No doubt it's been asked before, but we're madly getting ready for our holiday...
If we switch the fridge onto the "car" position when we hitch up, the fridge will run from the car - right? But what about when th engine is off on the ferry? Will the fridge still run, and therefore drain the car battery? And will the fride automatically keep running when we start the engine to drive off the boat??
Sorry for the silly questions, but don't want a flat car battery for when we get to France!!
When you switch the ignition off, if the whole lot is wired right the 12v to the fridge will automatically cease.
The 12v element on the fridge is unregulated (I have heard that some are reg on 12v, but never seen one yet)
Ergo on a long journey they tend to overcool stuff (unless the wire is too thin) so if you are only doing the usual one hour crossing everything should be OK.
Your assumptions are the same as ours were for our first couple of trips untill we realised that the fridge wasn't running when the switch was in the car position.
Our van has a Car/Van switch with a central off position. Before we set off on our third trip I checked to see if the fridge was running (car engine was running, switch was to Car). It has a manual selection for 240v, gas or 12v, it was set to 12v but no little green light. Only got a green light when we switched to Van.
So I checked the manual. I had misinterpreted the purpose of the car/van switch. Its purpose is to enable you to use the car battery (assuming the 12S (grey) lead is connected) if your leisure battery is flat/not installed and you have no other means of power (ie no mains). It is not to supply the fridge.
The fridge 12v supply (because it draws so much power) will only come from the car, and only when the ignition is turned on. The operation is controlled by the "habitation" relay which isolates the vans 12v systems except for the fridge.
As to why ours only works in the Van position, I don't know, but it could be a common ideosyncrasy. Suggest that once hitched, cables connected and engine running nip into van and check your little green light (assuming you have one) then operate car/van switch to see which positions give you a green.
From the above you can deduce that the fridge will not draw 12v from the car without the engine running, nor will it draw from your leisure battery. Also ferry operators usually don't allow you to run the fridge on gas. So basically you are stuffed for running the fridge on a ferry. Solutions are:
1. Don't populate fridge/freezer untill you get across to the other side.
2. Use pre-frozen freezer blocks to keep stuff cool.
3. And/or use frozen milk, meat or other bulky frozen stuff which you don't mind thawing to keep stuff cool.
The fridge will run once the car engine is running.
My fridge continued to work when the engine was switched off. I stopped for a 6 hour sleep on my journey through France last year and didn't unplug the fridge from the back of the car. Woke up to a completely dead battery!!
You need your 12s socket wired correctly or replace the relay that switches the fridge wire of when the engine dies - this is standard operation: fridge wire from car should only be live whilst engine running.
ps. to other worried about the fridge being off during ferry crossings - make sure fridge is full and chilled by the time you get to port, make sure it stays shut and undisturbed - it WILL survive a good couple of hours off - it IS insulated...................
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Dont chance leaving your fridge running on the ferry REMOVE the grey s socket from the car .We failed to do this and had the igmony of being towed of the ferry at StMalo.I would charge the fridgeof the 230 mains before you leave ,freeze 2 or 4 of those blue freezer blocks and put them in the fridge freezer compartment just before you leave.You won,t need to take any deep frozen stuff with you as the French supermarkets stock great food .I hope you have a great time
Note ya point but why take food to France? whenever we go we immediately head for the supermarket as soon as we are set up, France has such wonderful food it makes ours taste so dull.
I wired my towbar as instructed to my battery not ignition live but i got my twin electrics it came with a relay which stops the power when car battery is getting low i got mine from Towequipe.
Hi Lisa Jane , you need to check and see if you have a relay ( normally fitted in the boot ) find your 12s towbar wiring in the boot ( thick grey cable ) and follow where it goes , you should find your relay if fitted ( it's a black box with the grey cable wiring connecting to it ) , the job of the relay is to power the fridge when the car engine is running , when you turn your engine off the relay turns off the power to the fridge , when you restart your engine power then flows again to the fridge .
When you find the relay or even if you don't , the red wire from the grey cable supplys the 12volts positive to power the fridge , connect one end of a 12volt tester to it and the other end to the car earth ( chassis ) , when the power is going to the fridge the tester blub will light , when there's no power going to the fridge the tester bulb won't light . You can use this check to make sure the relay is working correctly , ie engine running , bulbs lights . Engine not running , bulb not lit .
Hi when ever we are on the ferry i always pull the 12s socket out ,just for peace of mind , i know it should not draw current when engine is off , but have seen a few being pulled of ferries with flat batterys over the years, by pulling the socket from car gives you one less thing to worry about, that is as long as you remember to put it back in.
After you've started the car engine, as others have said, your fridge light should come on. Once you're on the ferry, before you leave the outfit, just look through the window at the fridge. If the light is now off - fine. If it's still on then you either have a faulty relay or don't have one at all in which case pull the plug from the 12s. Must admit tho' that ours never seems to get very cold on 12v.
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Topic: Towing With Fridge On
