ARB fridge and a suspected weak Yellowtop battery - advice wanted

[4x4junkie]

Maybe... Though I would still check your wiring first before concluding it's the fridge (too much voltage drop making the fridge *think* the battery is weak).

What gauge is your wiring and how far from the battery is your fridge?

[HillbillyfromAL]

On the Fridge the voltage cut offs are
10.1 Low
11.4 MED
11.8 HIGH
I'll 2nd the checking your voltage drop. You may just need to rewire it with thicker finer wire. Here's a link to ARB's instructions on it.

http://arbusa.wordpress.com/2011/02/...tage-concerns/

If your stuff is factory wiring I'd be it's the problem. Mine is wired up with 12GA low resistance wire like people use for amps/speakers.

[overlander]

Really good point about checking voltage drop that I had mistakenly forgotten to consider in mine.

[Rev]

It is 2AWG run to a fuse block in the trunk, then six inches of 12AWG. The fridge used to run off the stock aux plug in the trunk all day.

Thanks for the link.

[4x4junkie]

It is 2AWG run to a fuse block in the trunk, then six inches of 12AWG.

You'd think for sure that would be enough to work...

Can you check the voltage right where it actually goes into the fridge? (maybe you got a poor ground giving some resistance?)
Otherwise try hooking it straight to a good battery out of the vehicle. If that doesn't work, I would then say it's time to contact ARB.

[Rev]

You know, that is exactly what I was thinking. Will post up afterwards.

[teotwaki]

I would throw in that once you have checked the physical connections see if you can measure how much current the fridge is drawing and what voltage that was at. If things ran fine for a while I am wondering what has changed. My opinion of Optima batteries is low but it sounds as if you were fine for 3.5 years so you'll want to check out all aspects of your system including the alternator and make sure the Yellow top and fridge are solidly connected.

looking forward to your next post!

[Rev]

I don't have much to report because I need to borrow my neighbour's meter and he is at work. However, I did check my connections at the new battery. All was solid. The new battery has a crazy 120 AH rating. I then took the fridge out and inspected my fuse block for any loose connections, including ground. All was well. I had the fridge wired to the aforementioned fuse block as of last week in hopes of curing the problem. So I thought I'd try the aux outlet in the trunk again. It ran the fridge for one minute. Shut off.

I plugged it back into the fuse block and set it to low. It got it from 26 down to 7 in about 20 minutes (empty) and kicked off as it maintained the temp. I turned it off since it was empty.

I hope to test voltages soon.

The weird thing to me is that this problem began intermittently last summer and seems to be getting worse and worse. Did my aux line degrade perhaps? An ever loosening ground?

[Rev]

I know this doesn't make for exciting reading but if only for my own future recollection here is an update. Started the fridge at 7pm and drove for 45 minutes while Plugged in to the fuse block. Parked it until midnight. Fridge was running strong. Now it is not hot outside, but it hasn't been all week and the fridge still died. Perhaps the new battery is a solution after all. Still not sure why it quit after the first install. Maybe because it was brand new it needed to be driven and topped up?

[teotwaki]

Another thought: Inside the fridge cigarette lighter style plug should be a fuse. Check to see if it is intermittent or lossy (should be close to zero resistance) and that the plug is screwed together tight.