Dual battery setup....

.....was necessary after I added the Edgestar fridge. The system consists of a continuous duty solenoid hooked up to my charging system and a marine dual purpose battery mounted in the cab. When I turn my van on the solenoid closes and my alternator charges both batteries. When I turn the key off the second battery is disconnected from the starting battery (but still connected to the fridge and all my interior lighting). I can run this battery all the way down and still start the car with no issues. I intend to add a second house battery for longer periods of not charging but for now I need to run the motor at least a half hour a day to keep my house battery charged to run the fridge. The fridge has a neat feature for saving the house battery too. Since it is bad for a battery to run it too far down, the Edgestar cuts out when the battery reaches a certain voltage. Although it is still possible to kill the battery this makes it a bit more idiot proof. Also, since the house battery is a dual purpose, in a pinch I can jump my main battery from it if I ever leave my lights on.

Some future refinements will be adding a second house battery, hooking my solar trickle charger up to the system and wiring my car stereo to the house battery system instead of my starting/car battery so I can listen to the radio into the night. I am going to add some running/fog/off-road lights to the car battery and maybe some exterior flood lights to the house battery. Since the van had running lights and side markers on the running boards (both of which I removed) the switches and wiring are already there. Should be pretty easy.

Edgestar FP430 review

.....So cooking for one person is hard.....unless you like canned food. I don't. Storing leftovers was always a problem. I had a big cooler which I would ice every day and it just became a huge mess. I had read about 12v refrigerators like Engle and Weaco on some 4x4 forums but they were just too expensive. The domestic fridge/freezers like you find in RV's were just too big (and still expensive) so when I started reading about the Edgestar 12v fridge/freezer on the Expedition Portal forum I got pretty excited. They were originally priced below $400 and were small enough fo my van. Earlier this summer I googled the model number and found an Ebay classified ad for a used one for $225. The best part was that it was located just about an hour away. Needless to say I went and bought it. It was like new and fit beneath my stove in the cabinet (with a few modifications). The fridge works great although it proved to be a bit more of a battery drain than everything I had read. That was OK since I planned on adding a second house battery anyway. I mounted the fridge on a slide out under the stove on 100lb drawer slides and hard wired the fridge to the second battery with a 10 amp fuse. The battery will run the fridge for about 2 days with a full charge and I find if I drive a bit every day (30 minutes or so) it keeps the battery charged enough. The fridge keeps a 12 pack, leftovers, eggs, cheese, milk and a few bottles of water at a cool 38 degrees when the outside temp is in the mid 90's. Not too bad. It actually keeps beer colder than the fridge in the outpost.