12 volt electrics

[davidinfrance]

I have a Trigano folding camper.

I want to erect the camper prior to departure to load it for the holiday. I also want to "cool down" the fridge on mains electric so that it is cold for the journey. I want to fold the camper back to its towing-mode the evening prior to departure. This will ease our getaway first thing in the morning.

QUESTION: Can I run the fridge on 12volts overnight from the onboard battery or will this be too great a load and result in a flat battery?

If the load is too great, can I safely connect the battery to a battery-charger overnight? If not, what do you suggest?

Your opinions are eagerly awaited.

Thanks,

Dave.

 

[antrimboy]

If you just put your foodstuff in the night before, you will definitely end up with a flat battery.On the other hand, if your fridge and food are well chilled down before closing the camper, you might get away with it. I'm not sure if you can run your charger at the same time, but maybe you could try it sometime in advance and see how you get on-during the, so that you can keep an eye on it!

 

[aaman]

You can run the fridge on mains electric to cool it down but when you disconnect your mains supply you won't be able to turn the fridge back to 12v if its folded down so it will not be cooling whilst you are driving.

 

[davidinfrance]

Thanks Eddie and Aaman, points noted.

 

[MikeP]

We only take bare essentials away - a bit of milk/cheese etc and maybe meat for the the first day's main meal. We put two 2-litre fizzy pop bottles of ice in the bottom of the fridge, wrapped in tea towels. The ice lasts about 18 hours.

When we had a trailer tent we gave up using the fridge when on the move in the summer. Everything inside the trailer was so tight and compact that it all got very hot on a sunny day. And the fridge vents were covered by the PVC top, so the fridge couldn't breathe properly anyway.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

If its Dometic/Thetford type of fridge you won't flatten the 12V battery because it is only connected to the car 12V system via a relay so that it only draws 12V when the engine is running.

If its connected to the leisure battery then its wired wrong.

With older(and better) Dometic fridges you could leave the 12V & 230V switches on and they would work when the 12V or mains was connected.

Now you have to select one or the other and remember to do it!!