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Portable fridge
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Posted by prairieclover (My Page) on Thu, Aug 31, 06 at 10:38
Does anyone know of a good portable fridge? I'm looking for one that does not run off the car battery, but rather a seperate 12v battery. Is there even such a thing? I just realized that buying ice while camping is costing us at least $35 for a two week camping trip, that's just too much money to spend to keep the ketchup and mayo cold!
Thanks for the tips.
PC |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Portable fridge
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| prarieclover, the ones that run off the car battery will plug into a "auto booster" that looks like a lunchbox and retails for around $ 50.00 at WallyWorld. It's portable and recharged from the wall or through your vehicle. Although they look small inside, they don't waste room on ice. What we do is use dry ice (buy it at the "factory" or from a grocery store) for the frozen marinated meats and a smaller cooler with wet ice for drinks. Hope this information will help. |
RE: Portable fridge
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PC
It would be a little more helpful to know the type of camping you do and what mode of transportation you use before suggesting anything. |
RE: Portable fridge
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We do mostly car camping. We have a small 1970's bare-bones pop-up tent trailer. I'm looking for a small fridge that would hold a bit of fresh meat milk, cheese, and some condements. I don't want one that plugs into the car battery via the ciggarette holder because we already use that outlet for the CD player (older car too).
PC |
RE: Portable fridge
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| May wish to look into Battery Isolator Kits. They can be gotten for around $30 and up. They connect to the cars alternator with one wire. Then a wire is ran to the battery that starts the engine. The other "aux" side goes to an auxiliary battery that can be used to run the fridge or any other 12 volt products from cell phones to 12VDC/120VAC inverters. With these systems. Your cars starter battery will stay fully charged. While the auxiliary battery can be used until it is dead. 
They work best when used with two batteries rated at the same CCA (cold cranking amps). |
RE: Portable fridge
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| Sorry, I couldn't paste my photo of the Solar-powered Yugo and its 300-square-foot collector grid, but I would stick with Hippy's option for serious power reserve. |
RE: Portable fridge
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Why not get a large solar panel, mount it over the camper while driving, to keep a battery charged in the trailer. then at night, before setting up, turn the panel up, lock it in place, set up the camper, and enjoy yer beer, etc.
but--be prepared to answer lots of questions! |
RE: Portable fridge/ charging the aux. battery.
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Just thought of several other ideas:
Rig up an alternator to be driven by one wheel of the trailer, via a rubber wheel running against the tire. Or, mount an alternator on a platform, with a fan on it, to be run by the air you pass thru while driving along! You'd have to make sure it turned the correct way, to charge the battery! And, have something to shut off the charging when battery was fully charged! Didn't some airplanes have a wind driven generator, mounted on the outside of the plane?
Rustyj |
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