Running outside fridge while traveling

big_murph_279 wrote:
I'm in the early stages so I think I'm going to inspect my trailer this week and see what kind of space I have and where I could put the inverter and cables.

I suspended my 1000 watt PSW inverter in our trailer's front pass through storage compartment (10 pics) where it's out of the elements, not taking up space that would otherwise be needed for storage, and is within reasonable distance from the battery. As you can see it's quite easy to protect any 120 vac cable you may want to run along the underside of the trailer from where the inverter is located to where you want to connect to a dedicated receptacle.

My small fridge is a 3 way so I just run it on 12 volt when under way & switch to gas when I stop. The fridge does not run on 12 volt when the engine is off.

I have a 1000w inverter in the 5th. It runs both my outside refrigerator and the inside one. The inside is a French Door residential. I ran some tests on both of them and I have not seen more than 600w being pulled from the inverter. That is with both refrigerators running.

I have had the outside refrigerator on an inverter running on 2 campers now. I have ran for days driving out west without opening the door for the kitchen and not had any problems with overheating.

When I put the outside refrigerator on the old camper I had two plugs near it. One was for the invertor and the other was regular A/C. I would just plug the refrigerator into the outlet that I needed.

We have a residential fridge on inverter in the MH
Get one large enough and..it's no problem
My question
Is how is this outside kitchen fridge installed
And what kind of ventilation does it have when traveling
Any fridge does need some amount of free air circulation around it to remove the heat from the coils and compressor
? totally boxed in with one or two inches of space that is not open to the inside or outside..means it won't cool properly in hot weather
While all closed up in travel mode

Keeping cold, is easier than getting cold, as long as it has some air space

Turning a cabinet into an oven will not help the fridge

I tried to run mine on my portable 400 watt power pack, but no joy since it wasnt up to the task. Same as you I thought I could get it cooling while heading down the road.

We have a Kitchen Aid Residential refer in the RV that runs off a dedicated Tripp Lite inverter PV1250FC because we boondock a lot. In addition to this unit when we go to Asaska we bring a 17 cu ft chest freezer that we transport in our pickup (has a long bed and cap) and a 3 1/2 cu ft basement freezer. Our dedicated inverter is within 2' of our 6 AGM 6V batteries and runs all 3 units without a problem. I chose that Tripp Lite because of it's HUGE surge capacity. I run a 110V extension cord to the back of the pickup so the freezer is powered at all times when we're on the road, and have wired an outlet to the dedicated inverter in the basement for the small freezer. On the way down from Alaska we regularly see 90 degree temps when in the lower 48 and the fish and our ice cream stays hard as a rock. The RV engine generator keeps the house and start batteries fully charged while we drive so we always begin our stops with full batteries.

We have friends who use a similar freezer in their Airstream trailer and run it from an inverter in their pickup with a long extension. Principal is the same.

I use a xantrex prowatt auto transfer switch wired into the electric panel. It switches from shore power to inverter powering the circuit that the outside fridge is on. This circuit also powers the bathroom and inside kitchen outlets. I use a peak brand 2000w (more power than the fridge needs, but wanted to be able to use kuerig while travelling) inverter connected to 2 duracell agm batteries. This setup works great, the truck keeps the batteries charged while driving.

Thank you all for your input. I had stated that a lot of these turn into argue sessions because a lot of people don't see the need of doing this. It isn't a need but it is a want. I like the extra space the little fridge gives us and can see it being nice for long trips. The wait time for the fridge to cool down and the fact that in the summer heat mine seems to start thawing out fast. That makes a mess when you open the door and water is everywhere. I'm in the early stages so I think I'm going to inspect my trailer this week and see what kind of space I have and where I could put the inverter and cables.

donn0128 wrote:
We bought a dual voltage compressor refer. I have both cords plugged in out basement. It automatically switches to the available power. No worries.

That sounds great!
May I ask what brand it is?

Thx.

I have a 120 volt fridge, one of those double the size of a dorm fridge in a compartment that we purchased at Sams Club, in the passenger rear compartment of our 5er. I ran a 12 gauge contractors extension cord from the front of the 5er, where the inverter is connected to 2 6 volt 208 amp batteries in series. I ran the cord down and under the rv and using zip ties, routed it high in the frame to the compartment in the rear. Ended up using about 45 feet of a 50 foot extension. Out of the inverter at the fridge I have 115 volts. We have never had a problem as once it reaches its cold temp, it will cycle. Worst part is start up of the compressor on the fridge but the inverter has never seemed to be bothered. We have boondocked for about 2 full days in the spring and late fall before using the genny to charge up the batteries and we usually run it about 4 hours. We start the charge when the batteries reach that magical 12 volts or 11.8 at the lowest.
Now we try our best to cool the fridge down before we leave and have cool drinks or whatever in the fridge before we head out. We have turned on the fridge on just the inverter and it cooled just fine and cooled down some pretty warm bottles of water and sodas in fact a rather fully packed fridge with 80 degree bottles of soda and water, took over 12 hours to cool them down properly. We usually fill the little freezer with the water bottles also and just let it do its thing. We have been more than satisfied with this arrangement and have been doing it for several years. I do get under the RV and check the zip ties and cable to make sure there is no damage and no danger of short often. I do disconnect the inverter 120 volt side when not in use to avoid any accidents, not just turn off the inverter but unplug the extension cable from the socket on the inverter.
I know, I know, using a contractors extension cord is not code, not proper, not kosher, not, not not, but it works and we keep a pretty good eye on it.
I hope this information helps.