The Wire

Keeping it Cool

When I am parked up, the fridge will either run off the gas or if I have a hook up, it will run on 240V.

However, when on the move if I want to keep it running, it needs a 12V feed from the van as if it was on the leisure batteries it would quickly flatten them.

There was 2 ways to do this, either run a split charge system which involves adding in a relay, fuses etc to the leisure batteries and a feed goes off the relay to the fridge.

The other, easier option was just to run a wire from the ignition live, so that when the van is running, the fridge can be powered and when it is parked up, it doesn't have power.

I wasn't really comfortable going with either option, but after speaking to an auto electrician yesterday, I decided to try the 2nd option.

Above the glove box, under where the reversing camera sat, there was a couple of relays which one is for the camera, and the other I think is for the door open alarm.

So in the picture above, I took the ignition live feed wire (the purple one) and ran a split from that. I tested the wiring with a multimeter to ensure it was only live when the ignition was on.

From that split, I put an in-line fuse (10A) which is ample for the fridge that gives out about 6-8A when running. 

Before stripping back the interior plastics to hide the wiring, I tested it out by connecting the live to the fridge and the earth to the van chassis.

All working, so when van is off it showed 0.00V to the fridge, but when I put the ignition on and selected the 12V switch on the fridge itself, it was running between 12-13V when the van was running.

I left the van running for 10-15 minutes and after that, I could feel the fridge getting colder.

Now I knew it was working, I ran the live cable down the side of the door behind the plastics and then along the passenger footwell again hidden away.

It then went along the side in the conduit, so the same place I put the socket cable for the fridge.

Ok so it's not the tidiest and discrete way to do it, but it's barely noticeable so will do for now.

So then I just connected the live wire to the fridge, and also connected up the earth to the chassis.

So as you can see, you can barely see it as the live runs along the back of the beading.

And completing this job was the last one on the 'To Do' list I had, so am pretty happy with that and all going well everything will work well next weekend!

Link to Photo Album