Little in over my head with ARB fridge. Help please?

[vision-quest]

Hey guys, I'm heading on a southern Utah/Northern Arizona road trip from Boulder, CO on Friday. I have recently bought a new 50qt ARB fridge. I'm wondering if you guys can make sure I have it set up to work correctly?

I will be having the fridge sit behind my front seat on the folded down rear seats, and plugged in to the cigarette lighter to charge while driving. This is correct right?

What settings should I have the fridge set to? It will be running off my starter battery as I have not had time before this road trip to install an auxiliary battery system. I just don't want the car battery dying on my in the desert.

Am I correct in assuming I should get about 48 hours of run time without driving to charge the battery before the fridge will switch off?

Also, finally, how do I correctly charge this from the wall socket in my home before the trip. I can't seem to tell if it is at 100% charge or not.

Thanks so much for any assistance here, I'm a little in over my head!

 

[Ducmonsta]

Your fridge is not a power source so it can not be "charged". It needs power to run the compressor to keep things cool. Set the battery fail safe to "high" on the ARB. I believe it will shut off any battery use once your starting battery dips below 11.8 or something. That should give you enough juice to start the truck.

Length of run time will depend on the state of health of the battery. You can minimize the power consumption by not opening and closing the fridge often. Also keep it out of direct sunlight and provide some insulation. But be careful not to block the vents.

 

[OffRoadGuy]

Not to be condescending, but did you read the manual at all? ARB manual is pretty straight forward.

Where did you get 48 hours? There's a couple of factors that come into play.. for instant, size of your battery amp hour, ambient temperature where you're staying., set point of the fridge. These all play a role in how long your battery will last. ARB fridge also has battery protection settings. If you read the manual it will show you how to set it so you won't be stranded. Lo, ned, hi