Ignorance is Bliss!!

I will, I will, I promise! The Waeco Frig does have its own fuse & I thought that would have negated any risk.

Not only a fuse.....but I'm a bit sus about the sparky picking-up the juice from the brake lights circuit etc.....the wiring to these lights wouldn't be heavy enough (IMHO) to run accessories such as a fridge.

I'd be getting a decent size cable run from the battery/ies with a suitable fuse close to the battery/ies.

Roachie

The waeco's fuse will only blow if there's a problem AFTER the fuse.
There really shuold be a fuse as close the battery as practicle, that way, if a wire decides to short out, it will blow the fuse instead of starting a fire underneath.

When I was 18 or so I had a hand held spot light in the glove box of an old Shorrt WB Cruiser that I hard wired from the battery, I didn't bother with a fuse, what could possibly go wrong???
2 months later, i was on the freeway when all of the sudden all this smoke started to come from the glovebox, really thick putrid smoke, stopped in a shorter distance than any ABS equipt car could've and opened the glovebox knowing what had happend.
The old cruisers only had external bonnet catches, so I was able to open the bonnet and cut the wire running to the light, It was easy to spot, it was one completely glowing red, burning everything it touched along the whole length of wire.
What had happened was that the light had rattled agaist its switch and turned itself on, a 100 watt spotlight in a confined space with lots of loose paper and electrical wire coiled up around it made for exciting times for me!!.
I was very lucky that apart from some scorch marks under the bonnet and around the glovebox, no real damage, LESSON LEARNT!!
Shane

If the line sparky has tapped into the break light or tail light power, the circuit is already fused.....isn't it? i would say that this line would be fine for running a waeco that is running well, they usually only draw about 4 amps. I wouldn't try running something that will draw more than this though.

I don't think running with your foot on the brake pedal to get power to your fridge would be all that good an idea. Tail lights globes unless they are LED usually draw about one amp from memory so I would be surprised if the wiring would be capable of handling a 4 amp draw.

C

I am not sure which line he has tapped into but the Barry F has said he has constant power. I know what you mean by the foot on the break thing, but it obviously isny the line that lights the bulbs or he wouldn't have constant power. I bet the fuse on the circuit is probably 10A or at the very least 7.5A which means the cable will handle the fuse amount easily, otheriwse there is no point having the fuse.

Thanks all for your responses. The vehicle is a Mazda BT50 & I have not had a problem with the Frig, & it will freeze if set the thermostat to do so.

The Auto Electrical Co that did the job are reputable & have been in business on the same site for 30 odd years, but I will get it checked out.

Cheers & Thanks

My sentiments exaclty John, there is more risk in running a line from the battery without a fuse then using an existing cable that has been fused properly into the vehicles wiring harness.

Leave it be Barry, ot should be fine. The worst thing that can happen is you blow a fuse and the beer gets warm.

Hi Barry, you also have a BT, i would like to know about where abouts he has tapped into this wire? Left or right hand side, will save me running a dedicated fridge cable that way if its running your fridge fine, surely its good enough for me too.

Cheers mate

The Boss

Hi Boss, He has tapped in on the drivers side. The vehicle is not here at the moment, I had an argument with a fork lift & lost. LOL Anyway its getting a new bumber as a result & I wont have it back until Friday.

If you want more info as to exactly where, MM me & I will check it our for you. The Lense is easily removed, one stud from memory. Cheers

No worries thanks Barry. Will have a look and see what i can come up with.

Cheers

The fridge only draws about 4amps at a time, i have 2 of them running through the controller on my solar panel and the maximum usage even when both fridges are running flat out is about 7 amps.