Dometic Fridge

[James Cooke]

Just purchased a 15' Trillium with a power converter. I have everything working except the refrigerator working off the cars 12 v system. All the 12 v lights work in the trailer from the car but the fridge does not. Should it? Is there a separate line from the car that runs the fridge. I have a blue and a yellow not connected but they are supposedly for import cars and power brakes. How do you run the fridge while travelling? Can you run the propane while travelling?

[Joe MacDonald]

most of us would not recommend running the fridge on propane while driving.
the fridge should be runnable on DC when travelling, you need to find out what wire in the harness powers it.
On my 5500, it is the from the main positive at the converter in the camper, this wire is also hot when plugged in to the tow vehicle.
the 12 volt on a fridge takes a long time to cool down. I usually cool the fridge down for a couple of days before I leave, making sure the freezer is full of water bottles, these keep the fridge cool while I travel.

The blue wire is indeed a Brake wire, the yellow is generally used as an Auxilliary power feed or a back up light wire.

Trace the 12 volt back from the fridge through the converter and make sure you don't have a blown fuse.

Joe

[James Cooke]

most of us would not recommend running the fridge on propane while driving.
the fridge should be runnable on DC when travelling, you need to find out what wire in the harness powers it.
On my 5500, it is the from the main positive at the converter in the camper, this wire is also hot when plugged in to the tow vehicle.
the 12 volt on a fridge takes a long time to cool down. I usually cool the fridge down for a couple of days before I leave, making sure the freezer is full of water bottles, these keep the fridge cool while I travel.

The blue wire is indeed a Brake wire, the yellow is generally used as an Auxilliary power feed or a back up light wire.

Trace the 12 volt back from the fridge through the converter and make sure you don't have a blown fuse.

Joe

Thanks Joe. It may well be that I did not leave it long enough to cool down. Only 1/2 hr.

[Bud Kennedy]

When I installed my new 3 way fridge I added a 30 amp fuse directly off the TV battery. From there I ran #10 wire ( pos & neg )back to the taillight area in the TV. There I addad a 30 amp relay in the circuit. This relay coil is connected to the running lights of the TV. From there the wire goes through a new 7 way connector to the fridge in the trailer.

No other 12 volt scource is connected to the circuit as you never want to run the fridge off the egg battery as it will run it down quickly.

When travelling, the fridge only runs off the van when the lights are on thereby assuring that the TV battery is never left connected inadvertently. Still, I always unplug the egg when setting up just in case.

When getting ready I run the frig off the 115 ac for a full day taking care to first add something of voume inside. I also freeze anything I can in the home frig and add this to the camper frig immediately before departure. With this method, my frozen food is still mostly frozen two days after departing.

[Alf S.]

Hi: James Cooke... When I added a battery system to our former Boler I had the RV Tech. put a fuse link/hot wire thru the Taurus. This powered the fridge via the 7pin connector on 12V while towing and worked best while moving due to wind flow past the exterior vents. It was good enough to freeze food while in tow but you don't want to be hooked up while the Ladies are browsing at the Outlet Mall!!! CAA+RV is good to have !!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie