JP30 Installation: Ah Thinks Ah Needs Mo' Power!

The_Rigger

So today's highly-anticipated mod was installing an Iceco JP30 fridge unit in the T@G's cooler cabinet – the previous owner seems to have decided to keep the Yeti cooler when s/he traded in the camper... Much mirth & mayhem ensued.

First off, I had to pad up the slide-out unit to clear the raised lip of the kitchen hatch and the hatch-latch loop, easily accomplished with a slab of 3/4" Baltic birch plywood that I had lying around, which will eventually be stained to match the OEM cabinetry (I've got a pint can of Varathane Espresso specifically for assorted woodbutchery projects I'm pondering).

The next stumbling block was the fact that the combined height of the fridge and slide-out was around 1/2" taller than the stepped-down clearance at the back of the cooler cabinet. A little work with a vibrating multi-cutter made quick work of that, after first pulling the stereo unit out of the wall in the "living room," so that I didn't inadvertently cut through any wires while altering the cabinet. After cutting the clearance for the fridge, I took one of the pieces of cabinet I'd cut out and reinstalled it to create a new, relocated shelf-sort-of-thing to keep the stereo wires from falling down into the fridge compartment. A little Tightbond and a couple of repurposed wood screws, and Bob's my uncle.

After doing all the cabinet work and fitting the hardware into the kitchen, I discovered the next stumbling block: With the slide-out installed as far into the cabinet as it could go without clobbering the back of the cabinet with the fridge's rearmost handle, the bloody thing sticks out just far enough that the front handle will prevent the kitchen hatch from closing all the way. But it fit fine before. What the...???? Apparently I hadn't taken the thickness of the slide-out into consideration; it raised the fridge high enough up off the floor that the curve of the hatch became an issue. This is me, seething....

So I re-re-mounted the slider all the way back against the back of the cabinet and removed the handles from the fridge. Et Voilà!! It fits and everything! I'll get some shorter M4 bolts and D-ring anchors, bolt the D-rings to the fridge in place of the handles, and use them to strap the fridge down to the slide-out. There's plenty of clearance for that.

Which brings on my final (I hope) stumbling block: I spliced the Iceco power wire into the back of the 12VDC outlet in the kitchen, switched on the battery, and turned on the fridge... And it promptly threw an E1 error code at me: Insufficient voltage. This with a fairly new Interstate Gold group 31 lead-acid battery with a full state of charge; a solid 12.56 volts resting - I had charged it up with my Deltran Battery Tender a week or two ago, just in case.

(For the record, and because I also was wondering if the fridge had something wrong with it, I plugged it into the rear lighter socket in my tow vehicle, and it worked as right as rain.)

Anybody else have a power-starved icebox? How'd you sort it out? I'm guessing that the problem is undersized wires, coming off the WFCO. Looks like I'll be running a new 10ga. copper "home run" from the fridge directly to the battery... Or more likely, to the cold side of the battery switch.

ras

It's not the condition of your battery, it's the voltage lost in the resistance of the 16 ga wire used by NuCamp. Like several others on this forum, I replaced the wire running to the 12V plug in the galley with 10 ga wire connected directly to the battery. Solved my problems. Encased in plastic wire loom and ran it along the inside of the passenger side of the frame. Drilled a hole a few inches to the side of the vent from the AC on the bottom of the trailer into the area behind the galley wall. Sealed the hole w/ black sealant.

The_Rigger

Thanks for the confirmation. I suspected it was probably undersized copper. This makes me wonder what size wiring they used for the 12VDC input to the load center; I'll bet it's also too small.

The_Rigger

So since today was a day off, I had some more "quality time" in the driveway with the T@G wiring. I didn't have anywhere near enough 2-conductor 10ga. copper to make the home run from the Iceco to the battery, so instead I pulled out the air conditioner and ran power & ground to the WFCO and tapped into it's battery power input wires, which are nice beefy 12ga. stranded copper. I fused the fridge wire at 15A, so if something went haywire with the Iceco it wouldn't take down the entire DC side of the electrical system.

Et Voilá! No more power-starvation error codes.

On another tip, I also took off the OEM hinges that were supposed to connect the two halves of the bedroom floor together (Spoiler: they weren't) and replaced them with a 4' piano hinge. Much more solid.

GulfCoast

Our Norco has been doing well with the stock wiring, but I'm considering upgrading the larger wiring to cut losses and preclude future problems. I'm curious about why you tapped into the input side of the WFCO rather than the fused output side. I haven't looked, but I've been assuming that the stock fridge wiring was fed from the output side.

Regarding the floor panels, have you installed lifting strap? Much easier to use than the finger tabs. How about lifting struts? Makes the storage area much more useable. Linda still grins every time she opens the storage area without having to lift it herself.

Thanks.

The_Rigger

I didn't have any stock wiring for a fridge; my T@G is a '21 model, which I guess only came with the (unpowered) Otterbox cooler, which the previous owner kept. I went to the input side of the WFCO so that in effect I had a direct home-run to the battery that was still protected by the 30A in-line main fuse and controlled by the disconnect switch. On my particular WFCO there are only three 12VDC outputs; two 7.5A for lighting & power port/USB outlets and a 15A for the water pump. There wasn't really any way to add another 15A circuit for the JP30.

Regarding the floor, I took the plastic tab things out because one was broken anyway. So now I just use the holes in the plywood in lieu of tabs or loops. I may add gas struts sometime in the future, but for the moment lifting a 3'x4' piece of 1/2" plywood isn't too much of a strain. I really don't use the subfloor storage that much, anyway. (For now....)