I understand from a local caravan dealer that even though I only have single electric I could still tow and plug fridge in as it's possible to buy an adaptor. Is this right? Has anybody come across this before or was he making it up? I thought the two electric hook ups were different number of pins?
I guess he means that for fridge to work you will have to have a second 12s socket fitted to car. Unless you have the more modern single 13pin plug on your caravan then you will need fully wired up single 13pin socket on your car
If it has the single 13 pin socket then yes you can run the fridge on 12 volt whilst towing providing the socket is wired up accordingly but if you only have the single black 7 pin socket (12N) then no you can't as this socket will only function the caravan's front and side marker lights and the rear lights ie. tail lights, stop lights, left and right indicators and hazard warning lights. If you have only the 7 pin black (12N) socket fitted then to run the fridge plus the caravan battery charger then you need to have the additional (12S) socket fitted as well.
Quote: Originally posted by johnjory on 01/6/2013PS
Running fridge whilst in transit on 12v is not as good idea as it sounds as fridge performance is poor and it draws quite a heavy current load.
Probably better to cool fridge right down on ehu overnight at your house with a couple of blue freezer blocks inside.
Very true John. however, if one pre-cools the fridge first, as you have advised, (we are lucky, the caravan sits on our drive and we hook up to the mains the night before) there is not so much load on the wiring. My sis-in-law's caravan is in storage so she can't do this, and their electrics got overloaded a couple of times. I check the wiring every time we arrive on site, and there is no overheating at all.
HTH.
Your alternator will put out approx 14V the same as every other car on the road (apart from some early VWs and BMWs which were 6V). Any more and your battery wll boil itself to oblivion, any less and it will not charge.
Running fridge, "bouncing around on rubbish uk roads" The fridge is exactly the same on or off, there are no moving parts, just an electric heater and liquid in a sealed pipe
Your fridge won't normally be kept on a camber long enough to effect it, with a fridge they recommend it settles for around 24 hours to let it settle if it has been laid over. It may not work as efficient unless its level but it will still work well enough.