12v accessory outlet in truck bed for ARB Fridge,etc.

[alexhill2000]

New to working with auto electrical so I want to be sure before I start connecting things or doing unnecessary work. I have a goal zero yeti 400 as well as an ARB 50 fridge that I want the ability to power from the truck bed. Not at the same time necessarily but I want to be able to charge the goal zero via 12v if needed (I have a 60w panel for when i'm staying put for several days). I also want the ability to run the ARB fridge off of the house battery while being placed in the truck bed. I have a 2010 Silverado with a truck cap over the bed so its out of the weather. I may run 12v blower to blow up mattresses, etc.

My plan is to run 10 gauge wire directly from the battery through a blue sea systems fuse block (ST 6 circuit close as I can get it to the battery) and back to the truck bed where I will attach it to the auxiliary plugs. Is there any problem with this method? I went with the goal zero since it was more versatile for my planned use. An auxiliary battery system wouldn't have worked for me and although there are a few other systems I researched I was already invested in other goal zero stuff so it just made sense. Let me know your thoughts and thanks in advance.

 

[calicamper]

Look up the ARB fridge thread I just posted on it very good info about power load by the fridge and what was needed to keep the battery from going flat overnight etc. I don't recall the Yeti using a heavy deep cycle battery those boxes typically use a small Lipo battery system as the source power. What you need to do is sort out how many AMP Hours the Yeti is rated at then sort out how many Amps your fridge will burn over night. Think of Amp hours as gallons of fuel in your tank if your tank doesn't hold enough gallons to get through the night then your set up won't work and you need to re think your power source etc. Sounds like most of the guys having good performance for this type of need are running 75ah batteries with 80-100 watt solar panels in pretty decent full sun locations. Which should be dumping about 3-5 amps per hour of power back into the battery via a solar controller that manages the battery health etc. I think the Yeti box has a controller built into it and you would probably just need to rig up a solar panel to plug into it to help keep it juiced up during the day time hours etc.

 

[Mo4130]

Depending on where you get your info, ARB's draw between 1.5-4 amps depending on environmental conditions and how the fridge is loaded and what not. The goal zero only has like a 33 Ahr battery, which really isn't alot and would run the fridge roughly for 10ish hours, which if you have a nice deep cycle for your house battery, depending on camping duration would be more than adequate.