Dual batteries, Engel,

You would flatten your battery within the day. All these fridges draw between 2-3 amps so if you only have a 40amp battery then you can work out what I mean.We have so little time to enjoy our land

Only MY personal opinion, but your wasting money trying to set up the laser to run the fridge,,,, if round Brisbane have an older chescold 3 way that MIGHT suit your needs..

"1990 Ford Laser wagon(I'm a mere 4WD'er wannabe). I'm looking at doing my 3rd round Oz trip in this car,"

I'm VERY Impressed! How many klms, how many rebuilds? Thats probably more than 90% of cars on the forum have done - Mine included (while Ive owned it)..

Running fridge for 3 days without running car wont happen.

It cost you $0.00 for the fridge, so investing some coin in the car could be good for you... maybe a triple battery setup! Its been done before, will be done again.. But then if youve done it before without one, and were happy, maybe sell the fridge cheap to me and drink warm beer with the proceeds! ;)

How many hrs of driving will it tae to recharge FULLY? 5 hours, also depends on other things running like lights, radios etc..

you'd probably get better value out of a sealed battery (AGM or Gel) in the boot, as these batteries can handle deeper discharge than wet batteries. They don't like heat so much, so the engine isn't the best spot for them.

BUT you'd need to go for a fancy independent charge controller as it's not good for AGM/Gel batteries to be wired in parallel to wet cell batteries.

Powerdive (in SE Qld) sell 98AH AGM in a N70 size.

My 110Ah AGM for my camper trailer is about 30kg

save money - buy a thumper - connect to fridge and continuous charge from the car . works for me regards peter

I wouldn't have thought you could actually fit an Engel into a Laser, but then I,ve never really looked at one. If it hasn't got a Landcruiser badge on it then it is not worth looking at.

Diesel1

For where you can go sell it and buy ice

I sure truckster will send you a cuple of blocks for it

frank

ps or keep it for when you get a rush of blood and get 4 wheelsCBS
Cant Bl**dy Sitstill

The situation is not as bad as painted by the respondents!
I have a 15l Engel, one of the older yellow models. I find that in cooler weather, around 20C, the average current draw is only about 0.7amp at the warmest setting. which is about 4 degrees C in the fridge. If the night is not hot you can turn the fridge off, which is what we do because it is noisy when reght next to your head. I try to keep the fridge with as much in it as possible and cool this down while driving. This helps overnight.
I have camped 2 nights and nearly 2 full days and used much less than half the charge in my 75AH vehicle battery by turning off at night.
The 29 litre fridge may use a little more than my baby, but I have no extra insulation.
With care you should use no more than 25AH/day even running at night. This means a safe 2 full days on a 75AH battery which is still a reasonable size and weight. 3 days becomes more of a problem
The easiest device I have seen for isolating the auxillary battery is something called VCR, "voltage controlled relay", available from Battery World here in Armidale. I think around $45. Should be at ather outlets also. It is, as the name suggests, a high current relay which connects the 2 batteries when the voltage of the main battery reaches about 13.4v and disconnects at 12.6v.
Deep discharge batteries take longer to charge than cranking type batteries when connected in parallel with the vehicle battery. Don't count on getting more than 80% of full charge into a battery unless on a really long drive. That last 20% is slow because the battery does not accept much current once the bulk charge is in unless the voltage is higher than the 14.2 v which most manufacturers set the system to regulate to. Older vehicles may be set even lower.
Hope this rambling helps. Phil

gee does it get as cold as 20 degrees down south in winter - bugger that - think I'll stay up here - anything below 25 degrees requires a heater

Lukeskywalker
remember that you can't run the 3 way fridge on gas *inside the car*, a 'laser' is still a car? ...... you will have to remove it each time you want to run it on gas.

However, if you are doing a quick drive around Ozz and not camping for many day's at one spot then I would take 2 x good 'Deep cycle' batteries connected via a quality 'battery isolator' and get an 'upgraded regulater' to supply the power to them.

Enjoy your holiday...........