Club 80-90 Forums

We are looking to buy and electric coolbox for the army bus, and I would like to canvas your recommendations and experiences.

this will be used as a fridge, we don't want to fit anything in the bus ... will this work?

would appreciate your cool wisdom.

j

We have a Sibir 3 way (Battery, Gas & Leccy), it's a stand alone jobbie big enough to take bottles of wine standing up.
It wasn't cheap at around 200 quid.
Well chuffed.

I've got a three way stand alone fridge too and it's been good although I've never used it on gas yet. For weekend trips and the like, a cheapo halford's coolbox is fine, especially if you put some ice blocks in there but I don't run it off the leisure battery for any length of time. I just keep it running while I'm driving and then rely on its insulation to keep contents cool and that seems fine for a couple of days. I don't know if any one make performs better than another, mine was cheap as chips.

Joju wrote:We are looking to buy and electric coolbox for the army bus, and I would like to canvas your recommendations and experiences.

this will be used as a fridge, we don't want to fit anything in the bus ... will this work?

would appreciate your cool wisdom.

j

If you mean one of those 12 Volt cool boxes then don't bother.
They take an age to go cold and they use about 7 amps of power which is about the same as leaving both headlights on, so your battery will be flat within an hour or two.
They are only any use to cool stuff whilst actually driving along, where the alternator is providing the power, not the battery.

Buy a proper 2 or 3 way fridge, 12 Volt & gas ( & mains usually, for use when a 240 volt "hook up is available) - on gas these work very well and use very little of your gas bottle.
Use on 12 volt when driving NOT on gas !! = gas when parked up.
You do have to have the exhaust flu properly fitted and you are "supposed" to have a vent grill in the floor to allow any unwanted gasses to escape out of your van.
In my opinion, this is the only practical way to go.

ghost123uk wrote:They are only any use to cool stuff whilst actually driving along, where the alternator is providing the power, not the battery.

Yes that's pretty much how I use mine, with some ice blocks to start off it's ok for a day or two - probably not much better than an ordinary non-electric cool box really.

thanks for the responses.

from what is written here, we simply cannot use a standalone box the way we want to. may have to look at a proper fridge.

Have a look at Jed the Spread and Campervan Culture on this site. He has fitted a compression type fridge to his Syncro and seems delighted with it. PM him for details.