Thousands of campers, 4WDers and tradies have switched on to the fact that the Adventure Kings 60L and 80L portable fridges represent incredible value for money. However, if you’ve just bought your first 12v fridge then you might be surprised to learn that you can’t just run it all the time, or you’ll end up draining your batteries quickly. 4WD Supacentre sells one of the best ranges of 12v gear in the country, and we’ve put together this essential guide to show how anyone can install a complete 12v system in their car, van, 4×4, boat or caravan that will let you keep your fridge turned on permanently – no matter how much you drive every day. Let’s look at how it all works.

1. START WITH THE RIGHT BATTERY BANK: You need at least one auxiliary deep-cycle battery to run a fridge, because if you run it off your starter battery, you risk the battery being too flat to start the engine again. The Adventure Kings AGM deep-cycle batteries come in both 98 amp-hour and 115 amp-hour sizes. What size do you need? For most people camping overnight, the Adventure Kings 98 amp-hour battery is heaps. But we’re talking the ultimate setup here – so we’d start with two of the 115Ah AGM deep-cycle batteries, and wire them in parallel, with the positive terminals connected together and the negative terminals connected together. This will give you an insane battery bank of 230Ah! Considering most fridges use around 5A per hour at their absolute most, that gives you almost 48 hours of running time without putting any charge into the batteries at all.

   

2. NEXT, THE 12V BATTERY CHARGER: Because you’re running a large battery bank, you need some serious charging ability. 4WD Supacentre stock and have a price-match guarantee on a huge range of the cracking CTEK 12v and 240v battery chargers. In this scenario, we’d run the CTEK D250SA DC-DC charger, and pair it with the CTEK Smartpass120 which can massively boost the charging capacity of your 12v system – up to an incredible 120 amps! That means that even on short drives, you’ll be hammering heaps of juice back into your batteries, and from almost dead flat it’ll take you about two hours of driving to completely fill the batteries again. That’s seriously fast!

3. NOW ADD SOLAR FOR A CONSTANT POWER TOP-UP: Whenever you’re not driving your car or 4WD, your batteries can still be charging if you add a roofrack-mounted solar panel to your electrical system and wire it in so it is permanently connected. Start with one of the beaut 4WD Supacentre steel roofracks to suit most vehicles, and you’ve got a place that you can permanently mount a solar panel. Then, add the solar. In this case, we’d add two of the Adventure Kings 110w Fixed Solar Panels, for one particular reason. These panels come without a regulator, which saves you money because the CTEK D250SA has its own in-built solar regulator. And here’s a beaut little ‘did you know’ fact – the D250SA can handle multiple types of input charges at the same time. While you’re driving down the highway, it’ll be taking the power from your alternator, supercharging it and directing it to your auxiliary batteries. At the same time, it’ll also be harnessing the power coming from your solar panels and putting that into your deep-cycle batteries too!

4. FINALLY, ADD A 240V CHARGER FOR PIECE OF MIND: This next bit of gear is perfect for tradies who spend long days on job-sites, those who camp at powered campsites or those who don’t drive their car or 4×4 every day. Permanently connecting a 240v charger like the CTEK M200 or M300 battery chargers allows you to top up your batteries any time they start to run a little low. Wherever there’s a powerpoint you can be assured that within a couple of hours, your batteries will be full to the brim again, even on hot days with the fridge running all day.

And there you have it! The ultimate never-fail electrical system that you can add to any car, van, boat or 4WD that’ll let you run your fridge permanently. And all the major components listed above are available from 4WD Supacentre! Just add in a bit of wiring and a couple of lazy afternoons in the shed, or a day at your auto electrician’s, and you’re good to go.

And don’t forgot that 4WD Supacentre have a price-match guarantee on the CTEK gear that we stock. If you find a better price anywhere, we’ll match it! Terms and conditions apply, please see https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/terms#ctekfor details.