Whats wrong with my ARB

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

Just bought a 50 qt (unpacked it last night) and its not working right. Can someone tell me if they have seen this before? Is there something I am doing wrong or is there a fault with the unit? I've rented 50 qt ARB's half a dozen times and never had this issue, the ambient temps are low and my voltage (at the socket and the battery) are fine.

 

[AaronK]

Have you checked the voltage at the fridge? You may have developed a bad ground. Worth checking before going through the process of getting a replacement fridge.

Sent from my OnePlus One using Tapatalk.

 

[rino]

Did you contact ARB or your dealer?

 

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

At the fridge? I checked the voltage at the cig. socket that the fridge (and only fridge) plugs into and it read 12.45V. I rented a 50 about 6 weeks ago with this same setup with no issues.

 

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

I am trying to get in touch with them today, but I wanted to see if this type of error was known round these parts first.

 

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

UPDATE: talked to ARB tech, they seem to think its voltage related...the question is why? I checked the battery voltage under load (I can't check the voltage at the fridge under load) and its 12.4V so unless I'm dropping a whole volt from front to back (which doesn't jibe with my static readings) then the ARB values are either wrong in the book or wrong in the unit IF its low volt cycling.

 

[rino]

Have you tried to connect the fridge to another 12v source in another vehicle?

I have had vehicles where the OEM 12v plug would do weird things with voltage drop and shut the fridge off prematurely.

 

[pugslyyy]

Sure sounds like an issue with the 12V supply to me. I've had to chase these issues before and it can be a real PITA because the voltage only drops down on the circuit when it is loaded. You can simulate the load by sticking a 2 ohm 100 watt resistor into the end of the DC power cord that goes into the back of the fridge (instead of the fridge) and measuring voltage across it.

 

[goodtimes]

I ended up changing the plug out on mine because I could never get a reliable connection with the one that came with the fridge.

 

[Stumpalump]

It will probably run when the vehicle is running and the voltage is up. Factory cigarette plugs don't always run a fridge properly and is why the hard wire kit is so popular. I finally hard wired mine in as well.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I have my theory

 

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

Update again. I had Kurt at cruiser outfitters put a load on the line and...yup...dropped to 11 volts. Culprits:

1. cig is 12 gauge wire (for sure) from the battery to a painless 1 batt hot 3 ing hot kit (cig on the batt hot line) however, the cig was body ground, not run back to the battery. I changed that last night adding a 10 gauge ground to battery
2. I replaced the wet battery with a DEKA AGM, talking with kurt it sounds like the AGM's and the old cruiser alternators don't get along swimmingly, something to do with the charge voltage being insufficient for AGM. It COULD be that my battery just isn't getting a full charge. I tried to order the alternator voltage boost fuse/diode last night but they aren't shipping out of Australia right now (money refunded...sad face)
3. Oriely ran a charge test on my system and it came up with a failed voltage regulator, which is odd since its definitely charging my battery (tested the batter, said it had a full charge) and I've also checked to see what the voltage is across the terminals when the car is running and it started at 14.4 and tapered down to 14.1 so....not sure how the regulator has failed as it seems to be, um, regulating.

In either case, I'm going to run an AGM trickle charger on it this weekend and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Hammerheadfistpunch]

Heads up, I tried to buy that other booster fuse (the 2005 and later version) and they told me they don't ship out of Australia.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Any updates?