[gillett68]

Thought I'd put some pictures of the drawers and fridge slide I made for the back of my 06 GV. Deep cycle gel cell battery is connected via an anderson plug in the rear and is set up as a dual battery system with solenoid when plugged in. Whole thing is removeable and is tied down with cable ties to the luggage rings in the back. Other mods include 40mm raised king springs and polyair bags.

[DropBear8]

looks pretty schmick did you just put drawers in like bed side drawers? it looks like that cause of how neat they are.
isn't the idea of drawers to be low???so it lowers like the centre of gravity or something like this so cornering isn't hard. anyways i like the look

[gillett68]

i used 450mm runners from bunnings for the drawers and heavy duty 650mm sliders from a cabinet supplier for the fridge slide which extend 100%. I only have heavy stuff in the bottom drawer. Its all camping stuff anyway, I just got sick of taking plastic crates in and out of the back of the car. At the end of the day I probably lost a bit of space by building the box and drawers but its convenient and we have a rack and pod on the roof for the tent, chairs, gazebo etc.

[Navy_mike]

I like it What size fridge and battery are u running??

[dano_mung]

looks like a 30L engel and about a 120ah gel battery.

Hard to tell with the flash fridge cover.

And batteries all look similar at that size.

[gillett68]

dano_mung got it right. it's an old 29L engel and 120Ah gel. Has worked well until this weekend. I think the thermostat on the engel has stopped working as it doesn't seem to be cycling off and flattened the battery which hasn't happened before. The fridge is about 30years old. I bought it second hand from a farmer and its worked well up unitl now. I'm assuming the thermostat can be replaced.

[gv88]

Looks good mate.

[gillett68]

Thanks gv88.
Just to clarify tho, the battery is a 100Ah not 120. I have double checked since the problem with the fridge on the weekend.
In case anyone with an old engel is interested, I spoke to a couple of refrigeration people today and they seemed to think it may be the compressor rather than the thermostat. I was advised that one way of checking was to run the fridge on freeze on 240V and see what temperature it gets down to. I was told if the compressor was working ok it would get down under -15 degrees Cel. If the compressor is shot it wouldn't get much below 0.
The fridge has been running for 3hrs and is at - 16.7 so I figure the compressor is ok. Now to check the thermostat...
I must say I'm not totally convinced the dual battery set up using a solenoid and running 6mm cable to an Anderson plug in the rear is working as well as I might have hoped although its no different to having deep cycle batteries in a camper trailer charging via an Anderson plug. It is an old fridge tho and maybe I'll just have to fork out for a newer one which draws less power.

[Navy_mike]

Why do u say that? are u losing to much juice thru the connections or is it just thru the fridge. Ive just got a new 38 L engel and was thinking of wiring up the same sort of way.

[royce]

I have found the power usage of my Waeco changes hugely depending on if its outside in the shade, in teh car with teh windows up or with the back wondows and door open

It might be an idea to see what sort of voltage you are getting at teh battery after a long drive, lots of people would say your charge cable size is too small and might slow down the recharge time

[gillett68]

No problem with voltage at the rear but I went back to the sparky today who installed the solenoid and wiring and he confirmed that the charging rate (ie the amount of amps put out by the alternater) is determined by the charge of the main battery. As the main battery is nearly always fully charged, the charging rate for the second battery is relatively slow.
One way to overcome the problem would be to install the largest possible deep cycle battery as the main battery, run the fridge off the main battery and keep a second battery charged via the anderson plug to use to jump start the car if (when!!) the main battery is flat. That way the deep cycle battery would charge quickly when the car is running as the alternater would be pumping the full 60 - 80 amps into it (whatever a gv alternater puts out). I am considering that option but I dont think the 100Ah gel will fit under the bonnet and I dont want to throw away $300.
If I was to do it again, I would install the biggest deep cycle battery that would fit under the bonnet as the main, wire the fridge directly to it and buy one of those jump start boxes with the battery already in it. I usually only camp for 3 - 4 days and that would probably work.
Another alternative would be to buy a later model engel which uses significantly less power, so the engel salesman tells me anyway so it must be true. Or go solar... Or buy a bigger 4wd... (love the car tho)
I am going to set the battery and fridge up in the shed and do some tests to see how long the fridge will run under different settings. I'll put the results up if anyones interested.
Cheers

[MacDaddy]

Lookin good gillett68 !

