Residential refrigerators

No generator and no solar but a residential fridge was a selling point. No idea how long it will stay cold without plugging in too. Hmmm. Inverter, large battery bank?

Welcome to the club. We purchased a Montana High Country 9 days ago and are now on our second extended week-end camp out. As far as traveling, during the walk though it was explained as long as I'm hitched and running the battery will continue to trickle charge from the tow vehicle.

When returning home from the first week-end, I plugged the camper into shore power... but ... forgot to flip the breaker back on. It sat for several hours (like 10 hours) when I realized the breaker was off all that time. The refrigerator did just fine. The house lights were still bright as ever after all that time. The refrigerator never missed a beat.

So, I really don't know, but I'm pretty confident an overnight with no power will not cause the refrigerator to get warm. Now????? if the battery begins to get week and fail, age out, or just go Kaput! Well, that may be a different story.

Congrats on your new Montana!

Thanks. That is encouraging. Still trying to remember when to switch inverter on and off. Guys did a good job at orientation, but lots of new stuff fast. He said remember green go-on for travel off when stopped or shore power! When not using fridge shut off breaker. Does that sound right?
Still learning the leveling system. To unhook put setting on extend and push “front” button after adjusting the feet where you want them. Extend until you can unhook and pull away. At that point push auto level and let it do its thing. Done. To hook up I think you push the extend/retract button and then push the “rear” button and that should raise both rear jacks? Then same process for the front. Does that sound right?
Thanks for your help. I’m sure I’ll be back at you come winterizing time.
Jim

With the residential refrigerator and inverter package, does Keystone add any batteries? If not, 10 to 12 hours is you limit on the refrigerator, without recharging the battery.

Our coach has 6 12-volt group 31 AGM batteries. We have boondocked for 16 straight days with limited generator usage and some driving between Glacier National Park, Banff, and Jasper.

Tom

Here's a short YouTube video on the Lippert Leveling system: Click here.

My Montana also came with a video disk on how the set up works. I think the video is too much, too fast.

It just takes a little time and repeating to get it down.

Here's how I do it. Assuming you are starting after just to hitch:

To hitch:
Push on-off button.
Push the Left and Right button at the same time.
The raises the rear jacks.

When done, you want to raise the front Jacks. Just press the Front botton and raise the landing gear (front jacks).
To lower the front jacks, press the Retract button, then the Front button.

The video explains the automated process to get the trailer back to it's original height when you unhitched. (I haven't tried that yet since my manual process works for me.)

To unhitch:
Press on the On-Off button.
Press the Front button to raise the front jacks to desired height.
Pull truck out.
Now hit Auto Level and wait till the green light in the middle is on.

Here's the link to the "Level-Up" owners manual in PDF form also. I found this helpful, but also a lot of information that I haven't absorbed yet: Click here for PDF Owner's Manual.

jimwooster wrote:
Just purchased a 2019 Montana High Country and one of the selling points was a residential Fridge. Not having that much knowledge about new upgrades over the 2007 Jayco Designer we were excited to see suck a large fridge/freezer. The old one we could switch to gas on fridge and not worry. Of course these have no gas option so I’m concerned about travelling and worry about the thing thawing our. When we head south for the winter from Ohio we usually stay overnight at a hotel the first night. No, without being plugged into anything how long will it maintain the cold and frozen stuff before running again. We have no generator. Thanks

Can't tell you without knowing how much battery capacity you have, or how much current your inverter/fridge combo draws.

But with a little pre-trip experimenting you can figure it out. Safest thing would be to turn off the fridge when you park for the night. Then don't open the fridge door until you are ready to power back up the next day. By safest, I mean the least chance of running your battery bank too low and causing shortened life span. Not as safe for the cold food, but most fridges are insulated well enough to handle 8 hours turned off without harming food.

I am not sure what reason there is to turn anything off while traveling???

While traveling the truck will have no problem keeping the batteries powered for the frig to stay cold. Outside temp plays a HUGE part on how much the frig will use power. I would suggest while connected to shore power to turn off the frig circuit when you go to bed and then see what temp it is internally in the am and note the ambient temp overnight.

If you have to stay overnight without shore power disconnect the truck.

Could also get a remote thermometer and put the sender in the fridge with the receiver on the counter.

Lyle

Cummins12V98 wrote:
If you have to stay overnight without shore power disconnect the truck.

Why? He's driving a Ford, which disconnects from the truck battery when the engine is off. I'm pretty sure your Ram does too. GM do not, or at least older ones do not, and I think new models don't either.

laknox wrote:
Could also get a remote thermometer and put the sender in the fridge with the receiver on the counter.

Lyle

Good idea! Although, I'm not sure what one would do if the alarm went off in the middle of the night. Maybe check the time, and consider starting the truck? Regardless, good way to know what's going on without opening the fridge door.