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I have decided to add in Random encounters by doing secret rolls and adding an event depending on what I roll.
When do people suggest you add these in? when they seem to be waiting around, or just randomly do it? would you also ask the characters to roll a dice or just do them yourself?

Thansk,

I would say when there is a natural ebb in the adventure. Or to break up something monotonous like a long distance travel. Or just whenever you want to keep your players on their toes I guess. It's good to mix things up sometimes.

As they are on a ship i have random encounters such as Doors locking up and gravity cutting out as well as random attacks. i think this will keep things different as i dont want it to be to much of a crawl

Random encounters are a key part of dungeon crawls.

do you think it's best if i just roll them in secret and incorporate them in?

No, the point is that no one knows until it happens.

Generally I have several made up ahead of time. During lulls or travel time I'll roll up a percentile for every X amount of time that passes in game. Hit the right number and we jump into the encounter.

Hi,
I have several planned out depending on what number I roll on the dice.
how do you think the best way would be to incorporate them in to a dungeon crawl where there isnt large amounts of time that pass?

Well, if there isn't a lot of dead time, depending on what is taking up that time, I'd question if you really need them. I use them to break them monotony of travel time or when the PCs are lollygagging in a dungeon. If they are resting up every other room, or taking an hour to search a closet, those can be good times to bring in a wandering monster to give them a gentle nudge to keep them moving. Also you can sneak them in if a fight goes entirely too easy for the PCs.

Generally wandering monsters are used as a DM's tool to control the pace of the game, to add a little excitement during dull periods, or as a time filler if the PCs end up completely abandoning your carefully planned adventure. If your game is already paced nicely, you may just want to keep them in your pocket for times when you need them.

Sound advice, thank you.

some of the random encounters are ones like doors closing and locking up, or gravity cutting out ( as on a ship ) so do you think i could add these whenever?

thanks,

I think mainly you have to ask yourself if 1) it provides a suitable challenge to the PCs in proportion to the intent of the encounter and 2) does it make sense within the setting or environment that the PCs are in? Why would gravity reverse itself on a ship? Is it a spell being cast as a prelude to an ambush? Who cast it and why? Is it the effects of some mysterious sea like the Bermuda Triangle? Even random encounters generally need to have some sort of tie in to make them relevant to where the PCs are and what they are doing.