I pulled the fridge apart to clean the dust out which was pretty bad despite not really being used that extensively. While at it I thought I would replace the previous fan I had put in with a more powerful Noctua 120mm industrial 2000 rpm fan. It is noisier but by the time I put the fridge back together with 2 x 10mm layers of foam sleeping mat insulation around the fridge & in its position in the car, it wasn't that much noisier. Very little in it.

The new fan has higher pressure so will allow a filter (gutter open foam leaf guard cut roughly 8mm thick) to reduce dust getting inside. The new fan's power consumption at 1.2 watts which is barely more than the old one at 1.08 watts & much better than the original fan. The new fan pushes much more air through the fridge at a much higher pressure level as well, I can feel it on the exhaust side, even with the filter, so hopefully the fridge's compressor works a bit less & reduces overall power consumption.

While at it I cut the 12 volt power lead 16AWG as short as possible & installed an Anderson plug which can be unscrewed easily if I need a different 12 volt lead. The standard lead had too much resistance & I was looking for savings anywhere possible when running off the auxiliary battery while camping as I only have 78AH.

Added a bit of foam around the fan which seems to help a touch to quieten the fan & seal the baffle I had previously installed.

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Nice mod and well executed!  2013 SD4 SE (hers)
2013 SD4 HSE (mine)
Ex: 2008 D3 V8 HSE
EX: 2000 D2 TD5

Well that's got the beer sorted.  Common sense isn't very common.
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2007 Land Rover Freelander2 I6 hse Auto

We need a Fan Club.  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

the Anderson connector looks like a SB50 ?

I to use he SB50's within my vehicle, but I place a small 6mm LED to show a voltage is present.

I drill a 8mm hole (between the nut & bolts you show) and two 1mm holes into the + and - electrical connector area. These are held in behind the springs that hold the two connectors posts. When inserting the posts the connection is made via the springs. The LED I use is one with an internal resister and + & - tinned leads.

I think the photos show it better.







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Thanks for the comments.

I also rewired the 12 volt socket on the back of the fridge to the fridge's circuit board. This wire was 55 cm in lenght (1.1 metres positive & negative) & under sized at 16AWG at best! Together with the under sized 12 volt power lead, after rewiring I have recovered about 0.165 volts with the new heavier wire. It doesn't sound much but when one is scraping around the solar battery network for efficiency it all adds up!

It is a bit sad that the manufacture makes a good product but the accountants tell them to shave off bits here & there to nobble the product. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

A torture test to see how long it takes to freeze to 10.5 kg of ice bricks to -22C (lowest fridge setting. On previous tests thermometers I stuck in the fridge showed -24). Ambient over the days was 26C morning & night, including ice bricks at the start. I also put a thermometer in the centre of the ice bricks as this area is slower to freeze.

24 Hours: fridge -11, centre of ice -2
36 hours: fridge -16, centre of ice -10
44 hours: fridge -20, centre of ice -16
46 hours: fridge -22, centre of ice -19

The fridge started cycling at 46 hours. The bottom of the fridge looses more cold than the sides so I think I will be battling to get the centre of the ice to -22C until I can come up with thicker insulation & mounting mechanism.

The back of the fridge near the internal light only got down to 0.2C but the ice brick closer to the freezing area was frozen solid.

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I have had a temporary piece of aluminium folded over the divide in the fridge to get the butter department cooler when running the fridge as a fridge. I have replaced it with a neater job! Works well, there is some sail cloth repair tape on the back of the aluminium so the evaporator coils don't get damaged. I used a 1.5mm thick baking tray (4028574815277) as the aluminium is a bit softer, (unfortunately not anodized but the heatsink itself has more value than being anodized) but not too soft, hopefully 1200 alloy which would be nice, which would have better thermal properties having less alloying elements, but nevertheless easier to bend by hand than 5005 alloy off the shelf sheet.

I can pull the heatsink out for cleaning both sides. Have been testing it for a week now and it works really well, wish I had upgraded this modification earlier. The tail edge of the heatsink gets considerably cool. Even a bit cooler than I was expecting, which now makes this area actually useful when running the freezer as a fridge.

If you notice there are 2 thicknesses of 10 foam sleeping mat stuffed down inside the fridge cover for additional insulation, there are 3 on the opening end, the compressor end does not need it.

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Great,innovative mod again! Makes a lot of sense to move the heat from the butter-compartment to near the cooler side's evaporator pipes using the Aluminium.  2013 SD4 SE (hers)
2013 SD4 HSE (mine)
Ex: 2008 D3 V8 HSE
EX: 2000 D2 TD5

Thank you for the comments. I will pass on information of my experiences so people hopefully can do better than me!

I bought a DC to DC converter, as I was simply plugging in the gel batteries into the car, & unplugged them when I felt they were charged. Gel batteries don't like long term over charging. I have wired in (to be made more permanent) a Victron DC to DC converter. It is a 12/12-9 converter, at the end of the day to charge 78 AH of batteries for the fridge while driving. 1 have set it at 13.45 volts output at present & will see how it goes. Just trying to find the balance between charging, fridge being on (2.5 -3.1 amps) & fridge being off during cycles etc

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While stuffing the car with acoustic insulation I upgraded the solar controller to a 100/20 as the previous one was sometimes reaching 10 amps output with 120 watts of panels. I have know idea if this will give me a bit more headroom but thought I would give it a go.

Also added a pile of 14 x 14 x 10mm adhesive heatsinks which increase surface area a lot.

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