youngnretired
Senior Member
My wife and I bought our first "modern" camper in April 2025. We've owned an older popup camper for a couple years now, but never owned anything like this that's all self contained. We bought a 2008 Chevy based Roadtrek 210 Popular. The RT came with a newer replaced refrigerator and when that was swapped out, the company that did the work had installed an exterior fan on the cooling coil. On a recent trip to IL when it was 90 degrees, there was a significant amount of heat being rejected by the fan. We're doing route 66 this fall with a side trip to Death Valley, so our unit is going to have 95-105 temps at times during this trip. I wanted to add additional fans to help out with cooling. Below is the install. Note that this is specific to the RT 210 Popular, so any other installation would likely be different than what's shown.
I measured the existing fan, and it is 120mm x 32mm. Looking up information online, I find that these fans are about 12 watts, so 1 amp draw each. Below is a link to the fan that we purchased.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYPG1TQ3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
There is a temperature switch that was installed by the refrigerator replacement company. Since I don't know what the amp rating for this device is, I installed a 30 amp (overkill, but it's what I had from a previous project) 12V relay and ran the fans thru the relay, so the temperature switch is just controlling the relay. I don't know where the power wire comes from that goes to the switch, but I do know that it's DC circuit #5, the stock wiring location, and there's got to be 12V power behind the refrigerator somewhere. After testing the system, using an infrared thermometer, this switch switches at 130 degrees.
Picture of the temperature switch installation location.
I cut the connector off the fan wiring, stripped the wires, used a soldering gun and tinned the ends of the wire. I did this because it's very thing stranded wire. After they are tinned, I folded the wire back on itself to give it a thicker area for the Wago connector to hold on to.
Picture of the tinned wire and folded wire.
The existing fan was zip tied to the upper grill, so I copied the same installation procedure to install the two additional fans. I used zip ties to hold up the wiring tight to the grill because the cooling coil is just below where the fans are installed, and I didn't want to melt any wires. I used Wago electrical connectors, and if you're not familiar with them, they have a lever on them so you just raise the lever, insert the wire, close the lever and give it a tug to make sure it's tight. You can raise the lever, pull the wire out and replace as needed for any changes. I used the Wago connectors because if for some reason the fridge needs to run on DC and these fans are too much load for the circuit, I can easily unwire one fan and see if the load is reduced enough where I don't pop the fuse for the entire refrigerator circuit. I left additional wiring that hangs down into the wall cavity for ease of pulling the grill out and setting it on something to service anything needed. I also zip tied the wiring to one side of the grill, in hopes to get the wiring to stay off and away of the cooling coil.
Picture of the final wiring and layout of the fans.
I didn't create a wiring diagram, but it's pretty easy.
All 12V negative gets connected to the chassis metal, or in my specific case, the negative wire that the previous installer ran up to the fans. This is the black wiring in the pictures.
The 12V positive wiring is as follows. The 12V wiring is the red wires:
I split the power coming from below to the temperature switch into two legs, one switched power and one constant power. I split it right before the temperature switch. This is to bypass running the fan power thru the temperature switch. The 12V constant power is run to one of the wires for the contact on the relay (this is the thick blue colored wire at the relay), and the other to the temperature switch for the refrigerator cooling coil. All the cooling fans are wired to the other side of the contact on the relay, the thick white colored wire coming from the relay.
The switched power is taken from the secondary side of the temperature switch, and runs to the wire for the coil on the relay. It's hard to see, but this is the black colored wire coming from the relay.
To test, I pulled the fuse for the refrigerator circuit, turned on the 12V power, the placed the fuse to touch the contacts in the panel, pulled it out to see if it was blown. It wasn't, so I installed the fuse and turned the fridge on. After about 30 minutes, I went outside and heard the fans spin up, so it's working as intended.
I measured the existing fan, and it is 120mm x 32mm. Looking up information online, I find that these fans are about 12 watts, so 1 amp draw each. Below is a link to the fan that we purchased.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYPG1TQ3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1
There is a temperature switch that was installed by the refrigerator replacement company. Since I don't know what the amp rating for this device is, I installed a 30 amp (overkill, but it's what I had from a previous project) 12V relay and ran the fans thru the relay, so the temperature switch is just controlling the relay. I don't know where the power wire comes from that goes to the switch, but I do know that it's DC circuit #5, the stock wiring location, and there's got to be 12V power behind the refrigerator somewhere. After testing the system, using an infrared thermometer, this switch switches at 130 degrees.
Picture of the temperature switch installation location.
I cut the connector off the fan wiring, stripped the wires, used a soldering gun and tinned the ends of the wire. I did this because it's very thing stranded wire. After they are tinned, I folded the wire back on itself to give it a thicker area for the Wago connector to hold on to.
Picture of the tinned wire and folded wire.
The existing fan was zip tied to the upper grill, so I copied the same installation procedure to install the two additional fans. I used zip ties to hold up the wiring tight to the grill because the cooling coil is just below where the fans are installed, and I didn't want to melt any wires. I used Wago electrical connectors, and if you're not familiar with them, they have a lever on them so you just raise the lever, insert the wire, close the lever and give it a tug to make sure it's tight. You can raise the lever, pull the wire out and replace as needed for any changes. I used the Wago connectors because if for some reason the fridge needs to run on DC and these fans are too much load for the circuit, I can easily unwire one fan and see if the load is reduced enough where I don't pop the fuse for the entire refrigerator circuit. I left additional wiring that hangs down into the wall cavity for ease of pulling the grill out and setting it on something to service anything needed. I also zip tied the wiring to one side of the grill, in hopes to get the wiring to stay off and away of the cooling coil.
Picture of the final wiring and layout of the fans.
I didn't create a wiring diagram, but it's pretty easy.
All 12V negative gets connected to the chassis metal, or in my specific case, the negative wire that the previous installer ran up to the fans. This is the black wiring in the pictures.
The 12V positive wiring is as follows. The 12V wiring is the red wires:
I split the power coming from below to the temperature switch into two legs, one switched power and one constant power. I split it right before the temperature switch. This is to bypass running the fan power thru the temperature switch. The 12V constant power is run to one of the wires for the contact on the relay (this is the thick blue colored wire at the relay), and the other to the temperature switch for the refrigerator cooling coil. All the cooling fans are wired to the other side of the contact on the relay, the thick white colored wire coming from the relay.
The switched power is taken from the secondary side of the temperature switch, and runs to the wire for the coil on the relay. It's hard to see, but this is the black colored wire coming from the relay.
To test, I pulled the fuse for the refrigerator circuit, turned on the 12V power, the placed the fuse to touch the contacts in the panel, pulled it out to see if it was blown. It wasn't, so I installed the fuse and turned the fridge on. After about 30 minutes, I went outside and heard the fans spin up, so it's working as intended.
