As far as camping gear goes, a quality camping fridge freezer like the Adventure Kings range of fridge/freezers is one of the best investments you’ll ever make in your camping experience! A quality portable camping fridge means you can say goodbye to melted ice and soggy food forever, because you can simply set your camping fridge to the temperature you want, and it’ll stay there – as long as you’ve got the battery power to keep it running.

Many campers only use their camping fridge/freezer when they’re away on a trip, but the truth is you can set up your vehicle’s electrical system to allow you to run your portable camping fridge/freezer permanently, meaning you’ll never have to turn it off again! Here’s how you do it.

1. TWO DEEP-CYCLE BATTERIES TO POWER YOUR PORTABLE CAMPING FRIDGE

The first thing you’ll need to do to create an electrical system that will allow you to run a portable camping fridge permanently, is sort out your batteries! A single auxiliary deep-cycle battery will typically let you power a camping fridge overnight no problems, but we’re big fans of joining two deep-cycle batteries in parallel. That means connecting the red positive terminals together and the black negative terminals together, and then connecting your camping fridge to the pair of deep-cycle batteries. Depending on the size of your auxiliary deep cycle batteries, this will give you more than 200Ah of power – enough to run your portable fridge/freezer for multiple days at a time without needing recharging! This is the key to the ultimate 12v system, but battery capacity is only one half of the equation – you’ll still need to charge your batteries to keep your portable camping fridge running happily.

2. DC CHARGER TO CHARGE BATTERIES WHILE YOU’RE DRIVING

The first way to charge your deep-cycle batteries to keep your camping fridge running, is with a DC/DC Charger. This is a clever battery charger than is powered off your vehicle’s alternator, directly charge into your deep-cycle batteries so you’ve got heaps of power to run your camping fridge/freezer. Modern DC/DC Chargers are excellent because they deliver a high rate of charge – whether you’re driving to the shops, to work or a couple of hours up the highway you’ll be pumping your battery full of charge, to ensure there’s plenty of battery capacity to keep your portable camping fridge/freezer running for ages. But what about when you get to camp and want to continue using your camping fridge?

3. CAMPING SOLAR PANELS TO CHARGE YOUR FRIDGE WHILE YOU’RE PARKED

When you’re at camp, you’ll typically be accessing your camping fridge/freezer every 20-30 minutes! And every time you open your camping fridge, it loses a bit of internal temperature, causing the portable camping fridge compressor to kick back in to bring the internal temperature back down. That’s when your camping fridge uses the most power, and unless you have a way to recharge your battery, that’s when your deep-cycle battery will go flat! There are two options here – either go for a drive to let your DC/DC charger recharge your batteries, or the much simpler option is to simply plug your Adventure Kings camping solar panel or portable solar blanket into your deep-cycle batteries. That way, your batteries are getting constant charge from the sun, and there’ll be plenty of battery power to happily keep your portable camping fridge/freezer running – almost indefinitely, as long as there’s enough sun every day! To give you a rough idea, most portable fridge/freezers draw somewhere around 2 amps per hour that they’re running, meaning your batteries need to supply your portable fridge/freezer with somewhere around 24 amps of power every 24 hours. If you’ve got a portable solar panel capable of delivering 8 amps of power to your batteries every hour of sunlight, that means in about 4 hours of full sunlight the next day, you’ll be able to easily recharge the power that your camping fridge/freezer used to run over the previous 24 hour period. When you think of it like that, it’s easy to see why a portable solar blanket is the best friend of your camping fridge/freezer!

4. A 240V BATTERY CHARGER FOR THE OTHER TIMES!

The final way to charge batteries is one we recommend too – adding a 240v charger to your 12v system. That means when you’re back at home you can simply plug your batteries into a 240v socket in your garage or backyard, and continue to leave your portable camping fridge/freezer running, even if it’s not sunny – and even without driving! It’s that easy to never turn your camping fridge/freezer off again!

To see the full range of fridges and fridge accessories on offer from Adventure Kings, head online to www.4WDSupacentre.com.au to see the entire range and technical specifications, or call us on 1800 88 39 64 to get the best expert advice on your camping gear.