Hi Richard.

This is what happened.

I was installing an aux battery.

I wanted to wire fridge so when running on 12V while driving, if I
stopped for groceries fridge would continue to operate on 12V.

So, I thought I could connect both the trigger lead and heater element
lead directly to aux battery.

Mark kindly advised that hooking fridge this way would drain aux
battery even when fridge NOT set to 12V as fridge relay would still
draw power.

Trust me to try to re-invent the wheel.  ;^)  Hence the link to my diagram.

I proceeded to waste time and spin my wheels as in reality, I usually
use LP while driving. And in reality, the fridge can run off the
alternator as there really isn't any need to run it off the aux.
UNLESS I set up some kind of solar/battery set up.

When I solve the problems I'm currently having, I'll likely hook up
fridge in stock manner. i.e. trigger wire will supply 12v to fridge
relay and 12V for heater element will come from pos post of aux
battery. (I have a #10 wire running from starter battery to relay for
aux battery)

If that makes sense.

Thanks for ideas though.

Neil.

The relay on fridge draws from aux battery IF I had hooked
On 4/12/07, Richard A Jones <jones@colorado.edu> wrote:
> Mark & Neil:
>
> What am I missing in this discussion about hooking
> the fridge relay to the aux battery?  It seems to me
> there are two options:
> (A) keep the fridge relay.  Then why move it to the
>     aux battery since it only works when the alt is
>     charging?  Don't mess with the fridge wiring at all.
> (B) remove the relay--and wire the fridge to the aux
>     battery so you can run the fridge on 12V whenever
>     you want.  In that case, an external indicator light
>     added to the kitchen panel would be good, since the
>     7 amp heater in the fridge could run your aux battery
>     down overnight.
> But why try to figure out how to move the relay to the
> aux battery?  Admittedly, my thinking is contaminated
> by my purely manual setup that I inherited (well, really,
> purchased) of no relay and a battery switch.  And, yes,
> I have run my aux battery down, but not from the fridge....
>
> Richard
> Boulder
>

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia.

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil