New style arb fridge wiring

[basing110]

I picked up a indel b 51qt for a good price. I have been looking at wiring it up. The new arb wiring harness claims to be 8g wire and has a 2 prong screw type connector.

I have been debating on getting the wiring harness and the actual arb wire from fridge to the outlet so i can lock in and not worry about it coming undone.

Are these sockets any good and reliable?

I could wire up my own but cost wise seems hard to beat the arb setup.once you factor in the seperate fuse or fuse block and wire shielding and using power pole connectors and buying a special tool for the terminals.

I also read somewhere the power pole connectors are not made to be a constant connection and are made to use intermittently.

Any advice?

 

[JPaul]

Not sure where you read that about power poles, maybe you're confusing it with them not being made for interrupting power, in other words they are not designed to be disconnected while power is still flowing through them. If the power is off (or at least power is not being actively drawn through them by whatever load you have plugged in) then it's fine to disconnect them. It's also fine to leave them plugged in with power flowing indefinitely.

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[basing110]

Ah ok.. Looked at the power poles and looks like $40 for the crimp tool.. Is it really needed or can you just solder the wire in and then press the outside of the terminals down so it can slide in?

 

[john61ct]

I also read somewhere the power pole connectors are not made to be a constant connection and are made to use intermittently.

Not at all the case, as good a design as any, better than most for high currents.

Only issue is some cheapie knockoffs out there, know your supplier.

 

[AndrewP]

Ah ok.. Looked at the power poles and looks like $40 for the crimp tool.. Is it really needed or can you just solder the wire in and then press the outside of the terminals down so it can slide in?

Don't be a cheapskate. You need the crimper and not the solder. Once you start using power poles, you will find dozens of uses for them. But the crimper comes with the territory, just like it does with any of the alternatives, like metri-packs or weather-packs.

 

[NatersXJ6]

Not 8 awg

The wire is 10 not 8. I recently bought an ARB harness to put my wife's fridge in her car. Don't believe the one piece of marketing description that seems cut and pasted all over the net.

With that said, you really can't touch 20' of sealed wire with a built in fuse for the $$ you get the ARB for. I spent far more custom building the harness for my fridge, thus the purchase of a harness for my wife's car.

And, in my personal opinion, the socket is a POS. The little tiny terminals break off inside very easily. The better bet is a small terminal strip and some crimp on ring eyes. Those don't come unplugged, and you can still unplug the fridge end if needed, the cord is well insulated and I occasionally leave mine coiled out of the way while still hard wired.

 

[JPaul]

The crimp tool is the best way to go, you really shouldn't solder connections on plugs, soldering is meant for non-moving connections like on a circuit board or fixed items, not something that's going to have the wire being moved around like a plug.

That being said depending on the contact size you can get something like this from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/9-1-2-half-inch-wire-crimping-tool-36411.html

That's what I use for my power poles, though I'm eventually going to get a proper one. I use the part that is closest to the hinge, the half circle shaped crimper, it fits the 15 and 30 amp contacts just fine. For the 45 amp contacts you'll need the actual crimper.

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