Wiring accessories
Submitted: Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 09:59
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toymn8r
I am in the porocess of running the electrics for various accessories and was wondering if anyone could tell me what current draw and ampage a trailblaza 70 lt fridge _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx.
I have been on the Norcoast site and can't find any referance to the power draw.
Any help would be appreciated.
By the way I just picked up a new Turbo diesel RV troop carrier on Thursday and can't wipe the grin of my face. It was
well worth the five month wait. I live in
Alice Springs and will be testing it out on a trip to
Boggy hole next weekend. yeehah
See you out bush
Bart
Reply By: Bonz (Vic) - Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 10:35
Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 10:35
mmm Their specifications seem to stretch to size and price, not much help. If you're running cable to the back of the Troopie, then don't go less than 6mm for the fridge curcuit and a seperate 6mm curcuit for everything else. Get a couple of fusible links to stick under the bonnet right near the battery at the start of the two runs to the back, and Bob's ya uncle.
AnswerID:
71720
Follow Up By: toymn8r - Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 11:21
Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 11:21
Thnks Bonz
I have run 6mm for fridge, compressor and what the hell for a fluro in back as
well. I just wanted to confirm 6mm was adequate as it is a 4.5 metre run to the rear of the troopy.
Compressor off the cranking battery and fridge and fluro off aux battery all with fuses in line at the battery end. I have run the compressor through a relay at the rear of vehicle with switch wired through relay as
well.
I am an electrical dummy so I thought overkill was the best option.
Once again thanks for the speedy reply.
Bart
FollowupID:
331907
Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 13:15
Sunday, Aug 08, 2004 at 13:15
I reckon I'd run the compressor off the aux battery too, unless its for ARB airlockers in which case the main battery wood b better
FollowupID:
331911
Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 15:21
Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 15:21
Bonz,
Just interested as to why you say that, about running the compressor of the main if you have an auxillary? I have air lockers, the compressor runs off the auxillary but the locker switch runs off the ignition. If the issue isn't to segregate the compressor and locker from the main battery because of the ignition what is it, I'm just interested? Thanks for any info it could
well change my way of thinking.
FollowupID:
332042
Follow Up By: Bonz (Vic) - Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 15:30
Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 15:30
The only reason would be in the aux cacked itself Martyn and you needed to rely on the compressor via the smart solenoid and battery to battery wiring, if your solenoid died then your switch would go on but no brrrrrrrrr noise. I guess the possibilities are low that it wouldnt work but I am a fan of having the stuff you want to go all the time off the main battery. Even of you holed a battery and used the aux in the main batts place, as long as you connected everything and the solenoid did its job you should be OK but why run the risk? Thats my thoughts. Inthe end its how wel you know your truck and if something doesnt go right how easy to work out what happened and remedy it.
Regards
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 19:56
Monday, Aug 09, 2004 at 19:56
Bonz,
yeap we vary a bit here, I prefer to run everything that wasn't designed to run off the normal circuit off the auxillary. I see your point and it's very valid of course. As you say it's down to knowing your own vehicle, due to the amount of load the auxillary during a normal week which I assume would be nearly nothing unless you are travelling all the time for either your job or your personal situation allows you to, so the more load on the batery to keep it active the better, after being at
home for a while the charge and performance used to drop off on my auxillary battery, after being away for a week or so travelling the battery would come good again. If I'm not going out for a while I hook up an old mechanical clock just to keep a small trickle load on the battery. Works for me. Thanks for the reply.
FollowupID:
332089
Reply By: drivesafe - Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004 at 22:07
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004 at 22:07
Hi folks, you are far better off running all your accessories off your auxiliary battery and in this way you are more likely to have an auxiliary battery failure before your main ( cranking ) battery fails.
If you are out in the middle of nowhere ( as you do ) and you have an auxiliary battery fail chances are you will be able to start off you cranking battery.
In most cases it is the auxiliary that fails first.
If you have been using your cranking battery to run other things and it fails there is usually a good chance that your auxiliary battery is not going to be all that good because you have had no advance warning ( as your not running thing off the aux battery you may not have noticed that it was flat ) that it's not up to scratch.
And as you were running extra accessories off your cranking batttery, you are more likely to have take the battery's charge voltage below the recommended low voltage point of 12 volts ( for a cranking battery ). This alone will shorten the operating life of a cranking battery and the lower it is taken, the shorter the expected life. Additionally, unless you were operating the vehicle for long periods at high enough revs, you may have only been pumping power into the dud cranking battery and so you end up with 2 dead batteries.
Keep the cranking battery for just that and when start your vehicle , the cranking battery will be chaged in a short time leaving the auxiliary battery to take full advantage of what charge is coming from the alternator.
Also you may find fitting circuit breakers a better way to protect long runs of wire. The longer the run and the more accessories operating from it, the more chance of a short and by using a circuit breaker, you don't have to replace anything after a short ( otherwise it might be a problem if the short occurs in the never never ).
Regards
AnswerID:
72209