12 Volt Fridge ??????

[CareyWeber]

All,

When I try to run my fridge on 12 volt while driving (all day) the fridge will draw my camper battery down to almost nothing.

How do I get my 12 volt fridge to work without killing my camper battery?

Setup currently:
Lance 9.5' camper
Dometic 3 way fridge (cools fine on all settings tell the battery goes flat on 12v)
Power to camper supplied via a relay with 40 amp breaker and 8 gauge wire.
The truck is charging the camper battery just can not keep up with the fridge.
The truck has no charging issues at all, and the truck batteries are being correctly charged.
The factory voltage gauge always shows 14 volts and the gauge is accurate per my digital multi-meter.

Carey

[richp]

Carey,

I would start by looking at the documentation for the refer and seeing what the current draw is on the exclusive 12 volt setting.

If it is like most 3-ways, it requires an immense amount of current, because it has to run a resistance element to heat the medium that actually does the cooling (I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it is the case). My bet is that you are trying to keep ahead of a very high amperage draw and the entire electrical system (battery, alternator, wiring) is not up to it.

Is there a reason you could not run on the propane setting while going down the road? That would mean that you would be drawing only a very small amount of 12 volt current that is needed for the control circuits.

For what it's worth.

Rich Phillips
Member #27

[diesel65]

You need to check if the camper is actually electrically connected to the tow vehicle.

I am not sure but I think the frig draws 10 to 15 amps if you are on 12 volts, which should not be a problem for you tow vehicle.

When you have the camper hooked up without the frig on and truck running what is your battery voltage at the camper, then put the frig on and see what your battery voltage is in the camper and compare it to where ever you picked up your feed for the relay.

Check your ground also, you said you have 8 guage power wire but what size is your ground wire.

[HowieE]

If you are drawing down the trailer battery and not drawing the truck batteries down by the same amount I would assume the trailer is not wired correctly to the truck. If you realy want to run the freg on battery make sure the truck is suppling power to thr trailer and then check the wire size that that connection is made of. As mentioned above a # 8 wire should be suppling voltage from the truck and you should have a ground of equal size over and above the mechanical connection made by the tongue.
Other than traveling on a ferry were you have to turn your propane off why would you want to run the freg on 12 volts?

[CareyWeber]

Sorry guys I forgot to say that my ground is also 8 gauge.

I normally run it on propane.

I wanted to run it on 12v because the wind kept blowing out the pilot light. I got a baffle kit from Dometic to fix that issue.

Carey

[ 06-13-2004, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: CareyWeber ]