Refrigerator in the truck
 

I recently had an inverter installed and I just bought a refrigerator to put in the truck, but I was wondering, for those of you that actually have a mini-fridge in your truck, is it okay to leave the fridge/inverter on if you park the truck for a few days? Or do you have to take out all the perishables and turn it off so the batteries don't run down? Thanks

Norcold makes a frig that gets mounted into the truck, and does not take much "juice" to operate. If you bought an inverter, you'll find it best to turn the inverter off when the truck will be parked for a couple of days. That is the inverter alone. Now add the current draw of the frig, and in a few days you may the inverter and the frig operating, but the starter may be a bit reluctant. Lazy, even.

Some years back, the truck I drove with a Norcold unit, I forget to turn it off several times with no ill effects on the starter. But, the 1/000 watt inverter I have in this truck will give me a problem by itself. Even with nothing plugged into the inverter.

You can try experimenting, but I would suggest removing the perishables and turning the units off.

Unless you have 20 batteries hooked up to your truck, your fridge eventually will drain the batteries. If I am going to be gone for more than a day and a half, I will either eat up all the food before I leave the truck parked or take it with me.

That's kinda what I figured. I'm usually home on the weekends, so I won't be putting a whole lot of stuff in the fridge anyway. Guess I'll just turn the inverter off and take out whatever is left.

Do you have an APU ? If so all of them have a Low Battery / Start you can set up. Also if you have a four battery setup you can get an Isolater that will let the two batteries your inverter is hooked to go down but maintain your starter batteries as that is how the truck is wired anyway. two batteries are for start two are for running stuff just have to stop the inverter draining the start side.

I have been looking for one of those do you have a link or can you point me in the right direction?

I put one on the little truck when I first got it, before I had the Tri Pack put on. I got it from a battery store in Tampa, can't remember the name, but most any large battery store should have them. Or might try a large golf cart dealer, they are wired so that one battery goes dead first so you now to head for the 19th hole :)

Mike - you can get a battery isolator just about anywhere. A good place to find them would be auto parts stores or RV dealers.

Just be sure to get one that's strong enough to handle the amperage that your alternator puts out. Also, you only need a 2 battery isolator, no matter how many actual batteries you have. Think of it more as a 2-system isolator.

Here's a couple links:
http://www.jcwhitney.com/Battery-Swi...FQQRswod6DmW-A
http://www.powerstream.com/battery-isolator.htm

I didn't think about an isolator. The company shop guys installed the inverter, so I'm not sure if it's wired with an isolator or not, but that's a good idea. They have started outfitting some of the trucks with APU's, but unfortunately I'm still in line for one.

Isolators normally aren't installed. My shop said they'd install one for me and change my batteries to 3/1, with 3 being for the truck and one for the inverter.

My last mentor had a 2006 or 2007 KW T2000. He had a mini fridge in the truck, and not sure it was something he put in himself, or if it was standard equipment. Either way, he told me on the first day i was in his truck, "...this switch here, powers the fridge...it never gets turned off..." And for the 4-5 weeks i was on his truck, it never got turned off. and we never had a problem with the truck not starting.

As far as your inverter goes, one thing i remember from when i worked in a truck stop, was the shop guy there telling me that just because you had a 1000 watt inverter, dont mean you can run several items that would total 1000w. You will greatly reduce the life of your inverter, and might pose a fire risk. If you have 1000w...i'd run it up to about half capacity. You will get the most use out of it, and you wont have to worry about fire..................unless the guys who install it are complete idiots.

I have an 5 cubic foot(IIRC) dorm sized fridge/freezer.
It runs the batteries down to the low warning level in about 8-24 hours.
Depending on how hot outside it is.

I also have a Blackrock APU, it's junk and loud as a reefer.
Get the Tri-Pack.

Many if not all of the actual 12v fridges have built in low voltage shut downs.

A few inverters have it also, but most do not, and dorm sized 110v fridges certainly don't.

IMHO, if the truck is going to be shut down more than an hour or two you should power down your inverter.

I have Coleman in my truck picked it up for 80.00 bucks at walmart. Ive already had to replace the fan which i picked up for a few dollars at radio shack.

glad I am not the only person having this problem, I've been through 6 or 7 of them before I finally decided to take one apart to see what the problem was. once I figured out how it works, a better quality fan should make it last longer.

this is probably your best bet, when they work they work great, cools down to 35 degrees. if you plan on sleeping with the truck shut off and it gets down to 40 or below, unplug it because it will freeze whatever is inside.

I ran a fridge off a 1500 watt inverter in my 2005 Freightliner and never had a problem starting after a normal weekend (34-48 hrs) parking, but I did have to get a jump start a couple of times when I'd left the truck for a four day weekend, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was upgraded to a 2008 I could still fire up even after four days downtime, so I blame the problem on the age of the batteries in my older truck.

Or perhaps the problem was the DRIVER who ran them down?:lol:

Every time you completely discharge a lead-acid battery, you significantly shorten it's life! If you let it happen, they'll NEVER be as good as they were before. The only way to fix this is to replace the batteries...which happened when the rest of the truck was replaced...

I strongly suggest not letting this happen to your new batteries!!!

That's entirely possible, but if so, the damage was done before I got the truck. It was issued to me used in January, 2007 and the previous driver had had an inverter installed, removing it when he left. I used a Coleman 12v cooler for the first six months or so until I got tired of throwing out food and replacing fans. That Thanksgiving was a four day weekend and was also the first time I needed a jump.

Whatever, seems to me it would be simple, cheap and better for all concerned if the company would just run a little wiring around the drop yards to run trickle chargers, but of course I'm talking about the same outfit that would rather pay a tow truck to come out to their Atlanta facility 3-5 times a week to pull tractors out of potholes than to invest in the few loads of gravel it would take to fix the problem. Our motto: Save Money At All Cost..