Fridge issues
Our fridge won’t work when towing we have had the caravan serviced and checked everything is working fine so they said it’s the car
we have booked the car in this morning and they have phoned to say everything is working perfectly
Once we put the caravan and car hooked up. The fridge doesn’t work when the car is running.
please can anyone help us sort this problem out?
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Comments
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As Hja comments, plus, did the garage use a test board in your 13 or 2 x 7 pin socket/s. If so I would not be to confident on the result they have given you. They physically need to test the terminals in the socket/s. This is not an uncommon problem.
Colin
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Here is a link to the Witter towing socket guide with details of both 7 and 13 pin sockets https://www.witter-towbars.co.uk/knowledge-hub/towbar-electrics-the-definitive-guide
Just a thought, how are you establishing that the fridge is not working? Sometimes there is not enough power to initially start the fridge whilst the car is idling on tickover. I appreciate this is difficult to test. Is there any chance you could take the van for a test tow to see if the fridge cooled down during the drive. A fridge thermometer could be used before and after to establish readings.
David
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Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. We have the same problem with the Dometic fridge/freezer in our Knaus. After having everything checked on the car - and confirming it's all OK - it turns out that Knaus deliberately do not connect the fridge to the car's 12v supply. I can't remember their full reasoning but it's something to do with the amount of power the fridge draws and the risk - however slight - of a fire.
It is possible to get round it and I know of at least one Knaus owner who has done it - but I haven't bothered.
We have towed for over 4 hours in the height of summer and providing the fridge/freezer has been sufficiently cooled down before travelling, we haven't noticed the slightest indication of it defrosting.
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Can't help exactly but we couldn't cool our fridge down before leaving in our motorhome as it was kept in storage. We had a small freezer compartment in the fridge.
We loaded fridge and freezer "warm", taking items in a cool bag, could be folded small once emptied. I took a couple of frozen home made meals plus a few frozen peas or mixed veg. Fridge was loaded with whatever was left in the fridge plus butter/spread etc. If there was room and we were heading a good distance I would add frozen at home water or juice even milk and pack in the fridge to slowly thaw.
The secret is to pack as full as possible and open as little as possible until its completely cooled down. It is after all a fixed cool box. I believe folk have done long journeys including ferry crossings and not had 'issues'.
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richardandros,
last year when looking at Knaus and Hobby in NL dealers I seem to recall more than one dealer saying the large/tall fridges in some models would not run when towing, as they would demand too much current.
I could not really figure this out as a 80L fridge runs at about 60w and 5 amp. A fridge twice the size could be 120w and 10 amp, so I'd have thought safe. In comparison I believe he 12v outlet you may have in the car boot/back of the car is fused at 15 amp.
Colin
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I had the same problem, I had my van in the dealers to rectify a problem with fridge and when they tested it with their board the said that it was not working connected to the car and that I should go back to the garage which provided the electrics and tow bar. They checked it over and said it was fine, however with a stop start system on the car, the car at times would not recognise that the fridge was connected.The way to overcome this when starting your car with the caravan connected is to switch on as many of the onboard electrical items such as aircon, heater etc for a mile or so which should overcome the problem. To be honest I was sceptical, but since opting for this start up procedure no problems.
I hope this may help.
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Colin
I totally agree with your thinking and I really don't understand what the problem is - unless Knaus are just going totally over the top - H&S wise. They have clearly gone for the safe option.
As I said - we haven't experienced a problem. The fridge freezer is usually on for a couple of days before we go away and Ros insists on taking, what seems like, the entire stock of Tesco's with us
- so both fridge and freezer are full and therefore just act like a huge coolbox whilst we're towing.Even in last year's high temperatures and after four or so hours without power - it's been fine. Had we experienced problems, I would have done something about it - but we haven't.
Richard
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when my 'van was last at a local independent, he informed me that my tall Dometic fridge wasn't working on 12v. I queried it & showed him the fridge auto select 12v when I plugged it into my ML with factory fit towbar .... this then made him doubt his own power supply unit. (he had what looked like a large 110v transformer that took the place of the towcar's electrics)
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I need some help here. A few years back the tow bar mounting and integrity became part of the \mot test. I seem to recall the electrics side was delayed as the test equipment to be used was not able to cope.
Colin
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