Am l doing this correct
l have a lunar Clubman SB. when l am towing l set the ECU button to on. l have been told to leave the fridge isolated. What l am not sure of is whether the fridge is being fed by the car battery through the charger to keep the fridge cool or do l have to switch the fridge on and select battery. When l have checked the fridge when l have arrived on site it doesn't seemed to have kept the fridge cool,can't find anything in the book only to have the ECU button on when towing, Any Lunar Clubman owners out their that can answer my question, it would be greatly appreciated.
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We never have need to cool fridge when driving. However if we wish to we can switch on fridge and select battery option on the fridge and the fridge will be cooled from battery once the car is moving (above tickover).
We find that a cooled fridge keeps it cool enough without doing so. We don't switch fridge off therefore and leave it set for electric until our next hook up
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Which 'ECU' button is this?
I don't know which fridge you have, but on our previous Lunar, the fridge had a switch with the options of OFF/BATTERY/240v/GAS selecting battery would power the fridge by the car once on the move. My current caravan has an all singing electrickery panel on which I select 'AUTO' & as the setting implies, the caravan finds 12v when I start the car and then cools the fridge.
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I just switch my Lunar to battery on the fridge switch selector, after the car starts it feeds the fridge and definitely keeps cooled on arrival.
Not sure what you mean by ECU button, but when towing all main panel switches are off including the Master switch.
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I don't know about the ECU button bit. On our Bailey, I turn off the master 12 volt button. The fridge a Dometic, pictured below, has two knobs. The right one for temperature, the left for power source. We are currently on EHU, so the pointer on the dial is towards the plug symbol and because it gets so cold the temperature dial is set well up.
If we were traveling I would turn the left knob to point at the battery symbol and the right to maximum coldness, as it is not very efficient on 12 volt. Once our van is connected to the car, the power is switched to from car automatically. It will keep it cold when traveling, but will not do much if the fridge has not been on previously.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think ECU stands for Electronic Control Unit - basically I think it means the unit (ours is near the door) that has the Master Switch, the 'overriding' light switch, awning light switch etc??? I thing the OP may be referring to the Master Switch on the 'ECU'.
Again, do correct me if I've got it wrong, but I don't think the Master Switch needs to be on for the fridge to work while towing the vehicle. Just turn the fridge to the battery sign. Oh! and remember to shut the fridge door. On our current caravan we have a little clip on the fridge that keeps the door slightly open, for when the caravan is not being used/ in storeage. Before now, we've switched the fridge over to battery, when we've picked the caravan up from storeage and forgot to take the door off the clip to shut it properly!
David
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Yes David, on second thoughts it occurred to me also it was the Electronic Control Unit but the 'button' word initially confused me. As I said earlier and you confirmed, the Master switch and all other switches apart from the fridge can be left off, just put the fridge to the battery icon.
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Sorry to complicate the issue, but it is quite possible that the car's towbar socket has only been wired for road lights, and power ( which kicks in only when the engine is running ) for a caravan fridge and caravan battery charging wasn't included when the bar and socket was fitted..
Been there in my caravanning days
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The fridge will not work at all unless you turn it on, and generally you need to select the fuel, so select battery or 12v.
On ours, 2008 Sterling, to select anything the fridge needs to be powered so the panel above our door needs to be active.
Once that is done it is all automatic, When the ignition is turned on there are relays activated both in the car and the van to send the power from the car to the caravan lights, fridge and battery charging, assuming as said that your towing electrics are fully wired.
Vans have what is known as a habitation relay, this cuts the 12v to the lights etc inside the van when towing, but not the 12v to the fridge, so when we stop we have to turn our control panel on again before we can use lights or water pump.
The fridge is powered directly from the car, not via the caravan battery. Generally 12v will not cool the fridge down much, you should have the fridge cool either on mains or gas, beforehand, but it will maintain the temperature already achieved.
We actually find ours very effective, unlike many, and contents are kept very cold even on long hops.
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In the book it states the ECU switch should be on when towing, all other switches off i.e. Charger switch Heating switch and space heater switch, l have looked all through the book and can't find anything about selecting the battery on the fridge, mine is the digital type control, l thought the ECU stood for Electrical Circuit Unit as all the Electrical Circuit Breakers are incorporated in the unit so is the fuse panel. Their is a control panel above the door which has the lighting switch, water pump switch and the LCD graphic control switches, when l hook up to the car and with the engine running a blue light flashes and the LCD display shows car battery selected. The caravan is just two years old a 2015 model, hope this helps.
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Sorry Folks its a PSU Power Supply Unit acromion's not my strong point, at the moment going through the book again, l have had the van from new but due to Family illnesses and bereavement we have only managed 4 outings in the last couple of years, hence not solving this problem. l have read that when running the fridge when towing it only keeps the fridge cool but l am still not sure if l should switch the fridge on and select the battery on the LCD display when towing or leave the fridge isolated
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Sounds like a Thetford fridge?
You must turn the fridge on and select the little battery symbol on the fridge display.
Quite honestly, the newer vans do pretty much all the switching off of things when towing automatically.
We never turn anything off other than the Alde heating, all essential turning off of 12v is done by the habitation relay.
We also have a Thetford fridge, when we are about to depart, OH turns it to the battery symbol and the little blue light flashes as I will not yet have turned on the engine..
Doing that will activate the various relays and the blue light will go to a steady blue. If it continues to flash it is probably not yet getting enough power, try revving the engine a bit and see if it goes steady then.
If so, then all is well.
If not then you will need to check the relays are operating correctly and that power is actually reaching the correct pins on the towbar plug.
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On modern cars with the"smart " alternator it has been found that if the alternator senses that the car electrics do not need power, then they tend not to supply enough power to the 13pin fridge relay ,it is a known problem as verified by Hyundai and Jeep at the show also the ncc are also aware ,a way round the problem for now is to use dipped headlights which makes the alternator push out more power which then will operate the fridge supply
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I have a Lunar Delta. As Heethers has read, the main switch on the PSU is on for towing. Switching this on powers the fridge control panel, but obviously there will be no cooling at this stage.
With the engine running I then select battery, doing it before having the engine running give an alarm.
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After using the MM (if necessary) we turn the master switch to off, start the car and switch fridge to on then battery, cool fridge when we arrive. When using the Harwich/HoH ferry I always disconnect the electric lead from van to car, just habit I suppose
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Thanks CRB Blackbird will give that ago next week, off to Bridlington CC&M. Have hitched the car up to the SF but not towed with it yet just done over 1200 miles, the hook up looked fine nose weight around 8gKg looked perfectly level, will see how she tows against the good old Shoggy
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This is indeed a problem on many (most?) new diesel cars. It can lead to a flat leisure battery if the fridge in powered from that whilst towing as neither the fridge or battery will receive sufficient power.
More information here Caravan Chronicle blog.
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l haven't towed yet with the new Santa FE only had it 2 months, this was happening on the 07 Shogun l had previous. never had a problem with my 2010 Lunar Clubman SE or the Unicorn Madrid fridge was always cold after towing including the freezer. The fridge is a Dometic not a Thetford
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