Thetford fridge

jbrinks · Senior Member

Thetford fridge

deverall11 · Guru

Four things:
1) According to most manufacturers, 12v is meant to just keep the temp.
2) If you do not have a wire thick enough (anderson plug), there may not be enough juice going to the fridge
3) Most vans are wired so that the Anderson plug feeds the house battery and the fridge feeds from that. I found that by running he fridge directly from the Anderson plug there was some improvement
4) Our previous van had an analogue Dometic. This worked fine. Our new van has a digital Dometic which is hopeless. Sometimes new is not always bettre then old.
Larry

oldtrack123 · Guru

Hi

The 3way fridge should have it's OWN 12V supply direct from the tug batterry using heavy cables [with a VSR or igntion controlled relay in the POS line to prevent discharge of the tug battery

With it coming off the same feed as the van batterry the van battery is unlikely to ever be fully charged by the alternator

& the fridge will be very unlikely to recieve the minimum 12V required for proper operation

Of course if it not installed to the fridge makers instructions it will never work as intended

Sadly very few are correctly installed.

Google OR search on most RV forums & you find many many instances & methods of improving

PeterQ

PeterD · Guru

deverall11 wrote:
3) Most vans are wired so that the Anderson plug feeds the house battery and the fridge feeds from that.

A lot of switched on people who frequent forums may do just that but very few manufacturers do. Jayco certainly dont so that rules out at least half the vans out.

jbrinks I would check the voltage at the input to the 12 V terminals on the back of the fridge with your motor running. I will bet pounds to peanuts that your wiring is deficient. For starters the wiring in your van will not be to Thetford's or Dometic's specification. What did you ask for when you had the trailer socket installed on your tug? Did you specifically ask for a hot wire for the van fridge? Did you specify that 6 mm2 or 8 mm2 cable be used for the hot wire? Most towbar installers don't realise that you need thick cable.