How to Determine If My Travel Trailer Refrigerator Can Run Off 12 Volt Power For a 6 Hour Drive

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Question:

As an alternative to running my travel trailer refrigerator in propane mode, I want to add a 1100 watt inverter so that I can power my propane/120 vac refrigerator in the 120 vac mode while I travel. To do this I would run a separate line 50 ft extension chord that I will plug into the inverter outlet and run under the trailer to the refrigerator space. So instead of having the refrigerator plugged into the 120 vac trailer outlet located in the refrigerator space, I will plug it into this extension chord. My concern: the inverter is going to pull about 38 amps off the 12 volt trailer battery to generate the required 3.8 amps of 120 vac to the refrigerator, and I will need my 2016 F250 to recharge the battery as I drive. The F250 generator is the 135 amp size. My question: will the F250 charging circuit be able to handle the 38 amp draw surely not or will the circuit limit the current in the battery charging circuit to something less than 38 amps and simply allow the battery to slowly loose its charge? I do not plan to drive more than 6 hours a day before stopping and plugging in to shore power which will bring the battery back up to full charge over night. Many thanks for your help. Kind regards

asked by: Michael C

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Expert Reply:

This is a difficult question as there are several variables that go into this.

Lets begin with your 2016 Ford F-250. Your factory charge line has a 25 amp fuse so the absolute most power you are going to see at your rear connector is 25 amps. Due to resistance in the wiring by the time it gets to charge your travel trailer battery you are likely looking at 20 amps. Since your refrigerator will not run the entire time the battery will then begin to recharge from your F-250 to replenish the additional power that was taken from the refrigerator.

If you are precooling your refrigerator before beginning your trip then it is only going to turn on as needed which will change depending on if you are using it while you travel and how hot it gets inside your camper. So while your drive is 6 hours your refrigerator could run for any amount of time below that. With campers that have a residential refrigerator the manufacturer will install a 2nd battery to provide additional power to the refrigerator when traveling. This will generally provide enough power to the refrigerator for a 8 hour day of driving.

To fully calculate how long your refrigerator will be able to run off your battery you can determine how much amperage it takes from your battery when starting and what the power draw drops to while it is running. A Multimeter # PT89ZR can be used to determine exactly how much power is drawn from the battery that you have. If you have a 100 Amp Hour battery and your running wattage is 38 amps that you listed you will get around 2.5 hours of run time off your battery alone. This may vary depending on the exact amperage pulled and condition of your battery.

expert reply by: Bud M

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How to Determine If My Travel Trailer Refrigerator Can Run Off 12 Volt Power For a 6 Hour Drive

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