Food & Traveling

We live in our 5th wheel full time, I do not leave my frig on while traveling. I could, but ours stays cold/frozen during the day while we travel. We shop weekly, or as space allows. Try to hit farmer's markets for fresh, but we usually just look for large food stores. Sometimes it's not great so we just buy as little as possible to get us though to the next area. I always keep canned meats and dry beans if needed.

frig on at least 24hrs before the trip on all the time after you leave.EXCEPT tunnels and fueling up the rv. as you pull in to a gas station just walk back hit the off button,after pulling out turn back on.

I cannot believe that I am the only one on this forum who is NOT comfortable with the propane on while in motion. I turn it off at the tanks. Every time the trailer turns a wheel.

The chance of a propane accident is tiny, but why risk it if it is not absolutely necessary. I watched a TT burn in the median about 10 years ago (after rolling over) and while I know there have been improvements in valves and controls, I'm not risking it.

We usually travel one day and then sit and play tourist for one or two days before moving on. On travel days the critical cold stuff goes in an RTIC (think YETI)cooler with blue ice packs and stays there until initial cool down of the fridge is complete at the new location.

Your trailer; your choice! I don't see it as worth even a very small risk.

I run with fridge in auto and precool at least 24 hours out

Why would you turn the fridge off?
You would have more than just frozen food to worry about.

RBPerry wrote:

I think husband has a little fear of propane, he has seen some propane fires.

I'm sure your husband has seen many car/truck wrecks but, he still drives often. Just use a little common sense and propane is no different than the thirty or so gallons of highly flammable gasoline in the vehicle tank.

If possible, 'camp' in your driveway or yard for a few days. You will quickly learn what you need or don't need. And you will be at home so it's convenient.

Enjoy your travels.

I turn our refrigerator on a couple of days before we leave. The night before we leave, we fill it up with already cold stuff if we are just traveling a few hours from home. Upon leaving, the refrigerator is off and the food stays cold for the few hours we are traveling. If we are traveling a greater distance than we shop when we get to our destination.

RBPerry wrote:
Ok, we are brand new to the RV world, and camping. How do you plan your food purchases, how much, dos and don'ts. I guess frozen is out of the question since we can't travel with refrigerator on.

Depends on the size of your fridge's freezer and it's power sources. We bought a rather small TT that came w/ a 3.5 cubic ft fridge and had the manufacturer switch to a similar size freezer only unit since that's more in keeping with how we live at home. We plan to use the freezer goods about 3 days of meals @ week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Grill or firepit at least 2 day's meals and eat out once @ week.
I'll be utilising Ziploc bags, seal and lock plastic containers and FoodSaver bags to store most of the freeze ahead dishes and goods.
You might be wondering where I'll be storing the fridge goods - in a cooler.

By my calculations the freezer should hold at least 3 weeks worth of food for 2 people. Might be able to fit 4 weeks worth of food if the packing is very organised.

ETA: a 3.5 cubic ft unit is about the equiv. of 100 qts or the large Coleman Extreme cooler.

HTH

Since you thought you couldn't drive with the refrigerator on, you should know you can also drive with the hot water heater, furnace and air conditioner on running off of the generator if you have an on-board one for the A/C. (assuming you've made your purchase, your profile needs updating)

Bill

Only suggestion is to prefreeze, don't expect your RV refer to do it as it could take a long time.