Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

Originally Posted by scarry

Is it a 515?

We have been looking at one for work,gives us more tray room than a D/C ute.

Looked at the Isuzu as well,but new model not here until early next year.

FGB71 Crew Cab 4x4

Grabbed it as it’s the last of the Euro 5 so no adblue

Got back from another camping weekend with the boys. This time Mr 11 year old stacked a pile of warm water in the fridge just as we arrived, so come morning the battery was dead as a doornail (battery was at 3V). The fridge was working flat out trying to pull it all down to temp. No problem, got the jump pack out. These beasts take a lot of grunt just to boot up the computers. Tried several times to get it to start until the jump pack cried "enough". Waved a mate over with his car and a set of jump leads and got them hooked up to put a float on the battery.

Went to try it again and quietly noticed I'd left it in gear (always park in 1st). Of course the bloody thing wasn't going to turn over. Took it for a long drive to give it some juice and make sure the fridge was pulled down to temp, and no problems the next morning.

Might grab myself a solar blanket and an MPPT reg for a bit of help next time I go away. If this turns out to be a regular thing I'll probably pick up a portable lithium for the fridge.

I've re-educated the lad on how to manage a battery fridge. If he wants cold water next time, he'll know.

Originally Posted by BradC

(battery was at 3V).

Hi Brad and there must have been something else running as well as the fridge.

Compressor fridge motors fail at 7v regardless of whether the fridge has a low voltage shutdown or not.

Once a 12v motor voltage gets down to 7v, the motor will simply stop.

NOTE, 12v relays can go down to 3v before they shutdown/fail.

So for your battery to be at 3v, I think i would be checking the condition of the battery.

Originally Posted by BradC

Got back from another camping weekend with the boys. This time Mr 11 year old stacked a pile of warm water in the fridge just as we arrived, so come morning the battery was dead as a doornail (battery was at 3V). The fridge was working flat out trying to pull it all down to temp. No problem, got the jump pack out. These beasts take a lot of grunt just to boot up the computers. Tried several times to get it to start until the jump pack cried "enough". Waved a mate over with his car and a set of jump leads and got them hooked up to put a float on the battery.

Went to try it again and quietly noticed I'd left it in gear (always park in 1st). Of course the bloody thing wasn't going to turn over. Took it for a long drive to give it some juice and make sure the fridge was pulled down to temp, and no problems the next morning.

Might grab myself a solar blanket and an MPPT reg for a bit of help next time I go away. If this turns out to be a regular thing I'll probably pick up a portable lithium for the fridge.

I've re-educated the lad on how to manage a battery fridge. If he wants cold water next time, he'll know.

I have been running a kickass portable battery pack for years, it’s been in multiple cars and is very easy to wire up , no need for any fancy isolators or anything, fully recommend rather than relying on the starter

EDIT Sorry but I had a seniors moment, ours is a Thumper battery pack not Kickass

Originally Posted by drivesafe

.......

So for your battery to be at 3v, I think i would be checking the condition of the battery.

Also going so low may have shortened the battery's life.

Mine came with 2 keys but one was flat and having it in the ignition while driving didn't work to charge it. The previous owner said he only used it as a backup as it came dead when he acquired the vehicle.

After reading about using mobile phone charging pads and leccy toothbrush pads on various forums I went to Big W and bought a Cygnett 16 dollar cheapie to try out.

After 15 minutes on the pad I went outside and it was working so put it back on 'charge' for another 25 minutes while I ran an errand and been working fine for a few days now.

IMG20251219113422.jpg

By sheer coincidence number 1 key then went on the blink first by working intermittently then completely unresponsive to button presses, but I broke it open and reflowed the battery joints which fixed the problem and it also works with a greater range from the vehicle now.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Brad and there must have been something else running as well as the fridge.

Compressor fridge motors fail at 7v regardless of whether the fridge has a low voltage shutdown or not.

Nah, this is a first generation 80's Engel. Whether or not the motor is running the inverter will keep running. There is no low voltage cutout, it's a simple oscillator driving a transformer.

Been a week since replacing the HPFP and not one failure to proceed episode yet , used my normal test route of slow moving uphill sections and some fast foot down freeway merging and all good.
I think the pumps must die slowly as the improvement in acceleration is quite noticeable and fuel usage has gone down as well.