Fridge and Lights not Working in '84 Hiace

Hey Guys,

1st post so I hope I don't sound like too much of a rookie at this.

I purchased an '84 Hiace (converted in the late 80's) a couple of months ago and haven't been able to get the 3 way fridge working while the car is not running.

The fridge works great when the car is running and it keeps things cool for a day or so and it also works great on gas. I tested the battery the fridge is meant to run off and that tested out at 12.4V.

The other thing that throws me a bit is that the internal lights that were installed when it was converted come on occasionally (sometimes when the door is slammed) and once the car has been off for a while they begin to fade and eventually go off.

I'm a novice with electricals and my next thought was to check the fuses, but i guess if it works while the car is on this would mean they are ok?

Anyhow I am looking at getting a portable solar panel to hook up to the battery for when i stay somewhere a few days but this would be futile if the fridge can't run while the car is off.

Any advise would be awesome.

Cheers,

Brodie

Hi,
      Sounds to me like your leisure battery is goosed.

 I know you saw 12.4 V on it but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's fine. 

 If your lights are ok when the engine's running but fade soon after you switch off then that's very likely to be the problem. The lights will draw less current than the fridge, so if the battery isn't holding enough charge to keep them going, it won't run the fridge,  either.
Depending on how efficient your fridge is, how big your battery is and how hard it's having to work to keep things cool you might expect to get a couple of days out of it before having to re-charge but there's a very wide variation in that....
Hopefully that's the only problem...

Cheers, 
              W.

Thanks W,

I'll check out the battery again. Is there any danger in swapping the car battery for the leisure battery for testing that out?

Switched the batteries and yep sure enough the car battery got the fridge going and the leisure battery wouldn't start the car!

Leisure battery is cooked!

Thanks W, saved me a few hundred bucks taking it to an auto elec

Cheers.

Hi,
      A good electrician would likely have checked the battery and just looked to charge you for a replacement. 

 I'd recommend getting a deep-cycle leisure battery, if you can.  Standard starter batteries are not meant to be discharged much and can be ruined by being run flat. Good leisure batteries will cope much better with being Used and occasionally overused. It's still recommended that you try to avoid using more than about half the rated capacity, though, for longest life...

Cheers, 
               W.