Running Fridge While On The Move.

What do others do? I'm terrified of running the leisure battery flat and worried about using the gas so I've never powered the fridge while on the move.

Liz

Get the fridge cold at home on mains, then switch over to battery whilst running on the journey.
When the vans ignition is switched off the 12v supply will switch off so you shouldnt flatten the leisure battery unless someone has messed with the electrics previously.
If you stop on your journey say for shopping turn the fridge over to gas, but switch back to 12v before restarting the journey.
If you are worried about forgetting this changeover write a card reminding you and leave on the dash, when you have done the swop put it back in the glove box till next time

Hi,
you should have the 12v switch on your fridge switched to "on" (I leave mine on permanently) when you're travelling. It won't flatten your leisure battery as the Zig unit splits the charge from the engine to power the fridge and charge the battery. When you turn the engine off, it switches off the power to the fridge.

HTH
Frank

Thanks for helpful replies, I never knew about the 12v switching off when engine doesn't run. My van lives in the street and not always parked outside the house. But I could get the fridge cold by running the gas beforehand.

Does anyone travel with gas turned on?

elijay wrote:Does anyone travel with gas turned on?

It's not recommended! although I have, on more than one occasion, arrived at my destination to find that the fridge is still on gas as well as 12v due to forgetting to turn the gas off before we left.

Or did you mean the gas turned on at the bottle without any appliance being used? If so then yes! I do it all the time, the only time I turn the bottles off is when I'm changing them or going on a ferry when asked to do so.

Frank

I would turn them off at the bottle, Frank. One wee prang in the region of your bottles while on the move, could result in gas hosing all over the place.

But .... like you and I'm sure many others, I have arrived on site and found that I hadn't turn them off before moving off previously. It's an age thing!!

We always load our fridge just before we set off, flick the 12v switch to On and by the time we arrive on site everything inside is cold if we put stuff in the freezer box it's pretty much always frozen, both the fridge and freezer work really well. Unfortunately we can't put ours on EHU overnight as the fridge won't work on our drive even with chocks due to the slope We have never used the fridge on gas as we have never really needed to, it's on 12v as we drive around then on EHU when we are on site.

BobK wrote:I would turn them off at the bottle, Frank. One wee prang in the region of your bottles while on the move, could result in gas hosing all over the place.

You're right of course, and another wee prang could have petrol spraying all over! but we try not to think of these things

Always look on the bright side

Rgds
Frank

CruizingComet wrote: We have never used the fridge on gas as we have never really needed to, it's on 12v as we drive around then on EHU when we are on site.

You never wild camp then?

Frank

boxerman wrote:You never wild camp then?

Frank

We have on a few occasions, to be honest we have found that the fridge gets cold enough that it will easily keep the food inside cold enough for an over nighter especially if you keep the fridge closed. For drinks we just use long life milk so it's not a problem, if it were then we would just use it on gas but as already said we have never needed to so far

I quite often drive with the gas powering the fridge, mainly when I have not had time to let it cool before setting out. The Autosleeper manual only states that the gas should be turned off when re-fuelling. I can't imagine that the hosing would come loose - maybe only if I did some serious off-roading?

I have never tried starting the fridge with the 12v only, the manual says not to, then again who ever reads the things anyway ......