Wire size

[skinner41]

I bought an ARB 50 qt fridge-freezer and was wondering if the aux.plug in the rear of a H3 alpha would handle it. Thanks

 

[rsc]

It's probably 18 ga. I burned one out with a tire inflator. I need to pull the panel and see what's up and run some new wires.

 

[Bigunit]

The rear factory plug in won't handle the load from the fridge. You need to go with 8 gauge wire for the ARB fridge. I went with this ARB kit that includes the aux plug in.
http://southernoffroad.com/i-192082...27-12-24v-dc-wiring-kit-for-refrigerator.html

 

[skinner41]

8 gauge seems awful big. The bigger he better!!!!

 

[rsc]

It is a loooong run, and resistance goes up with wire length. I probably would have gone 10ga but bigger is always better. Maybe look into shortening the run by taking the wire from the battery straight back to the left rear corner?

 

[rsc]

I looked into this again today. The fridge pulls 1.38 amp/hr at 12v with a 15a fuse. Running 15a over 15ft of wire requires a 10ga wire to stay within the 3% max voltage loss over the wire run. Looks like 10ga wire is needed. If copper prices were lower I would say use 8ga for future expansion, but 10 is good.