Trucker electric cooler.....

Well, to see how this goes.....

I have an OLD rubbermaid electric cooler. Bought back in the early 90's. It's sat in the basement most of the time really. Pulled it out this weekend to see how it would do in the new job.

Had a rubbed spot on the cord. The plug adapter was all corroded and useless as well.

Reading a bunch of the reviews on new coolers, the week point seemed to be the adapter and wearing out over time.

Well today I went and instead of buying a new cooler, I put in a 12 ga paired wire cord, 18 ft long on it with a set of blade fuse holders. In the cooler itself, I installed a lighted on/off switch as well.

Cord is one size up from the factory. 12 ga instead of 14 gage. Wire is more than adequate for the load on it.

Now to see how it cools over time.

Cord, switch, fuse holders and fuses all cost me about $37.

 

Read it again.....

 

will let it run here at the house for a while. I have a frig thermometer inside it now to see how it will do.

 

I put on 12 ga wire and a pair of 5/16" lug terminals to go straight on to a battery terminal at the power inverter.



ETA:

I finally found a battery for my amp meter. When I hook it up, I am reading 4.8 amps draw.

With two blue ice packs, I can get it down to 40degrees in about 1/2 hour. Will see how it goes in the morning.

 

If it's like my cooler, it pulls about 4.7 amps. at 4.7amp/hour, you should be good for about 100 hours on your batteries before you go below a charge that would start your truck.