ARB fridge questions (2 Viewers)

[Enigma]

So with all the recent fridge talk, and quite a few of us now running these great items, what kind of uptime are you all getting out of yours?
I have a 47 litre, one of the newer models (about 4 years old now), plugged in to the truck via the regular 12v "cigarette" style power cord into an outlet in the back of the truck. There is a heavy gauge wire (4 or 6 gauge courtesy of Sailor, cant remember exactly) that runs from the now dedicated auxilliary battery (new group 27 wet cell) to a junction in the rear quarter panel that feeds my 1500w inverter and the constact 12v power plug. This power line is fused at the battery.
If I leave my fridge running when parked, I only seem to be getting a day out of it before the red light starts blinking indicating a low power level and the fridge shuts off. I need to double check, but I believe I have changed the power conservation settings on the fridge so the fridge gets priority over battery life (LO setting I think it is).
I do plan on changing the OEM plug to an Andersen style or similar, to eliminate the much talked about issues of the crappy connections with the conventional style.

edit: correct battery setting per
http://arbusa.com/uploads/PDF/newProductAdvice/FridgeFreezerSalesGuide.pdf

Regardless of the fridges battery setting, I think one should get more than a day.

 

[Crimson Cruiser]

We typically do extended "vehicle" family camp in our '07 Tacoma down the on the coast. At the campsite the truck is parked for a few days.
I have a 6 gauge wire (hard wired & fused) from the factory battery to the back in the bed to dedicated aux outlet.
My 47L fridge can go ~2-3 days with it set on +2 with an ambient air temp of 25deg before the fridges lo battery sensor kicks in (set on med)

On the flip side, I've never had great success plugging into my 60 or 80 Landcruiser cigarette lighter. The lo bat sensor kick’s in when the engine is off.

 

[Enigma]

What do you use for your plug in the aux bed outlet?

 

[ikeedikeed]

I got the ARB wiring loom with my 37L one. It's a straightforward install. Ran the wires from the battery, through the firewall, down the right side under the carpet and mounted the plug in my rear panel.

It's not quite a cigarette lighter but it's similar. It's called DIN something-or-other and apparently it's common in Africa and Australia.

Anyhoo, I've got three solid days of fridge temps out of it. But, for me to get around 2C out of the thing I need to set it at about -4C. When set at -16C for a day I had some frozen foods in there that stayed good and frozen. Probs not true -16 though. I think my battery protection is set at MED.

 

[Crimson Cruiser]

I got a good quality “marine grade” 12V AUX outlet from Steveton marina. Blue Sea, with a dust cap and threaded back/sleeve.

I had the same one in my 80 and 60 and the fridge plug doesn’t seem to wiggle loose on rough roads.

I soldered and heat strinked my wire connections.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/12v-dc-socket

 

[canucksafari]

I got a good quality “marine grade” 12V AUX outlet from Steveton marina. Blue Sea, with a dust cap and threaded back/sleeve.

I had the same one in my 80 and 60 and the fridge plug doesn’t seem to wiggle loose on rough roads.

I soldered and heat strinked my wire connections.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/12v-dc-socket

Polar Battery has the same. I got a few of them. IIRC, they are about the same price or less than fleabay.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I have run mine in both my 4runner and 80....sorry LX450 for 2-3days with no red low voltage cut off. I did have issues in the 4runner with a poor connection from the ARB cig adapter to Blue sea socket. The issue ended up being the ARB plug it did not have enough tension on the outlet to keep its self seated. I replaced them both with a powerlet system or something.

 

[Antarctican]

I get a solid 2 - 3 days out of mine from my aux battery, and it's plugged into a $3 chinese cigarette lighter plug I installed in the back running off either 4 or 6 gauge. Has never come loose in 2 years.

 

[Enigma]

Well the results of 2-3 days are what I expect. I'm not sure what's going on with mine. My batteries were all charged up before we left for this past weekends trip, fridge was running fine with display lights being either green or amber whenever I grabbed something out of it. But in the morning the red light was on and flashing.

