Re: Charging from tow vehicle

On Tue, 4 Mar 2025 14:20:47 -0000 (UTC),
  Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> wrote:

 On Mon, 3 Mar 2025 21:44:52 -0600,
   sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> wrote:

      ...Seems to me the little juice those fridges pull you'd
 be better off just using the trailer battery and figuring out
 how to keep it charged up.

 
 I would also think the fridge (Norcold N4000) has light
 electrical use, but the 100 Ah LIon battery is down to 80 or
 less after a half day of towing.  I can't think of much else in
 the unit that draws meaningful power while towing.
 
 If I'm reading things right (from web searches), it seems the
 fridge should run at somewhere in the 50-100 W range. 
 Assuming worst case 100 W for five hours, I think that's 6 Ah
 used, so the battery should not be getting drawn down as much
 as I'm seeing.  Maybe my calculations are off base.
 
 On the other hand, I seem to recall that the fridge has stopped
 running after a modest (less than an hour) time on the 12 V
 system.  I suppose I need to check this out further.

So I looked at the manual for the fridge, and it clearly states it
only runs on 12 V if the trailer is connected to a running tow
vehicle.  I guess the next step in better understanding the issue
would be to hook up the trailer and check the battery status while
the fridge is running on 12 V.

 Regardless, it seems pretty clear my Acadia tow vehicle is not
 producing enough juice to help.

If I want to look into getting a DC-DC charger and cable to back
of my Acadia installed, where would I start--is that a GMC dealer
thing, or an RV shop?  Other?

--
Ted Heise      <theise@panix.com>       West Lafayette, IN, USA