Power source for a fridge

Hi Publican, The generators from Bunnings are cheap, no doubt about that but from the threads there appear to be a quality issue, some say they are great others say they are best used as boat anchors. If you have a GMC, I would be interested in how you have found it.

Regards

Mark

Quality issues, surprising, considering they come out of the Yamaha factory in China. The other interesting thing is that the returns have been not worth talking about. Yes I did buy one and have tested it out pretty thoroughly including running it at 800w on a travel iron for 2 hours. I consider with unleaded petrol that 50:1 oil mix is a little lean and prefer to use 40:1 using Mobil Extra2T two stroke oil.
Many of the retired people in the local Seniors club we assist at have bought them and nobody has had any problems at all. I would say at least 12 of them have used them now caravaning. Bunnings locally have sold around 5 pallets. To date one has been returned with a leaking fuel cap. It appeared the person tipped it upside down to get it out the box and it came out to fast, but as usual with Bunnings the customer is always right.

I have one of those cheap generators.
Works a treat, no problems at all, have used it about 12 times out camping.
At $189, I thought if I get 2-3 years out of it I would be happy.
Better than paying $800-900 for a Honda

I just wacked one of those volt/temp guages in the surf, bloody awsome, good value and look great. Also give me a very noticble chirp every few seconds once the aux battery starts to drop too low, which is handy because once the bat drops below 11v my Jaycar isolater only trickle charges the aux (to try and save it's life a little more) until it gets back above 11v, the only prob with that is that with all the crap I hang of the aux if it's tricke charging only it can't keep up running everything. Prob best to put an ovride switch on the isolater so I can give it a full charge even if it's under 11v, but the point is they look great, easy to install and cheap.

3 way fridges, the evaporative element type, don't seem to work too well when the temperature gets over 33 degrees and high humidity

I most certainly agree with Dave. 3way is the go, I have a Chescold and on gas its a purler, on 240v its great and on 12v it'll kill a battery in 7 hours, but of you're running it in the vehicle when driving 12v is fine and dandy. We do lots of the kind of camping you speak of, stop and prop and spend a while. If you are travelling and need to keep something cool then a dual battery setup is useful too and shouldn't be too costly if you have a bit of electrical nous, just a redarc, ARB battery holder (cheapest of the lot and very serviceable) and a battery, get a friend with some nous if you're lacking there, and he'll probably have access to a few bits of necessary wiring to make the whole thing work.

Have a good trip mate, IMHO forget the genny and preserve the peace.

Three way is the go, thats what we use and IMHO for extended stays in one spot the only way. Our fridge is an electrilux caravan type upright.

Baz.

the 3 way fridge would work, however as you have the Wacoe then my experience states that you need a 'good' Deep Cycle battery system, not a cranking battery or a cheap compromise battery that is a bit of each, as a battery is built to do only one job well and also an Isolator that is suitable for a deep cycle battery system, as some cheap ones are not!

Generators are NOT permitted in _any_ national park here in WA!

they are noisey in the nite time when you pull up where there are other people you will be asked to concider their privacey and buggga off or maybe they will leave and as I once saw will leave your genny in a mess, they dont work too well with kerro or whatever it was in the fuel tank.

Was leaning toward the deep cycle battery system. The generator was an added bulk to carry along with the extra fuel (apart from also taking diesel for the car). /would prefer the "quieter" option too!