 

[canucksafari]

I'd be checking the amps it is drawing against what it is suppose to draw. You'll need a DC amp meter and some wire with aligator clips. If you find the draw from the frisge is right on, then I would be checking for two things: voltage drop from the battery to the plug and a parasitic draw from your battery to the plug. Is that circuit turned on and off with a toggle switch/relay or is it always hot. I found on my wifes JDM aftermarket accessory wiring that I had a circuit hot with about 1.0V even when it was supposed to be off. Rather than search for the source, I ripped out all the wiring and rewired it. Sometimes it is just easier and quicker to rewire.

BTW, PA has their automotive wiring on sale now. I am going to get some rolls of 8 guage to run 24V to the back and install my spare reducer there so I will have 24V and 12V plugs in the back. I think I will also permanently install my 12V 110amphr Pap Solar battery back there.

Jeff, maybe you should think about putting a third battery in the back. I am impressed on how well that Pap Solar battery keeps a charge. My CPAP machine is an energy pig and I can go for 3 nights without recharging that battery. I still want to get the rest of the solar kit so I can do longer trips off grid.

 

[Yabedude]

I can't comment as I used a generator when parked and ran it off that while eating barley sandwiches twice a day, but when I got home the ice cubes were still not welded together and frozen, so I think it works awesome.

 

[sailor]

How much inverter use/ charging accessories is happening? The wiring should not be an issue as the cross section is enormous for the expected load and the quality is in another galaxy compared to the PA s***...

 

[neoworm]

I can let mine sit 2-3 days set for 3 deg. C outside temp about 25 to 30 deg. C. Full fridge. No Insulating cover.

This is off a dedicated optima yellowtop, bmw acc. plug (anderson I think), 10ga wiring

Charging managed by an IBS dual battery mgmt. system.

2-3 days seems to be the norm.

 

[ForealBoreal]

How big of a deep cycle are you guys running?

I need a new third battery for my fridge, the old starting battery doesn't like being drained.

What's the best thing to look for? The most amp hours?

 

[Antarctican]

Best thing would be to run 2 x 6v then it'll run FOREVER

 

[BC_FJC]

Jeff, I just finished testing this 2 twice with my ARB fridge (loaded up with a frozen 14lbs turkey, ice cream, freezies and a loaf of bread) and set at -17c. I got just shy of 7 day before it turned off in the low setting (10.1v). I run 2 12v120Ah deep cycle batteries in parallel in my trailer giving me about 240Ah of capacity. I had my battery analyzer connected and my average power consumption was 1.67Ah. The math didn't add up so I recharged the batteries for a few days and tested it again and was with in 2 hours of my original test.

I suspect the capacity of your second battery might be low or your battery is failing if you are only getting at single day out of it?

 

[darmaduke]

I just went did this with my new fridge, I have dual battery set up, and could only get one day out of the battery,...

after some investigating I found out that my 2nd battery had a bad ground at the frame. so it was not even contributing to the fridge at all...

check that both batteries are in fact connected to the truck.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

If parked outside I can leave my solar fridge on at 2C and my batteries remain fully charged as long as I care to leave it.

 

[Enigma]

Jeff, maybe you should think about putting a third battery in the back. grid.

No thanks. I had thought of that prior to doing the 24v to 12v convserion, not required now.

How much inverter use/ charging accessories is happening? .

I had actually forgotten that the kids had gone to bed (in the back of the truck) while watching a DVD on the head unit. So it was on acc. for a couple hours. No idea how much the head unit draws. The way things are wired up at the moment, my parking lights are on while the key is at acc also.

Best thing would be to run 2 x 6v then it'll run FOREVER

What the fudge is the difference between 2x 6v and 1x 12v?

I suspect the capacity of your second battery might be low or your battery is failing if you are only getting at single day out of it?

Nah, brand new Polar battery.

If parked outside I can leave my solar fridge on at 2C and my batteries remain fully charged as long as I care to leave it.

Me too, If I had it plugged in. Plans are a proper roof rack one of these days and permanently mount my panel up there similar to yours.

I also had the fridge on HI. I've since set it to LO and it seems to be chugging along fine for the time being.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

How big of a deep cycle are you guys running?

I need a new third battery for my fridge, the old starting battery doesn't like being drained.

What's the best thing to look for? The most amp hours?

Here we go!

If its dedicated (no starting demand) - then get Group 31 marine deep cycle.