Thread: AUX Battery power to a fridge in RRC

I personally would run a live and an earth from the battery running under the car tucked up inside the chassis rail and enter the car through the floor in the rear via a nice tight grommet, I think you need to run an earth, once you start running wires in the car you seem to need loads, running under the car is a nice straight run, you could use much heavier wire than 6mm too.

Originally Posted by Rangier Rover

I'm having dramas with voltage loss in the loom that runs my fridge from the AUX battery.

I currently have a 65AH deep cycle battery on the left side that is controlled by a Projecta 150 amp isolator. This part seems to work fine as holds 13.4 volts. For neatness I have got the loom running across the top of the radiator, and following the factory wiring harness in side then runs along the floor to the rear. Comes to 6.5 meters of cable

I'm going to rip it all out and start again. I have purchased some 6mm cable,good quality connectors and a volt meter to go in the back near the fridge out let. It has been suggested to run a earth all the way back to the battery. That will mean 13 meters of cable loss wise

Just wondering what some of you have done and how the cable was run to make it a lot shorter.

Thanks Tony

The shortest route I have found is to mount the fridge socket on the rear part of the front passenger seat base. It is a pretty straight run from there under the front carpet to the bulkhead and through to the battery - no more than 2.5m. Sounds daft - but most fridges have a great long wire themselves - just run it down under the back seat and under the rear carpet to the spot under the passenger seat - saves cable plus you can easily unplug inside the car if you want to turn it off.

If you do mount a voltmeter in the back, make sure and put a switch on it - no point in having any more voltage loss, although it is tiny, for the sake of a switch might as well isolate it.

I have a 4 gauge and 8 gauge wire running separately along the LH Guard, through the firewall, along the console, under the carpet/boot mat and along the RH guard to a junction box mounted on the RH inner panel just behind the wheel well. There to a flush Hella /Merit socket. I also have a flush Merit socket mounted on the RH bumper bar end to feed lights etc to my camper when disconnected from the car.

Reason for 4/8 guage is that I had 8 originally but noticed a large voltage drop on compressor on. 2 gauge I thought was also too inflexible to easily bend through the firewall etc. Both are fused.

I have now done 30KK over some of the worst roads in OZ with no probs.
The insulation on the Jaycar type wires is very thick and the rubber boot mat stops any damage.
The only problem I had was when I kicked the cord of a light in the rear bumper and broke the merit off which shorted the socket and the fuse did its job. I have a habit of tripping over wires.
Regards Philip A

i remember reading in an engel book that the wires from the battrie to the socket that the engel lead plugs into should be twisted , dont know why or if they still recommend it

Originally Posted by richard4u2

i remember reading in an engel book that the wires from the battrie to the socket that the engel lead plugs into should be twisted , dont know why or if they still recommend it

Thanks for the constructive input.. I will rewire it as some of you have via the passenger side and along the under the console to the rear. Bugger the neatness Probably safer having the big loom away from the rest of it anyway. Just tossing thoughts if to run twin core with earth or risk earthing it via the body.

Tony

here is the bit about twisting the wire from engel

I run along the alloy sill plates, very painful to fit them right, but I have 12Vsupply, Amp supply and RCA's

My 12V outlets are on the rear seat catch thingy's pointing up