Old 3 Way Fridge/freezer - okay to run on single battery?

Holly Anne
As long as you are only running the fridge whilst the engine is also running then you should not have any problems during the day. How much night driving do you intend to do, it is not a good idea to be driving outback Australia at night due to the wild life that is nocturnal, and you are not seeing what you went there for in the first place. The only time that you may have any issues is with continuous night driving using all those lights and the fridge, as a 75 watts load from the fridge is roughly equivalent to running an additional headlamp (or leaving a headlamp on after the engine is stopped)

When travelling the outback of Australia without back up it is always a good insurance to have an auxiliary battery system fitted in such a way that it can be used for 'jump starting' or have a good set of jumper cables that can be used with your auxiliary battery to enable 'jump starting' of your vehicle. This auxiliary battery MUST be isolated from the main starting battery when the engine is not in operation.

Hope this helps.
Athol

You won’t have a problem if you switch to gas when you stop.
If you forget and let it run off your single battery overnight you will have a dead battery in the morning.

Hi Holly Anne

75 watts is just over 6 amps. I have had 4 three way fridges over the years and they all drew considerably more than this, in the vicinity of 10 - 15 amps. I would suggest you check the current draw with a multimeter, just to be sure this figure is correct.

Also definitely have the frig wired so that it is only supplied with power when the car is running. Another consideration is that power current draw will probably be too high to use a cigarette lighter type power outlet. You will need a properly wired supply cable. A cigarette type connector even drawing 6 amps will struggle due to poor connection and may cause voltage drop and overheating (melting) problems in the connection. I have personally had this happen and its not much fun once your on the way.

Cheers Kevin

You say you are going across the red centre, but any particular route. I only ask as if you stay on the blacktop you at least will probably have someone come past who can jump start your vehicle. A 3 way fridge will draw down your battery in the xtrail in no time. As mentioned your alternator would possibly struggle to keep up, if you wanted you could fit a low voltage cut off, at least it would save the battery but not the food in your fridge should you ever forget to put it on gas.
Cheers.

As per Athol's response. You only need to forget to switch to gas one night and you're up the creek without a paddle. To be reasonably assured of avoiding that problem, you will need either an auxiliary battery setup OR a jump-starter. The jump-starter involves less work and will cost you less if you hunt down the frequent sales at the auto shops.