Hard wiring the fridge???

[CCFD170]

Does anyone hard wire their fridge to the aux. fuse block? What I am thinking is lopping off the plug on the end of the DC power cord for the fridge and then conecting it straight to the Blue Sea fuse block. It seems to me that would be a better connection. Anyone know of any reason not to do it that way, besides commiting your only dc cord to one vehicle.


thanks Portal!!

 

[wrcsixeight]

Ciggy plugs might be convenient, but they are a poor, spring loaded connection that like to get warm when passing 3.5 amps for any amount of time. My Laptop DC to DC converter with a ciggy plug pulls 6+ amps if I am watching a DVD, and I start smelling hot plastic after a while. I have had the spring inside the plug melt into the plastic, and have replaced the male plug with heavier duty models on many things.

My Norcold front loading fridge's directions said that it should be wired directly to the battery. Since all my (-)'s have to flow through my shunt, this was impossible for me, but I do have the (+) hooked directly to the battery.

I cannot think of any reason not to hook it directly to the fuse block, other than the reason you are aware of and do not care about.

 

[Jay H]

You can get good inexpensive connectors from hobby stores that are meant for rc airplanes and cars, these conctors are solder type, have low resistance and are rated for at least 20 amps. Just put a connector on the fridge, car and a cig plug for maximum flexability. I have used deans connectors, anderson, and terex, they all work well. Its great having stuff hard wired but still being able disconnect it.

 

[1911]

You'd want to make sure that your aux. fuse block is: a) wired to the battery with big enough wire to carry the amperage load of the fridge without voltage drop, and b) the fuse block is always on, even when the ignition is off.

I have aux. fuse blocks in both of my trucks, but on both of them I run the fridge power straight to the secondary battery with 10 AWG wire. YMMV.

 

[CCFD170]

Well I just wanted to say thanks to all for the help! My wiring project is done, at least for now anyway lol!! I ended up running the 6awg marine wire to the fuse block and 12awg to my two 12 volt sockets. I put an aftermarket socket in and then disconnected the factory wire to the stock one and put my own wires to it. As far as the fridge goes I just took the plug apart and attached the wire ends straight to the fuse block with a 7.5 amp fuse (I couldn't find an 8amp blade type fuse). So far all is working great!! <br />
Time for the next project! Hmm what to do?!?! Lol! <br />
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[UglyScout]

I run anderson power connectors on my fridge - it keeps it portable and is a 100% improvement over a cig lighter.

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/multipole-connectors.html

 

[pods8]

I run anderson power connectors on my fridge - it keeps it portable and is a 100% improvement over a cig lighter.

http://www.andersonpower.com/products/multipole-connectors.html

I've recently done the same to my fridge wiring harness with anderson powerpoles:http://www.andersonpower.com/products/singlepole-connectors.html I used the 30amp terminals with the 15/30/45 housing. I can reconnect the stock plug for portability or connect to the hardwired harness.