Without a doubt on how to Fit An Anderson Plug
Charge your caravan’s battery pack or run your van’s refrigerator when towing by fitting an Anderson plug
Exactly what are Anderson plugs?
Into the days that 
are old individuals utilized to operate their refrigerator on gasoline if they had been on the go. Ever since then, we have all visited our sensory faculties and also you ought not to operate gas devices in a caravan whenever towing.
This left us caravanners having a dilemma – just how can the contents are kept by you of the fridge cold when you’re on the road? It is all well and good to hope the refrigerator will stay cool whenever you’re simply travelling a couple of hours, but on an extended drive on a hot time up north, it merely is not feasible.
The solution that is simple assuming your fridge will work on 12V – would be to wire up a 12V connection from your own tow car to your van. Even though numerous wagons have actually a 12v socket in the cargo area, this typically defintely won’t be good adequate to perform a three-way refrigerator into the caravan. The main reason? Voltage drop. The voltage fall across 4mm wire that is automotive the typical in a lot of automobiles – is too perfect for a refrigerator, whether or not it is an consumption refrigerator or compressor refrigerator. Despite the fact that a three-way consumption refrigerator are capable of significantly less than 12V because of voltage drop a lot better than a compressor fridge, it nevertheless won’t cool the refrigerator if voltage during the refrigerator is a lot below 12V. The key is always to pump just as much power in to the refrigerator as you are able to.
The easiest way to getting capacity to the refrigerator in your caravan would be to run at the least 6mm wire straight from the battery pack. And from now on you can get to the grey area that is cable dimension. In Australia, cable diameter is calculated like the insulation. That could be helpful should you want to thread a cable through a little aperture, however for many us curious about about present ability, it really is a little strange.
PRIOR TO STARTING
The rest being insulation if you have 6mm wire as classified in Australia, you’ll actually have a diameter of about 4.5-5mm of copper wire. Anyhow, this core diameter works with with owning a caravan refrigerator when it comes to voltage fall – provided you do not need to run the cable a lot more than about six metres.
In the event that you enable six metres of twin core 6mm cable for a car that is all about five metres very long, you ought to have sufficient cable, so long as the wiring path is fairly direct. In the event that you’ll need similar to seven metres to achieve a corner of one’s car, you will have to increase cable diameter or danger voltage drop that is too much.
As soon as you’ve determined just exactly what length and diameter of wiring you will need, you will have to look at the connection between car and van. The fitment that is standard times could be the 50A Anderson plug. Reasons why it really is favoured include its ability to transport lots of present (whilst it is 50A rated, many fridges draw about 15A) and therefore it gives an optimistic connection.
One other elements needed consist of an inline fuse or even a reset breaker switch and it’s also a good clear idea to match a relay so the plug is just driven regarding the automobile’s circuit that is accessory. This will be to make certain that in the event that you leave the refrigerator on and forget to unplug the Anderson plug for an interval whilst the car just isn’t operating, you do not return to a car having a dead battery pack. Another option would be to suit a twin battery pack system having a switchover solenoid, but that adds cost and complexity.
Term of warning: This How-To is dependent off an older 4WD, some contemporary utes and 4X4’s have actually more complicated energy systems that need professional attention. If you’re not sure or perhaps not confident about making use of our advice, be sure to contact your manufacturer or visit an established installer for assistance.
