Questions for campers with astra's

[Abbo]

I'm going away for 4 days this weekend camping. I've brought an electric coolbox which runs off of 12v or mains, unfortunately the campsite doesn't have electric hookups, so I'm going to have to resort to using the cars battery.

Question is, is this going to be a big no no and knacker the battery very quickly with the car off? Is there any kind of auto cut off that cuts the 12v socket out when the battery level is getting low, or is there a unit I can buy to do this?

Cheers all, And

[VXR_Ross]

There isn't such a thing that I have ever come across to do that. Don't think the battery will go down too fast do you know how many watts the cool box uses? The fail safe method is to park on a hill. :-)

[redastravxr]

When we go camping mate I run cool box off a jumper pack then recharge jumper back next day by running car engine for 20mins or so works well for us and I can't drink warm beer lol

[VXR_Ross]

Now your not a hardcore camper until you get a roofbox on the VXR. (I've done that) lol.

[Abbo]

Haha, funnily enough I did look at roof boxes.

I like the idea of the jumper pack, that could work.
Apparently the whole crappy site were going to is on a hill!

I think the box will draw about 40w from doing a quick search online. So with the vxr's battery can I work out how long it should last?

Cheers

[Nurburg608]

I'm sure you will be able to find a device that plugs in that will cut power to the fridge if it gets too low. This isn't the best example but shows they exist

http://shop.voltelectronics.com.au/1...utoff-kit.html

edit: actually, here's something better http://www.waeco.com.au/products.asp...Id=78&catId=77

[R15VXR]

Could always buy an Inverter from Maplins on London Rd matey, they are very useful !

They are 200watts and can last for several hrs uncharged

[andrewt1971]

If you're running a 40w coolbox the battery will be incapable of starting the car in less than 10 hrs...

[jalfrezigazee]

we used one of these coolbox on my ex wifes new MK3 Astra for 2 days camping a few years back, could not start the car after about 8 hours but the cool box stayed cold for the whole weekend. Took about 15 mins on the jump leads car to car until we could disconnect the jumpers cos the battery was dead flat. First and only time I ever seen a dead flat battery in my many years as a mechanic. Once recharged it was ok and was on the car a year ago when we used it for scrappage on a new Astra