Rusty Panels
Well-Known Member
Sorry, I may have misunderstood. I saw no mention anywhere of the fuse to the fridge which is what I guessed was the one in question.
Hi, I would personally go with the heavier wire option. As the previous replies said most electrical problems are faulty connections and in particular bad earths so unless you can ensure that your earths are spot on run twin cable.
The main reason for the heavier cable is that you may want to use that power source for other accessories at some point so, go bigger.
As far as fuses go the fuse is there to protect your equipment and wiring. If your fridge has a starting current of 10 amps then a 15 amp fuse will suffice. Check the manufacturers recommendation for the fuse. DON'T put too heavy a fuse in the line or you will cause catastrophic damage somewhere if a fault develops.
I'm sorry Gents if I sound like a Smart Alec but the mentions of 50 amp fuses in a few of the replies scare me a bit. You can't run fuses of that size safely in a vehicles accessory circuits. Things like winches and starter motors draw a lot of current which can be in the hundreds of amps depending on what it is but, generally the other gear like headlights, ignition systems, demisters etc might pull up to 20 amps for the initial start up but then drop back to around 10 amps or less once they're running. You won't normally find anything much larger than about a 20 or 30 amp fuse protecting those circuits. Like I said the fuse is there for protection of the circuit putting in a larger one just defeats the purpose and can be dangerous. Cheers.
I agree with your explanation but I think that some people (AKA the majority of do it yourself people) will not realise that individual items need smaller fuses in the line and may think that the 50 amp will be sufficient. Which is probably why I get myself into strife with my rants on some posts. I try to explain things as if I'm talking to a complete newb. Sorry if it is taken the wrong way.Some of the reasons for 50amp fuses is for the main power supply from the starter battery to the aux battery which may be located under the bonnet or in the rear of the vehicle. Then all additional accessories will have their own fuses to suit.
Or from an aux battery which is mounted under the bonnet a heavy cable is run to a fuse box at the rear of the vehicle it has a larger fuse to protect that cable if damaged or overloaded you can put a fuse at either end if you desire but not necessary. Then each item run off the fuse box has it's own fuse to suit. Nothing wrong or unsafe with either set ups you may have missunderstood what some people were saying none of them are just using a single 50amp fuse to protect one item for eg their fridge.
Bingo.
My advice is to use the heaviest cable that fits and you can afford. You may want to run an inverter, lights etc later.
I ran 2B&S to the rear of my vehicle, for charging the camper, with a short length of 8B&S to the fridge / HF radio and accessories sockets. Some may say overkill but I'll never have to worry about voltage drop or running another cable.
I figure there's nothing wrong with over-engineering something. I do it all the time and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling!.........................When someone tells me I have over engineered something................................
Just reviving an old thread instead of creating a new one...
Question on cables and fuses...
I’ve picked myself up a shiny new Dometic 55l fridge... looks to be the goods.
Going to clip the ciggie plug off the end of the power cable and replace with an Anderson.
What are suggestions on the fuse that’s housed in the ciggie plug itself?
I definitely want to fuse that run of cable as I’m no engineer and why mess with the professionals design.
Now do I wire in a glass fuse holder and use the 10amp glass fuse it came with?
Or alternatively just wire in a blade fuse holder with a 10 amp blade fuse?
Any major difference in running either type of fuse? I’ve heard that glass fuses take longer to blow while blade fuses blow quite quickly... I could be wrong as my source is definitely not a sparky...
Cheers all,
Brian
I’m currently running a 100ah deep cycle under the bonnet. 3m run of 6mm twin core to an older waeco fridge outlet unit that has a ciggie and merit socket. 20 amp fuse at the battery. I’m removing the waeco outlet and replacing with an Anderson.G'day Brian, once you cut the ciggie off and use anderson where is your power coming from? Ideally there would be a fuse close to the battery in the power lead to your fridge, you may not need another with the new plug- or I would solder in a wedge type fuse holder to the new plug-I'm not a sparky either, just like the pretty colours the wedge fuses come in![]()
Yeah that’s my logic.Im not a spary but so long as you dont go over reccomended fuse rating...knock yourself out with an extra one...cant hurt
Have enjoyed reading this thread, and have a simple (I hope) question along the same theme - If running 6B&S cable down to the back (Prado 150) with the intent to terminate at a 6 way fuse block - to run a fridge, a couple of cig points, USB etc - what lugs do you use to terminate at the fuse block? Asking as most fuse blocks I've seen only have a 4mm stud, and I can't find a cable lug that accepts the cable, and has a 4mm mounting hole. I'm still a novice at this, but I'm old enough to take whatever answers come my way. Thanks.
Have enjoyed reading this thread, and have a simple (I hope) question along the same theme - If running 6B&S cable down to the back (Prado 150) with the intent to terminate at a 6 way fuse block - to run a fridge, a couple of cig points, USB etc - what lugs do you use to terminate at the fuse block? Asking as most fuse blocks I've seen only have a 4mm stud, and I can't find a cable lug that accepts the cable, and has a 4mm mounting hole. I'm still a novice at this, but I'm old enough to take whatever answers come my way. Thanks.
Thanks for that. Makes a lot of sense. Have seen pics of Anderson plugs with multiple cables but never gave a thought as to why. Need to sketch this all out I think.What I do is maintain the main cable to the Anderson plug for the fridge but piggy back a smaller cable out of the back of that plug to feed the fuse block for your other smaller accessories
You want to maintain minimal connections between your battery and your fridge and not compromise the cable sizing in the process