12 volt socket for Waeco

Check these plugs out. You need to make some changes, speak to Derek and he will help you. He is an Auto AElec and Fridge guy

http://www.sidewinder.com.au/page26.html

Get it off the factory socket. My 30L waeco burnt out my Prado's cigarette socket within 3 months.

I have a 60ltr Waeco and installed a Narva socket in the rear of my 4x4 and rewired the Waeco lead with 6mm2....in line fuse... and a Jaycar plug and haven't had any issues with it falling out..

It never seems to amaze me, people keep on complaining about this problem and nobody fixes it.

I don't understand why some people think they have to use a cigarette plug or some form of connector when there is a perfectly good plug and socket at the end of the factory cable and the fridge.

When we install fridges in 4x4's (we do it for a living) we cut of the cigarette plug and hard wire the remaining power cable going to the fridge to 6mm sheathed twin core straight to the battery via a fuse.

When not in use you can hide the power cable under the carpet or in wagons in the storage pockets.

Doing it this way solves all the problems of bad connections, plugs getting damaged or knocked out.

If you need to use the fridge in another vehicle spend $20.00 and buy a replacement power cable complete with cigarette plug.


Simple hey!

If the original wire to the cigarette lighter is not damaged in any way, leave this wire alone - unless you want to throw money out the window!

Why?
Because this wire is rated at least 10A if not more (2.5 mm square is good for 20A).

I'm NOT a fridgy, but can tell you frank and free that your portable fridge will draw less current than that.

As you've already discovered, the problem is definitely inside your cigarette lighter plug which has too high of a contact resistance.
F.e. if that resistance was 1 Ohm and the current through the plug was 10A, you'd certainly going to melt the wire's insulation off next to the plug (100W of heat generated inside plug). Heat increases the contact resistance which in turn creates even more heat - a classical runaway effect or viscious circle.
Any plug relies on the contact heat to be conducted away. Even Anderson plugs are rated according to the wire gauge they're crimped to.

So get a 50A rated Anderson style plug (they probably have the lowest contact resistance of them all), and make sure you double up the wire going into the cable well. If it's only a 2.5 mm square wire, you can even try to treble or quadruple the wire inside the wells. Use soft solder which creates an even better heat transfer between plug and wire. This 'thick' wire doesn't have to be very long, only 200, 300 mm or so after which you can drop down to the normal 2.5 mm square for the rest of the wire run.

Hope this makes sense.
Best, mr.batteryvalue

Hi bks

1st solution is to remove the tip from the Waeco plug. This converts it to a hella style plug and you can then plug it into a hella socket. These click together and work quite well.

2nd solution is converting to Anderson plugs. This would require some in-line fusing as you will be cutting the fused plug off.

3rd solution is dedicated Waeco cables hardwired to the vehicles. This too will require some in-line fusing.







Regards

Derek from ABR

The better solution is to use Anderson Power Poles they come in 15-30-45A.
The housing is the same for all amp sizes and the 30A makes a good connection .

You can get a chassis mount unit that can allow two sets of 30A connections from one supply so two appliances can be connected.

They are not as bulky as 50A Anderson Plugs.
Ian