The most important thing in a truck camper

What's the most important thing in a truck camper? 

For us, it's the ARB Fridge. No fridge means no food - or at least not fresh food and cold water. 

ARB fridge installed in our truck camper - Photo: Still Gravity.
Old photo of the ARB fridge in the truck camper - License our images here.

We only survived two years with the icebox that came with the camper in 2010. The ARB fridge wasn't cheap, but it made such a difference. 

We digested many reviews and chose this model that was designed to survive off-road expeditions in the extreme landscapes of Australia. Ours is the 50 quarts model - 28” x 15” x 20” (length-width-height). We don't have space for the bigger ones. 

The new ARB fridge unit out of the box - Photos: Stillgravity.
The ARB unit out of the box.          

This fridge works with 12/24 volts DC and 120 AC. The compressor is the Danfoss heavy-duty model BD35F-HD. Very quiet operation and with shock absorbers to allow for tilts of the unit up to ~30 degrees without issues for the compressor.

Connected to DC, our fridge draws between 4-5 amperes when the compressor starts. Later, after it reaches our pre-selected temperature, the draw falls into the 3 amps range. This is what ARB calls "maintenance mode", meaning that the compressor only will run to maintain the chosen temperature.

Images of meters showing the consumption of an ARB fridge in different operations modes in our camper - Photos: Stillgravity.
ARB draws at start-up (left) and during maintenance mode (right). 

The meter shows that our ARB fridge draws from 4.90 to 5 amperes at start-up and in maintenance falls to between 3.38 and 4 amps. We always pre-set the fridge temperature in the range 21-25 °F (-6 and -3 °C). Happy with such an efficient unit. 

Check this fridge in the ARB page in Amazon - Link is affiliate. Thanks for your support.

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