Caravan Fridge

[Nicholasjahicks]

My Quattro FB has just had its service. The fridge works fine on gas and mains electric but not 12V. Although I expect 12v is used mainly for towing, and if its not working and the journey is short its not too much of an issue.
Would you get an electrician to check it out or a caravan service centre? Bearing in mind, i was going to be charged £70 just to see if the fault could easily be found and then the repair on top of that
Thank you

 

[otherclive]

12v is only used for towing and the cars engine has to be running. Modern cars with smart alternators can cause problems. One check could be run engine with full lights on, and fans for a/c then see if fridge works. Has your fridge worked okay before? Wiring from car to fridge can drop voltage if it’s not suitable enough.


This might help. It’s not an uncommon problem.

Thetford Caravan 12v electrics with new car

Recently bought a new Mazda CX60 diesel mild hybrid. Recommended by a number of magazines as a good tow car. It tows really well. But: when in transit with car hooked up the fridge won't work. I've had the caravan electrics tested. All OK. The mazda 13 pin electrics checks out OK, without being...

forums.practicalcaravan.com

 

[Buckman]

My Quattro FB has just had its service. The fridge works fine on gas and mains electric but not 12V. Although I expect 12v is used mainly for towing, and if its not working and the journey is short its not too much of an issue.
Would you get an electrician to check it out or a caravan service centre? Bearing in mind, i was going to be charged £70 just to see if the fault could easily be found and then the repair on top of that
Thank you

The caravan need so be connected to the car with the car engine running for the 12v feed to the fridge. If you have a car with a Smart alternator then it gets a bit more complicated.

 

[birdman101]

First of all the question is, Has the towbar actually got the pins to run the fridge wired up.

 

[AndrewAventura]

From your older posts it looks like you've had your caravan a few years now; has the fridge worked on 12v when towing before? Have you changed your tow car, because as others have said that's the place to start looking for 12v at the socket.
If you're not sure about troubleshooting it yourself, then I'd go to a towbar fitting specialist and ask them to check the electrics on your car towing socket, they'll be able to tell if there's any live feed to pin 9 (and pin 10 earth return). They'll also know about the effect of smart alternators and so on.
Even if there is no supply, don't immediately think you'll have to spend anything on a wiring repair. When I changed my towcar earlier this year, it turned out that all that was required was for the garage to connect their laptop to the car's electronics module and tick an option for pin 9 to be made active.
Contrary to opinions in other threads on this topic, I've now found my fridge cools down very well towing on 12 v. Almost as fast as when at home plugged in to 240v. I picked it up from storage earlier this week at about 25 deg C and after an hour it was genuinely cold, cold enough to load it with stuff from the supermarket.

 

[birdman101]

Pin 10 live when engine running , and pin11 to body negative required for fridge.