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Morning all :)

We got our very first caravan last week, it a sprite, 20 Years old but in very nice condition

Anyway, we're taking it away next weekend for the first time so I have a couple of  quick questions.

It has an auxillary plug on the van but I don't have one on the car. I'd like to fit one before we go on Friday as I don't know how good the battery is in the van.

It only has to run a couple of striplights and the water pump but if it fails I'd like to be able to plug it straight into the car.

The car has 2 huge, deep cycle batteries fitted so I'm not worried about draining the car battery and it would be nice to have that option as a back-up.

So, does the auxillary plug just have a live and neutral connection?

Also, what sort of current draw does a fridge have when running off 12 volts as I'd like to plug the auxillary in when towing the van purely so the fridge can run off the 12V to chill down before switching to the gas when on site. Is the current draw low enough that I could plug a cable into the cigarette lighter socket and run off that?

I know its a bit of a strange question but the towcar is a modified 4X4 which has a trailing lead for the towbar electrics to avoid external sockets being broken whilst off-roading so another trailing lead would be the easiest option for the auxillary connection.

Cheers

Chris :)

Thanks peeps, very much appreciated.

TBH I don't want the option of charging the battery from the car as its easy enough to charge at home, its really just to run the lights in the van and to cool the fridge on the journey down.

With this in mind, I then only need to wire 2 lives to pins 4 & 6 and an earth to pin 3 which would give me what I need? or am I missing something

Any idea on the likely current drain of the fridge?

Thanks again,

Cheers

Chris :)

Quote: Originally posted by corsetta on 17/3/2008

Thanks peeps, very much appreciated.

TBH I don't want the option of charging the battery from the car as its easy enough to charge at home, its really just to run the lights in the van and to cool the fridge on the journey down.

With this in mind, I then only need to wire 2 lives to pins 4 & 6 and an earth to pin 3 which would give me what I need? or am I missing something

Any idea on the likely current drain of the fridge?

Thanks again,

Cheers

Chris :)

---

Thats fantastic, thanks peeps much appreciated.

TBH this really is a temporary fix just for this coming weekend. I think the leisure battery in the van will be fine, I just want the peace of mind of having the cars batteries as backup. They won't be running the fridge (thats on gas) so I really don't think they'll flatten over the weekend (they're Optima deep cycle batteries.)

Thanks for that detailed info LegsDownKettleOn, that makes a lot of sense. i'll buy the socket and the cable and just take them with me so if needs must, I can fix it direct to one of the car batteries. I'll scrub the idea of cooling the fridge on the journey then, i make that a draw of up to 14amps, certainly enough to start a fire as you say!

I'll post back when we return to ask for advice fitting the split relay which sounds the best thing to do so it'll all be done properly for the next, longer trip away.

Thanks again,

Chris :)