the addvantage would be when stopped for an hour or so the van batteries would run the fridge and be recharged by the solar. Fridge is 185 litre dometic would either use gas or 240 power for when parked over night etc,has anyone else done this type of setup thanks
Yes, I did it like you are suggesting. I had a 250W panel on the roof of the van so while travelling the solar was basically running the fridge (through the battery) and the Anderson feed from the car topped up when it was cloudy or night.
Of course you have to careful that you don't leave the fridge running off your van batteries for too long without them being topped up by either car or solar. Your fridge will pull about 16A and you can do the math for how quickly that would run your batteries down.
Have had some trouble with 12 pin plug supping power to fridge while traveling, have expanded pins on plug which
fixed the problem but happened again on another trip,was thinking of installing another anderson plug for the fridge from the car but wondering why I cannot run fridge from van batteries 2 x 105 amp with 300 watts of solar. So when travelling car would keep batteries charged through anderson supply which is already there but the addvantage would be when stopped for an hour or so the van batteries would run the fridge and be recharged by the solar. Fridge is 185 litre dometic would either use gas or 240 power for when parked over night etc,has anyone else done this type of setup thanks
Hi Ventura
Three way fridges are not very efficient on 12 volt and use lots of battery storage from your vehicle and can discharge a car battery in no time , for that reason they are not usually wired up to your vans batteries.
Lots of travellers set up an isolater from car to van when stopped and dont worry about the fridge being on or will run on gas until going again
Cheers
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John
2017 dmax lovells upgrade full CSM trade aluminium canopy,3.5 m quintrex tinny and rear boat loader mangrove jack aluminium trailer
Have had some trouble with 12 pin plug supping power to fridge while traveling, have expanded pins on plug which
fixed the problem but happened again on another trip,was thinking of installing another anderson plug for the fridge from the car but wondering why I cannot run fridge from van batteries 2 x 105 amp with 300 watts of solar. So when travelling car would keep batteries charged through anderson supply which is already there but the addvantage would be when stopped for an hour or so the van batteries would run the fridge and be recharged by the solar. Fridge is 185 litre dometic would either use gas or 240 power for when parked over night etc,has anyone else done this type of setup thanks
Ventura
I have set our caravan up this way, caravan battery supplying 12 volt power when moving but when I stopped we switch to gass.
The fridge draws 23 amps, be warned to make all your connections good.
We are running 320 watts of solar feeding 1 only 110 amp battery, very rare do we turn the 12 volt on as the frig holds it temp and I do not see the need to run it for a couple of hours while travelling between camps.
You did not say what fridge you have. However, the RM4605 (186 litres) draws 23 A at 12 V (it will draw more current when the battery is on charge.) Multiply that by 24 for 24 hour operation means that the fridge will require more than 550 Ah to run it for a day. If you are in the north where you get 5 sun hours per day your solar panels will need to generate more than 110 A of current not taking the losses in charging and other inefficiencies. When you allow for the losses due to the panels laying flat, the losses in your charging equipment and battery charging loses you will require a peak charging capacity of over 200 A and batteries with a capacity of over 600 Ah.
Can you supply that sort of battery capacity and charging capapabilities?
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