You actually beat me to that idea of doing that in the GV, he he... but mine will be a bit different, the design i have in mind, will be semi fixed, more like a bench seat, with drawers, that i can take out, and sit on at a camping table, made out of 25mm Ally square tube for a frame... but funds are low now, so that been put off for a while...

[gillett68]

thanks Macbear, no reason why we cant put drawers etc in like the big boys.
In relation to my earlier posts, I have tested the compressor and thermostat on the fridge - all ok. Have also checked voltage to the fridge via the Anderson plug and again - all ok. Starting to think the gel battery wasn't fully charged before we headed off (and it was 39 degrees in Perth last Friday!!!). I am charging the battery at the mo in the shed and will run the fridge on the battery once fully charged to see how long it runs. I'll put the results up if anything of interest comes up.
Can confirm the old engel runs at -16.7 on freeze, between -10 and -11 on III, between -3.6 and - 4.8 on II and between 0.3 and 0.9 on I (on 240V with ambient air temp of 24 - 25 degrees).
Navy_Mike if you're still out there, I haven't given up on the solenoid and Anderson plug set up yet despite my previous post and will keep this post up to date once I sort it out.
Cheers

[Chop]

Just out of curiosity, what solenoid you running?

[gillett68]

its a cole hersee

[MacDaddy]

gillett68 wrote:

thanks Macbear, no reason why we cant put drawers etc in like the big boys.

Yeah i agree... the main reason i didnt want to make the drawers a permanent fixture, is that i would like to be able to throw a mattress in and actually sleep in the GV as well, so yeah, a semi permanent draw setup that i can take out, suits me better...
Are you coming to the Big Trip this Sunday ?, as i would like to check out your setup, especially the larger capacity power outlet for the back...

[gillett68]

I cant make it this weekend unfortunately, the wife has already made plans. The trip sounds good tho - the power lines is always a challenge.
I got a bit dirty last time I was there. It took 3 hrs to clean the car and mud is still falling out!!!

[gillett68]

hmmm... I tried to attach a picture. here tis

[MacDaddy]

gillett68 wrote:

I cant make it this weekend unfortunately, the wife has already made plans. The trip sounds good tho - the power lines is always a challenge.
I got a bit dirty last time I was there. It took 3 hrs to clean the car and mud is still falling out!!!

Oh Bugger... its gonna be an awesome trip !

Jeez its been a while since there was mud out there, its dry and dusty now, he he... Mud is my least favorite thing to 4wheel in...

[atari4x4]

MacBear wrote:

gillett68 wrote:

I cant make it this weekend unfortunately, the wife has already made plans. The trip sounds good tho - the power lines is always a challenge.
I got a bit dirty last time I was there. It took 3 hrs to clean the car and mud is still falling out!!!

Oh Bugger... its gonna be an awesome trip !

Jeez its been a while since there was mud out there, its dry and dusty now, he he... Mud is my least favorite thing to 4wheel in...

x7.333333

mud is for people that can't think in 3D...

[gillett68]

Ha!, it was fun - once!!!! I wont be doing it again.

[Navy_mike]

gillett68 wrote:

Navy_Mike if you're still out there, I haven't given up on the solenoid and Anderson plug set up yet despite my previous post and will keep this post up to date once I sort it out.
Cheers

Yer still here, got the thumbs up for the plug and solenoid solution so be looking at it over the christmas break. And looking at that photo i though the mud from LCMP on mine was bad