Yes upfront on the frame, by the battery, there is a fuse inline. I disconnect that fuse and it does not cut power to fridge. I will keep looking, not sure it's so hard for the fridge power...crazy to just cut power.


Again thanks so far for everyone helping on this.

If you are connected to shore power you will have power to the fridge if you disconnect power at that fuse , that should disconnect the battery. If you are not on shore power then you have a very interesting self powered unit.

Brian

Puzzling. Does your unit have a solar set up for the fridge? Was it during daylight you pulled the fuse? If so it could be the solar controller is wired in on the trailer side of that switch, still providing power to the unit when the battery is disconnected. If true not a good thing as it would be easy for the disconnected battery cables to short out.

As a check, pull the positive battery cable and see if the light goes off. If it does not, get a voltage reading from the disconnected cable to ground using a multi meter. If there is power there it must be coming from the solar if you have it. Also if you do have solar try and find the controller and trace how they wired it in.

After thought
Does the battery feed go through that fuse? Usually GD uses a circuit breaker for the primary power feed. That fuse may have been from the solar if you have it. Pull the fuse and check your solar display if you have one.

Trying to help

On edit
Is it possible to get pictures of that fuse and how the battery is wired to the trailer. Should be some sore of bus bar or junction on a breaker or breakers on the frame. May be on the inside the frame.

Yes I have solar, and will look at that option. I will pull the positive wire to the batter during the day to see if the fridge light says on. I will get some more pictures of the fuse and wires up by the battery in a few days. If the solar is involved, I may be out of luck and just need to keep putting tape on the door light switch.. :( Very interesting setup here, but cool to figure this out one day. With all of everyone's help, I am understanding the overall wiring of the GD better now.

More to follow in a few days.

New to the forum. But based on the last 2 travel trailers I've owned, and the several my parents owned, unless you have a residential refer, there should be an access panel on the outside of the unit. Has typically 2-90 degrees twist / push locks and 2-3 louvers for venting. This is also where the refer drain should come out.

If you pull that panel there should be (typically) a house receptacle (single usually) that the refer is plugged into, a propane connection for when its on gas, and a control board that selects gas / shore power. Coming into that control board is 12v for everything. You should be able to put a disconnect switch in the 12V incoming line.

The only other thing it could be is disposable battery powered light on the inside the ref.

Hi Jlawles2,
For a typical "RV" refrigerator you're absolutely correct. The OP of this thread has a new 12v refrigerator that (unfortunately) doesn't have a way to turn off. Thankfully Furrion is redesigning their units so there will be a shutoff on the main control in the refrigerator.

Please take a moment and check out the Welcome Letter to New Members https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members. Hopefully it helps you get up-to-speed quickly on how to get the most from your time here on the forum (and how to contribute, too!).

Howard

Yoda I finally had time to do some testing with the power and the refrigerator. What I found out, is that all my interior lights, radio, USB plugs and the refrigerate get power from the Solar panel first, disconnect the battery cables(not the disconnect switch). When I completely disconnect the battery during the day, all my lights worked, radio, USB and the refrigerator. If I do this at night, disconnect the battery cables(not the disconnect switch), nothing works. My guess, that all power goes thru the "MPPT Solar Charge Controller" first then. If there not solar power, no sun, it pulls from the battery. Again that is guess based on my simple test, not sure why my stuff works when battery at the front of unit is completely unplugged.

I was thinking an easy way to turn off the refrigerator would be to turn of the Solar Charge controller. But nothing looks to have a on/off power switch. I was thinking of putting one on myself, in the storage are where it is installed. Not sure if this is a good solution or even possible.

Here is my controller
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories...CC30PWBBL.html


Again not sure whey I still have power with battery is disconnected. Did not think you would get power from the solar panels, they really just charge the batteries.

Found this in the Solar Charger Manual. Not sure if this is what i need, did not see it when I looked before but will check again.

https://gdrvowners.com/filedata/fetch?id=33261

dawson

What this info is telling me is that the solar is connected to the battery either at the breaker on the tongue of the trailer or at the power distribution panel inside the rv. If there is only one wire on each post of the battery , large wires , then yes you would get solar power to the rv with the battery disconnected. You would have to install a shut off switch between the solar and the battery to over come this.

Brian

That's definitely confusing--the MPPT controller shouldn't work if it's not connected to a battery. I assume in both scenarios (battery connected and disconnected) that shore power was not on and/or the converter was turned off (another source of 12v power)?

Personally I don't recommend repeating the test of having power coming from the solar panels ("PV") without the batteries connected. From the manual:

Thanks Country Campers , that is what I was thinking. howson I saw that as well in the manual. But that makes no sense, I think a lawyer wrote that. When I installed the batteries, when I have to take them out for storage, to charge them with electric charger, they will be disconnected. There is no easy way to disconnect the controller and battery maintenance happens. I guess I could remove wires from the controller and the solar panels, but seems overkill.

I (respectfully) disagree that the purpose for the note in the manual is to cover a liability issue. I believe it is an operational issue, similar to hooking up jumper cables between vehicles in the proper order to minimize the chances of a problem.

The diagram below is from page 10 of the manual. A properly installed system will have a cutoff switch between the solar panels and the controller. The purpose for that switch is to remove PV ("solar power from the panels") before disconnecting the batteries, or the opposite which is hooking up the battery then applying PV. Appying and removing power in this manner protects the circuitry in the charge controller.



The Victron SmartSolar I have works exactly the same way. Below is a typical diagram from AMSolar.

I have had the same problem with my 2021 265BH transcend. The short term fix I did was just took the light out of the fridge so I could leave the door open to air out after use.

dawson Did you ever figure out the fridge light? Found this in the op manual for an 8 cubic foot model.