Postman Pat delivered the Chinese ‘knock off’ copies of the 50A Anderson Plugs I’d ordered. There are people who will caution you against purchasing these Chinese replicas warning they may melt or catch fire. Of course most of these warning come from the sellers of the original (expensive) plugs. Our imitation Anderson Plugs will never carry a 50A load so that risk is almost non existent.
I soldered one of the plus onto the end of my fridge adapter and then connected it to the Anderson Plug previously fitted into the back of the 4x4.
But not before using the multi-meter to confirm I had the polarity correct. Because the wiring for the fridge goes via the Voltage Sensitive Relay (VSR) I needed to start the engine to raise the alternator voltage above 12.8V. This ensured the VSR activated. The LED on the Engel fridge plug illuminated.
Then I pulled out the fridge slide to check the fridge was operating.
Now we can go food shopping without having to hurry home before the frozen food defrost in the heat.
2 comments :
My only thought about the cigarette lighter style socket and plug is that when you venture off tarmac the vehicle vibration may allow the compressed coil spring in the plug to overcome the friction of the side contacts in the plug, pushing the plug out of the socket, to the extent that the plug central contact fails to make good contact, disconnecting the fridge.
I was thinking a velcro cable tidy strap could be configured in such a way as to become a mechanical lock.
Put this another way, I had the plug from a GPS receiver work its way out of the factory socket, and didn'tnotice it until the GPS internal battery was so flat the receiver wouldn't work even when the plug was reinserted.
Regards.
Yes, I also though of that possibility David and currently have the plug & socket wedged in place whilst I think of a more permanent solution. I'm not sure it's a major issue because the plug was vertically inserted (from below) on the boat and never vibrated loose.
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