Ex plasterers to self build camper van here.. Installed an old 12 volt old fridge purchased 2nd hand, powered by 2 x leisure batteries when onsite and plugged directly into camp site hook up. When on site and plugged into hook up, the batteries are charged by Victron charger all good. Also have a 240v circuit charging main battery.

When I installed the fridge I ran power to a switch on the dash of the camper and after a while this appeared to fail so just joined the wires together using. I am yet to replace the switch and just unplug when not in use. Recently I have noticed the 2 connectors get very hot, see photo where you can see the browning of the connectors. Just a few inches moving up the wires the wire is not hot. Any suggestions as to what is going on?

 

Hi Jm.
I would check the crimping method, what tool did you use to crimp the connector tags?
E

 

interesting.. I used your bog standard crimper tool which I have used all over the van conversion..

 

Hi,
As the connectors have been very hot, I would recommend replacing the female crimps on the Blue and Brown wires.
Ensure the stripped wire ends are clean before crimping.

E

 

all connectors were recently replaced... but thanks for the suggestion

 

I think a useful determination would be to measure the current between the two wires. Whatever your fridge should be pulling for current, may be correct. But since you're putting this into a system that might not have been built robust enough to handle the amount of current the fridge is drawing, that might be the reason why your jumper is heating up.

Another reason to consider is that the fridge you bought second hand might be faulty when powered the way you're powering it. Still one more possibility, you might have something wired wrong. I know I've made that mistake a goodly number of times.

Before you start fixing anything determine exactly what the failure is. Then fix that. And nothing else that doesn't need fixing.

 

That crimper is not good enough & is part of your trouble. What is the fridge, compressor type?

 

defo sounds like a connector issue but what connectors do I upgrade to? Ideally a switch of sorts that fits in the dash. I think the ebay ordered switch before was getting hot and then failed which might indicate the connectors on the switch were not good enough.

 

How much current is it taking? They usually have a heater of about 120Watts.

 

I would solder the crimps for a better connection.

 

How much current is it taking? They usually have a heater of about 120Watts.

I need to check.. recently I checked the wires at the back of the fridge and found it was only showing 11.3v