Fridge in back of ute?

My mate had (sold the ute now) had a Engel permanantly on the back of his Navara ute, rain, hail, shine, didnt have it covered except for the transit bag. The old girl was on there for years, fridge still ticking over today, I personally have a waeco but goes to prove how good the engel fridges are, dont know wether my weaco would cop the pounding his fridge has. Not sure but wern't the first of the ARB fridges made by Engel anyway ?? For memory the new ARB are made out the same stuff the waeco's are ?? Cheers Steve

If its an Engel keep it plugged in and swithed on-----go forever!

Hi Chasers.

I have an Engle in the back of my ute. When travelling have it connected to the 12volt. When camping leave in rear and connect to a deep cell battery. Recently when to Birdsville in high temps and the engle didn't miss a beat. Works just as well in the sun.

Cheers Steve.

Hi Tony

I have an 12 year old explorer fridge / freezer that sits on the tray of my 100 series, I have a 80 watt solar panel mounted between the roof rack over the cab section that is hooked up to a 105amp hour deep cycle battery.

The fridge never gets turned off. I hook up a charger over night on the weekend to top the battery back up.

The explorer is aluminium and is extremely solid, not sure if they still make them but if you can find one they are a great fridge.

Cheers Scott

Hi Tony

I think I know what you mean. Yes the fridges will get a bit hot out in the sun if it is just sitting on the tray of the ute. I believe most compressor fridges of that like can only cool to 45deg below ambient temperature. Being this it might struggle if out in the noon day sun on an extreme day.

I had the experience of traveling in the Northern Territory during summer with an engel in the enclosed tray space. We had frozen our food and hoped to travel for a few weeks but the heat was pushing 50deg and our food defrosted. We where just coming down to WA on the hwy. So that was in the shade and we had a transit bag on the fridge as well. The gear was packed in so might not have been enough room for air to circulate well enough to allow the fridge to work a bit harder.

The fridge will cope with lots even out in the environment on the tray but with a transit bag and maybe a little doggy shelter your fridge wont have to cycle as much and obviously draw less power. Plus leave room for air to circulate where the vents are out the back.

Cheers

Serendipity

Yep, similar to Serendipity. Engel works well as a fridge under tonneau cover, but not so well as a freezer. The cover sits flush on top of the lid so gets the sun directly onto black material. I make sure there is breathing space around the fridge vents but apart from that there can't be much circulation yet it works well.
Since then I have a cargo rack built on the tray which has ply on top to provide shade so the fridge has it easier.

www.haierfridge.org