What you describe is very possible, even likely.

The stock Westy kitchen and fridge connect to the main fuse panel by a
wire about 10 feet long. This make the fridge electrically very far from
the alternator and battery. The longer the wire is, the more voltage is
lost by the time it reaches the end where you need it. A volt meter
reading of the voltage that is actually reaching the fridge heating
element will tell the tale. The early Vanagon models in particular
suffer from an inadequate supply voltage to begin with at the dash
fuse/relay panel and then the fridge is even farther away. One way of
dealing with this is to have a proper dual battery setup (not the GW or
TBD relay kits) under the driver's seat and to make sure the wire for
the fridge element connects as directly to this battery as possible.
This will largely keep dash area electrical loads from dropping the
voltage at the fridge. I have done this to both my Campers and they work
fine on 12 volts.

It all has to do with how much voltage is actually reaching the fridge
heating element. The design of the Westy wiring does not allow it to age
gracefully. It must be enhanced as well as maintained. You must begin by
actually measuring the voltage with the engine running, at the fridge
wiring connector and comparing this to the voltage at the alternator.
The amount of drop in voltage between these 2 locations will give you an
idea how much room for improvement there is on a particular Westy. The
higher the voltage reaching the fridge the better it will cool on 12
volts. I have seen fridges that were getting under 9 volts while the
alternator put out 14 volts.

Mark

Jim Felder wrote:

> ....
> That has always been OK until recently, and I find that running the two
> 12v fans on the dash seems to rob the refrigerator of power and
> therefore it runs warmer. Anyone who knows more about electrical stuff
> than me (that is to say anybody at all) is free to tell me why this is
> impossible, but it seems that the more 12v stuff you run the poorer the
> fridge performance is.
>
> Jim
>
> On Jul 18, 2005, at 2:08 PM, Chuck Reisinger wrote:
>
>> My Frig isn't doing so well running on 12v when underway..... thought
>> in theory -  that you could run the frig while underway or parked for
>> 1-2 hours....changng over to propane when stopped for longer periods or
>> for the night.....  new batteries and frig update  completed by
>> GoWesty.....talked with Chris at GW...he told me the aux battery
>> doesn't charge at the same rate as the main....I didn't know
>> this.....he suggested just staying on propane....btw:  frig works like
>> a champ on 110....
>>
>> So....is the 12v frig feature a WASTE?  Is there anything that can be
>> done to resolve this?
>>
>> Would installing a new alt help?
>>
>> Thanks much
>>
>