Installing a fridge

That's a cool idea with the solar panel keeping the battery charged. I'm not up for taping a flexible solar panel to my roof, though if I could mount it to the OEM roof rack, that may be a solution.

 

The most I really get to do is weekend camping. Any recommendations for a jump pack? That is something I do not own.

 

Yeah, that's the one thing I didn't like either. I ended up going with a solid solar panel that I'm going to attach to my cross bars on my shell. Should be quite a bit more durable

 

I'm always missing these darn group buys! lol

 

What solar panel are you running on it? I end up plugging my fridge up to the house power overnight just to be on the safe side if I know I won't start the truck for a while. I am only on one battery right now and already had one incident where the battery died... but I think it was my fault since the fridge was on Max and truck was parked on top of a parking garage in the heat.

I think this is the one that they did the Group Buy one and is pretty popular.

$100 NOCO Boost GB40: 1000A UltraSafe Jump Starter – 12V Lithium Battery Booster Pack, Portable Jump Box, Power Bank & Jumper Cables - for 6.0L Gas and 3.0L Diesel Engines

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...7-b4d4-466b-8c26-2639359664eb&pf_rd_i=desktop

 

Thanks for the info. Looks to be around $97 currently. I'll add it to CamelCamelCamel and see if the price drops.

 

Not a bad price... did you just do like a starter kit through Renogy?

 

That's pretty cool. I don't have measurements in front of me, but I'd think I would be able to mount that to the OEM cab roof rack and run wires down the back of the cab between the cab and my cap.

 

My 50 Qt ARB fridge/freezer is bolted onto my plywood bed base.


There's a 2 AWG cable that supplies power from my auxiliary Optima Yellow Top mounted in my engine bay. 12v Power is supplied to the ARB fridge, bedrail mounted ARB twin compressor and a 12v Electric Fan.


I replaced the cigarette plug on the ARB Fridge with a generic 50A "Anderson" type connector for positive engagement. I didn't want all my perishables ruined in the middle of nowhere because the cigarette plug worked itself loose. Also protected by a 15 AMP in-line ATC fuse.

 

I'm one of those! I've been running everything including my ARB Fridge/Freezer on a single battery setup for over 5 years! Most of these fridges are designed to run on a single battery setup that's why they regulate their power consumption so that it it doesn't kill your battery, ARB has an integrated battery protection system to do this.
I've done 12hrs without turning on the truck many times and when i did my truck always started. The only issue with letting the truck sit for so long without recharging the battery is that your fridge will not be cooling as well since it's consuming less power at that point.

 

My ARB is very quiet and does not get very hot. I think key is to get a well built, good quality (compressor) fridge.

 

What are you guys using to keep your fridge in place? I'm looking at cinch straps but they all seem to be extremely long for this purpose. I think the shortest I can find is 8', which is short for most circumstances, but still rather long for holding a fridge down to L-track mounted in the bed.

 

I installed a 12V outlet into the lid of the small cubby in the bed. It is hooked to a Blue Sea fuse panel in the engine bay, all connected to a 2nd battery.

The fridge is connected and on all the time, set at 25 degrees. I do have a 100W solar panel on the roofrack to keep the 2nd battery topped off. The fridge uses very little power. Even when used with camp lighting at night, the battery is always fully charged by 9am by the sunlight in SoCal.

Fridge is currently held in place by bungee cord.

If you are running just 1 battery, a solar panel is a good investment, enen a portable one. 2 batteries will be an overkilll if running just the fridge.

 

What solar panel are you using? And solar controller?

 

Rynogy 100w Monocrystalline panel and their MPPT charge controller.

 

You do have to drill the side of the panel unless you can make your own Z brackets. Oh yeah, you will void the warranty if you drill any extra hole on the panel...lol. I just used some leftover Home Depot L brackets.

You want some cool points? Drop the panel about 1/2" lower below the cross bars, and you can still use that area on the roofrack in a pinch..

 

Did you get any added noise from the panel? Thx

 

It sits flush with the cross bars and with the front wind deflector blocking the rest, there is no added noise.

 

@dziner you could do a DIY bed slide super easy and cheap. I made one for my off road trailer last week and making one for the Tacoma in the next week or so. I used skate bearings (608zz, ABEC-7), 3x3 angle (.125), 1x1 sq tubing (.090), 5/16 - 1 1/2 bolts a few washers, 5/8 spring latch and done. The nice thing about the slide no more crawling in to get stuff out of the fridge. Wife loves it (shorty). And it bolts from the bottom of the fridge so it makes it a lot harder to steal. Total cost about 50.00.

 

That's funny..... Yup... you never know.