rear setup for fridge

[mickashay]

just got a 60ltr fridge/freezer for the back of the disco for camping trips and was wanting to know whats the best way to set it up,i have duel batteries already and was thinking that i run wire from the second battery through to the rear and run a plug and lighter plug setup or should i run the wire to a invertor and use that,,any other tips would be great
thanks mick

[numpty]

As you suggest, run a wire to the rear. There's no need to use an inverter. Just make sure you use adequate wiring as this is what causes the most failures in accessory fitting. Dont use a cig socket :o. There are a number of different types of socket that are more suitable....merit plugs and sockets, hella and my personal favorite....2 pin polarised low voltage jobs.

[alien]

Running of the secomd battery is the usual way of doing this.
Just remember to fuse the system.
I also recomend the smaller "Merit" plugs as they are a lot better at maintaining contact in rougher terain.

I want to modify my set up but at the moment it has 2 merit plugs wired inline.
I have a Merit to cigie plug adaptor for low amparage items like my fluro lights.

My upgrade is to fitt another merit plug and wire each socket to individual fuses on the under bonnet fuse box.
1--Fridge
1--Invertor, for lap top and cammera batteries ect.
1--Spare for camp lighting, using the adaptor and then a double adaptor I can have 2 fluros if needed.
(My reverse light is wired via a diode and switch to the 2nd battery as a well).

[RangieBit]

Mi Mick,

I am assuming from your description that your second battery is under the bonnet.

A lot of it depends on what you plan to do out the back there. If you just want to make use of the existing socket at the back for the fridge you could just steal the source from the main battery and use the second battery to feed it. I don't recommend this action as a fridge that large would likely stress the wiring and could lead to all sorts of nasty consequences.

In my D2 we "stole" some of the feeds in the main fusebox for a lot of the auxiliary stuff and replaced the feed with the second battery. For example all the lighter sockets, the courtesy lights and even the radio. The UHF and HF were fed direct from the second battery.

If you want to have more power in the rear compartment then a reasonable feeder from the second battery to a fuse box in the rear is definitely the go. That way you can figure out what you want, cable and fuse as appropriate, and put 'em wherever is convenient. I had a specific Engel socket for the fridge, two lighter sockets for low current things, and a 300W inverter for miscellaneous low power 240V stuff, out the back. That suited my needs. Yours will likely differ.

Don't skimp on the cabling. Better to over size the runs and fuse appropriately, than to under size it and risk the cable overheating, with all the inherent consequences.

Hope this helps some.

Cheers,
Iain

[Tombie]

Running of the secomd battery is the usual way of doing this.
Just remember to fuse the system.
I also recomend the smaller "Merit" plugs as they are a lot better at maintaining contact in rougher terain.

I want to modify my set up but at the moment it has 2 merit plugs wired inline.
I have a Merit to cigie plug adaptor for low amparage items like my fluro lights.

My upgrade is to fitt another merit plug and wire each socket to individual fuses on the under bonnet fuse box.
1--Fridge
1--Invertor, for lap top and camera batteries ect.
1--Spare for camp lighting, using the adaptor and then a double adaptor I can have 2 fluros if needed.
(My reverse light is wired via a diode and switch to the 2nd battery as a well).

I would recommend you use a dedicated DC-DC laptop power supply for this one - More efficient and wont mess up your laptop.. (Unless you're running a pure sine wave inverter most Laptops & their power supplies dont like modified sine inverters very much. In my case it killed the laptops power supply and battery in short order).

Lose the flouros - get LED lights, more efficient and attract less bugs :)