wiring to rear for fridge etc!

Post by **familybus** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:24 am

ive got my second battery installed now i want to run enough cableing to the rear for my fridge and two extra lighter sockets, so what would be the best way to do this? i.e 3positives and 3negatives or 3pos and 1neg in fig 8 cable sheathed or maybe an extension lead and pick up of that? the fridge i have is an engel 40lt so i guess with that alone id need decent cabling? please if anyone can help id apreciate it thanks in advance!

Post by **Tiny** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:45 am

Mine is rin with all neg and pos as it is a ute and the tray has rubber mounts, but you would be fine with earthng on the body with a wagon

Post by **Top Cat** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:39 am

You wont be able to earth off the body of the vehicle if this is an isolated second battery dedicated to that stuff at the back.

You will be much better off running one cable for each side (pos and neg) to the back into a fuse box and then distributing from there.

I have no idea what sort of amps your fridge draws but you will need to find out and also get a reasonable idea of what other items your likely to run through the outlets.

If you can provide the info re how much the fridge draws and what other items your likely to use then I can give you an idea of what size cables.

Also rem,ember that you will need a main fuse at the battery side of the cable you run as well..........again size of the initial fuse will depend on the size of main supply cable and its depenadnt on what load is being drawn.

Post by **Tiny** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:02 am

2.5amps for up to and including 40ltr and 4.5amps for the 60ltr and trhe dual fridge compartment fridge freezer (engel/ARB)

Post by **MAVRK-4** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:19 pm

My second battery isn't isolated so I can use the vehicle ground.

Other than that I just run a single 8G Power cable to my fuse box at the rear, off this hangs my 40L Engel on a lighter socket and 3 other lighter sockets.

I run a main fuse just off the battery as a 40A Gold car audio fuse, which should be plenty considering the fridge draws max 2.5A and the Lighter sockets are only good to a max 10A anyway.

All works fine for me.

Post by **RoldIT** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:39 pm

Even if the battery is isolated, it still should be grounded to engine/body.

Single wire of 6mm+ (10 gauge) from second battery to the back then break out from there, either through fuse box or inline fuses to each plug. Put 50 amp circuit breaker/fuse at the battery end of the main cable to the back.

Done, piece of piss.

Post by **familybus** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:35 pm

what would be the best type of female lighter socket be to use in the back for lights etc and where would i be able to get some red and balck 10guage wire sheathed?

Post by **Tiny** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:28 am

familybus wrote:what would be the best type of female lighter socket be to use in the back for lights etc and where would i be able to get some red and balck 10guage wire sheathed?

the marine style plugs are the best as standard lighter socket burn out easily with high current draw. these are available at most auto shops, if you dont know the ones i will send ou details, just ask

Post by **familybus** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:43 pm

its cool thanks anyway TINY i went out and got the stuff today! i bought a 30mt roll of red & black sheathed 6mm wire so i should have more than enough and the rest i might chuck on here for sale per meter at the price i got it for! alls well and ready to install all my goodies!

Post by **Tojo** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:55 pm

keep the spare wire! Do not sell it as you will end up needing some in the future.

Post by **drivesafe** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:59 pm

Hi folks, no matter how good you may thing your earth return is when you use the vehicleâ€™s body, the problem is, and itâ€™s a bigger problem with newer vehicles, but you can have resistance points in the body and you canâ€™t test for it in advance.

If you use the body as the earth return and you have resistance point in the return then it will not only cause a voltage drop but it can also heat up at the resistance point and in extreme cases, they can cause fires.

Any professional installer will always run both a positive and the negative cable for any high current applications, this way they know exactly what the safe maximum current load is.

Post by **familybus** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:12 pm

but with the aux battery you would have to earth it and what im wondering is would it be ok to earth it on one of the bolts on the lifting hook wich is on the alloy head? would it still make a good earth? ive run a black and red wire 6mm (sheathed) wire down each side of the GU to the back and on drivers side ive put the plug for fridge wich ive branched off to lighter socket on my back door and on the oppisit side ive run the wire to a lighter plug with another branch to another socket right at the back! so in a nut shell it goes BATTERY-TRIPSWITCH- FUSE-LIGHTERSOCKET-FUSE-LIGHTERSOCKET. both sides of the car! good?

Post by **drivesafe** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:39 pm

Hi familybus, sound OK and should work a treat. Just a question, what is the trip switch or do you mean a circuit breaker.

Cheers.

Post by **familybus** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:30 am

yeh thats it a curcuit breaker! 40amp outomatic one!

Post by **familybus** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:41 pm

went camping on the weekend and had my fridge and fluros runnin and absolutly great! no probs! except derrrr i turned the fridge down too low and froze me eggs!

missed out on em for breaky

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wiring to rear for fridge etc!

wiring to rear for fridge etc!

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