The first time I ran the fridge on my 2017 Triton 12v on a long tow I found that it had defrosted and clearly wasn't doing a great deal.

That was about a 5 hour journey - hadn't done that long before.

Over on Facebook it was suggested that it may be related to an issue with Smart Alternators where - to put it in a nutshell, the alternator thinks the car battery is fully charged and so not enough volts get to the fridge - so it stops working...........at least that is what it sounds like.

Does this sound like something other Eriba owners have come across?

Some discussion here

Smart Alternators

Thanks for the link. It may be I'm tackling this the wrong way round.
First of all I need to establish that my fridge works at all on 12V - without hitching up and towing around the countryside.

So, simple solution would SEEM to be to plug in EHU and just switch the fridge dial to 12V - but I'm a little nervous that this may cause problems.
I could just switch it on to 12V with nothing charging the system but have no idea whether the battery will last long enough to make it work - it's a new 95 ah Varta. As I don't think this fridge has a compressor I guess it would be OK like that.
Or, I could set up the solar panel and switch on the fridge to 12V and see what transpires.

I've ordered a 12v LED meter to plug into the cigarette lighter socket on the car to see what it's doing normally. I don't have regen braking, nor do I have stop/start so it may just be down to voltage regulation ignoring the caravan.

Zitat

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So, simple solution would SEEM to be to plug in EHU and just switch the fridge dial to 12V

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If wired correctly the fridge should only operate on 12v from the car alternator when in transit so should not work on 12v on hookup.

All jolly useful - thanks for the info and links.

Illuminated rocker switch sounds interesting - don't recall that - but it was a few weeks ago.

Once I'm back on my feet I'll have a fiddle - carefully!

Smutty

Quote: rambling robin wrote in post #7

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Illuminated rocker switch sounds interesting - don't recall that

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Sadly its a 53xx series - 2 rotary dials with gas operation indicator like the recording level indicator on reel to reel tape recorders years ago.

I had paid extra special attention to the mode selector as on the previous journey (only 2 hours) I had failed to switch from mains to battery - but nothing had thawed out at all.

I discovered that when we got home but reasoned that as the fridge was down to 1C when we left it was unlikely that it would have defrosted. I recall thinking that perhaps there was some kind of magic selector somewhere had automatically grabbed the next available live supply i.e. car link, and just used that instead.

The light in the fridge comes on no matter what mode is selected - so I guess that is no indicator as to whether the individual source is live.

Gas operation is a bit suspect. I've only tried it once and that was in the very very hot weather in June. After 3 hours the fridge was down to 10C and the air coming from the vent was very very warm. I had the vent cover off to try to improve air flow. I gather the use of a couple of 12v computer fans is the answer - but that seems a little odd given that 30C plus is the norm in large parts of continental Europe in the summer. However, that's a different issue.

I hope that by testing pin 10 I will be able to determine whether the fuse in the Kia is at fault??? assuming that no volts = blown fuse.

Yes, it's the RM5330 - I must brush up on my fridge identification (the 8xxx series is the newer 80 litre version - yours is 70 litre)

Pin 10 on the 13 pin Euro socket should show around 14V with the engine running above tickover. Test this pin with respect to pin 11 (earth).

Oh well - that answers that - constant 13.8v on the cigarette lighter up to 2000 rpm / 60 mph normal driving with lights on or off.

Tested pin 10 to 11 at 1500 rpm - nothing, not a flicker.

Pin 11 is earthed correctly so the 'dedicated harness' obviously wasn't. Either that or there's a blown fuse or dodgy relay. Trouble is the company that fitted it is 50 miles away so I guess I'll just have to hunt down a local fitter of quality. Anyone got any recommendations for good company in Wiltshire??

Managed to locate a local mobile fitter who knows what he's talking about. Interesting thing was all he needed to ask was whether there was a beeping noise from indicators when the van was being towed....anyhoo, yet more money and a new harness should fix that

Discovered another reason why the fridge has cooling problems. When you close the door slowly you can see that the bottom corner hits the frame about 8mm before the top of the door. The result is that the top corner does not seal the join - you can slide a bit of card in the gap. The seal does its best but there's just too much distortion. If the travel lock is used then it does close OK. Add to list of faults for first warranty service next spring.

Well, that was an education. Mobile guy came and had a look at installation.

Removed fuse box cover and there was the wire leading from the fusebox to the back of the car to provide fridge and battery charger power.

Single 1mm x section wire with a single 10 amp fuse! The fuse hadn't just blown - it had MELTED.

Stripping back the installation followed the wire over a number of sharp metal edges where it was trapped by various bits of plastic and seats. In a couple of places the insulation was already worn through.

Needless to say new harness installed and correctly supplied from 2 points on fuse box with correct fuses and 2.5mm x section wire wire.

It works now.

I suppose I should go back to the original fitter and raise merry hell since this was a potential fire risk at the very least, but I figure that anyone who is useless enough to do such a crap job to start with has no self respect in the first place - so what's the point.

AL said they've not come across a fridge door fault as described - added to list of wty items for first service in April.