Thread: Camping Fridge problem

Are you running the fridge on a standard Landrover cig plug or a devoted 5-6mm cable straight from the battery to run the fridge ? This problem can happen with standard wiring or bad earths.

I would make sure you have a 5-6mm twin cable (pos & Earth) running all the way from the battery using a H/Duty fuse or circuit breaker and well rated plug/socert combinations (not cig plugs). Even if the standard wiring is not causing the problem fitting your vehicle as above will elliminate those parts ever being a problem again !
Its not if a cig plug will fail its WHEN ! Standard cig plugs and small wires all will fail sooner or latter ! and also cause poor fridge economy !

Hope that helps

Jeremy

So I take it that it's a Compressor driven fridge, in that case,

Maybe the wiring isnt heavy enough to draw enough Amps due to as the Volts drop the amps rise.

The only other thing that it may be is that the D2 may have a voltage sensor that cuts Accessories when the voltage drops below a certain point but someone with a D2 may be able to confirm that.

How many amps is the fridge drawing ??

Originally Posted by Disco300Tdi

How many amps is the fridge drawing ??

I think they draw 4.5 amps and have a low voltage cutout at 10.4 volts.


Hope this is of some help

I would be thinking low voltage cutout if the wiring isn't up to it.

As Jeremy said, when the engine is running 'it's overcoming/compensating for' the volt drop through the piddling little wires for the standard cig socket, but without the alternator turning out extra power the drops are just to much - and your compressor will not run.

You need to run a dedicated supply - in a decent cable size (both + and -) from the battery under the bonnet - you can add a nice big relay to control it if you still only want it running with the switch in Aux position.

Use a 'proper' ciggy socket - not a standard one - but one that is rated for a fridge.

Plus have you checked the state of your battery recently ?

Hi Sharpie, as all posts above and a way to check, because there is a remote chance your battery is on it’s way out but it is more like just poor cabling.

Next time you do a bit of a drive, pop the bonnet and set your fridge up so it’s connected directly to the battery and see if it solves the problem.

If your fridge runs then it’s most likely the standard auto cable is too thin.

If it still only runs for a few minutes then you may need to get both your battery and fridge checked.