Do I need to an alternator, and which one??

[Skidmarcx]

For the price of one of those I could do the CS-144 brand new oem gm, and a dual battery setup. And if I ever damage the alternator I wont be out $500 instead only $150. But they're definitely nice as well as the mean greens.

They are definitely expensive, but worth it. I currently have the 180 amp model which appears to have gone up in price I paid $389. I'm just a fan of this company I've had their alternators on past vehicles and never had any regrets

 

[IBallEngineer]

I was also thinking of possibly doing a solar setup. All of this stuff is out of my knowledge range and the reason I'm asking.

Is this a decent setup?

130 watt Kyocera 12 volt solar panels

Would I be safe with upgrading the battery, and running the solar? And holding off on the alt and 2nd battery?

Well assuming full efficiency that panel should be capable of 10amps, but that never happens. Still your refrigerator will only draw about 6 amps, so theoretically it could keep the battery charged, if the sun shines on it all the time, and it's clean, and the charge controller works as advertised. So the answer simply put, is NO.
Put your money in a dual battery set up, isolate it so the fridge runs off it but is not connected to your main battery when you are stopped. Use a battery with as high of an Amp Hour rating as you can afford, and will fit. That will run your fridge all afternoon and night, then you can recharge in the morning. I don't think you'll have issues with an oem alternator with your other accessories. But I don't know what it puts out.
The reality of the fridge is it doesn't run all the time, rarely at night, so it might run 20 or 30 hours off one charged battery.

:couch2:

 

[zooroadbaja]

Put your money in a dual battery set up, isolate it so the fridge runs off it but is not connected to your main battery when you are stopped. Use a battery with as high of an Amp Hour rating as you can afford, and will fit. That will run your fridge all afternoon and night, then you can recharge in the morning. I don't think you'll have issues with an oem alternator with your other accessories. But I don't know what it puts out.
The reality of the fridge is it doesn't run all the time, rarely at night, so it might run 20 or 30 hours off one charged battery.

:couch2:

Dual battery it is, I've read somewhere when running dual batteries they should be the exact same batteries, or it can cause a shorter battery life, and other things.

 

[IBallEngineer]

Dual battery it is, I've read somewhere when running dual batteries they should be the exact same batteries, or it can cause a shorter battery life, and other things.

In a perfect world, yes. That would especially be true if you were going to run an inverter off both batteries or even if you were going to run your fridge off both at the same time. In your case you need a deep cycle to deal with the discharging/recharging, like an RV would. Your starting battery can remain a regular battery. The issues you may face when you try to start and the ignition triggers the connection between the two, the discharged battery will draw power away from the charged one. You can run it on a switch to prevent that, or build a time delay. If you can afford to buy two batteries, that is always best, but not absolutely necessary.
OK, I'm off to the Eagles concert!

:couch2: