Is anyone hauling around a deep freeze or top load fridge in the truck bed, to augment the capacity of the small fridge commonly found in a small trailer (single door, door fridge size)?I'm thinking it might be a handy way to carry a little extra frozen food purchased cheaply either at home or at a warehouse store on longer trips. The tiny freezer in my rv fridge can hold like two steaks and a bag of pizza rolls, and that's it.For power, I would either run an inverter off my alternator so the fridge could run while the truck is running, or just plug it in at when I stop for the night, either at a campground, or into the trailer's power systems (which are ample.)

We used to do that when we had the travel trailer and would go to the beach for a week. It stayed frozen for the day's drive and we would plug in time we arrived. I actually had my two sons lift it out of the truck and we put it on boards under the awning. This was one of the smaller chest freezers, about 24x36. Where we always beach camped was at Hunting Island or out at St. Joseph's Peninsula, both were long hauls to the grocery store. Having the freezer meant we could take a week's worth of food for all meals, keep ice cream, bagged ice and could also freeze containers to put in the cooler for the day on the beach.We usually drove 350 miles maximum starting at 700am and off the road before 400pm, so it stayed cold even in June. We did have several frozen milk jugs of water inside to help hold the cold, you could also drop in a chunk if dry ice if you are where it is real hot.We would run a cord under the trailer into the campground pedestal, giving the 30 amps to the trailer for a/c and the freezer fed from the 20 amp circuit.

This guy was set up across from us at the Grand American last year. I don't remember what state he was from, but he had quite the camp kitchen set up outside.

If you have a bigger battery bank in the trailer and maybe some solar (or running a generator), you could have a 12V freezer or a 120V freezer w/inverter to meet your freezer needs. A 12V freezer will be higher in initial outlay but operate with less power.If you don't travel but a few miles, you could either invert 120V off the truck or make a dash for it before temps rose in the freezer. Using an insulative blanket or box would greatly aid in slowing heat transfer.

westend wrote:If you don't travel but a few miles, you could either invert 120V off the truck or make a dash for it before temps rose in the freezer. Using an insulative blanket or box would greatly aid in slowing heat transfer.I studied insulating the "modern" chest freezers, and apparently it's not recommended. Rather than an external cooling fins, which become clogged over time with debris, the new units have the fins sealed into the walls of the unit, and radiate their heat through the skin. Insulating these walls would trap the heat, and cause the device to malfunction or operate with terrible efficiency.Do you have first hand experience with a chest freezer thawing quickly without power? I've had my home upright freezer go nearly two days without power and nothing thawed out... it could have made it longer, but power was restored.

Additional freezer? | Good Sam Community

jweb98
Explorer
Feb 02, 2017
We bought an Avanti VFR14PS-IS 1.4 cu. ft. Dual Function Refrigerator or Freezer from Amazon last spring. It gets down to -14 and runs off truck when traveling and solar when we are parked through a inverter. Only $160 and stays well below freezing over night when it is not powered. We have it permently mounted in the rear of our trailer.
Huntindog
Explorer
Feb 02, 2017
CavemanCharlie wrote:
Wow, I love that you guys are camping in such out of the way areas !! I didn't even know that such places exist anymore. Where I camp I am never more then a 20 minute drive from a store. I don't need to carry that much cold food with me.
Take a trip out west. We rarely have anyone in sight, or earshot... Downside is you gotta be prepared for anything. Supplies or help is hard to come by.
I would not want it any other way.
NYCgrrl
Explorer
Feb 02, 2017
GordonThree wrote:
CavemanCharlie wrote:
Wow, I love that you guys are camping in such out of the way areas !! I didn't even know that such places exist anymore. Where I camp I am never more then a 20 minute drive from a store. I don't need to carry that much cold food with me.

A little sarcasm there?

Yes, I have camped so far out of the way, there were no stores within a day's drive, perhaps further.

But more to the point, just one example, I want to buy steaks at Meijer on sale for 4.99 lb before I leave on a week long trip, rather than pay some mom 'n pop near the campground 12.99 for the same meat. Who knows how long it's been in their freezer where I know and trust the butcher at my home town store.

This is one of the reasons I had the RV manufacturer change the refrigerator unit to an all freezer:c.
For the way we eat it's easier to put a fresh food cooler within the TT.
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 02, 2017
CavemanCharlie wrote:
Wow, I love that you guys are camping in such out of the way areas !! I didn't even know that such places exist anymore. Where I camp I am never more then a 20 minute drive from a store. I don't need to carry that much cold food with me.

A little sarcasm there?

Yes, I have camped so far out of the way, there were no stores within a day's drive, perhaps further.

But more to the point, just one example, I want to buy steaks at Meijer on sale for 4.99 lb before I leave on a week long trip, rather than pay some mom 'n pop near the campground 12.99 for the same meat. Who knows how long it's been in their freezer where I know and trust the butcher at my home town store.
CavemanCharlie
Explorer III
Feb 02, 2017
Wow, I love that you guys are camping in such out of the way areas !! I didn't even know that such places exist anymore. Where I camp I am never more then a 20 minute drive from a store. I don't need to carry that much cold food with me.
Huntindog
Explorer
Feb 01, 2017
GordonThree wrote:
Huntindog wrote:
GordonThree wrote:
afidel wrote:
The Wynn's really like their dometic 120/12/24v freezer and they're on a boat in the tropics so anything short of the desert is going to be easier by comparison.

My level of funding is not quite up to what that young couple enjoys. I'm sticking with a ~$150 unit from home depot or walmart...

I carry a cheap 5.0 cubic foot freezer on my rear rack. I installed a toggle switch to bypass the T-stat. So when I am boondocking, I can make sure that the freezer never shutsoff when on generator power. It will pull down to 40 below. Then it can last a loooong time before needing to cool down again.
I did have to make a custom cover so the rain would not freeze the lid shut.
I used coroplast and eternabond. It fits like a glove.

I like that idea for the cover... does it fit like a cap? covering the lid and down the sides just a bit? that's how I picture it at least.

I was thinking of bypassing the t-stat as well, put in my own cut out t-stat set to a higher temp, so I could have the freezer work like a fridge instead, depending on needs.
yes, you are picturing it just like it is.
LarryJM
Explorer II
Feb 01, 2017
PamfromVA wrote:
We bought this one about five years ago and love it. Stays in the camper and we turn it on and load it up for our long trips.

https://www.compactappliance.com/fp430-compact-edgestar-portable-refrigerator-freezer/FP430.html

We've been using the NORCOLD MRFT-40 (63qt capacity) since 2007 and while pricey it has been well worth the cost of admission. I would have gotten a larger one, but couldn't fit it in the back bedroom where it lives. I basically doubles our freezer capacity and keeps IC rock hard. Maintains temp of around -8 deg F. Ours works off both AC and 12V DC and switches automatically similar to the way our frigs work in trailers switching between AC and Gas. The NORCOLD, EDGESTARS, and ENGLES are all basically the same and IIRC use the DANFOSS based ultra high efficient low power compressor.

In fact I just bought an identical used one off e-bay for $200 so I don't have to move the one for the trailer from the house to the trailer when loading up for a trip. We kept the single one in the house to load up the freezer at our convenience and then fill up the trailer frig freezer in stages and then finally taking the portable freezer with us in the trailer which give us around 3 cu ft of total freezer space. Makes packing for our extended roadtrips much more convenient which generally takes a couple of weeks to do before leaving.

Larry
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 01, 2017
Huntindog wrote:
GordonThree wrote:
afidel wrote:
The Wynn's really like their dometic 120/12/24v freezer and they're on a boat in the tropics so anything short of the desert is going to be easier by comparison.

My level of funding is not quite up to what that young couple enjoys. I'm sticking with a ~$150 unit from home depot or walmart...

I carry a cheap 5.0 cubic foot freezer on my rear rack. I installed a toggle switch to bypass the T-stat. So when I am boondocking, I can make sure that the freezer never shutsoff when on generator power. It will pull down to 40 below. Then it can last a loooong time before needing to cool down again.
I did have to make a custom cover so the rain would not freeze the lid shut.
I used coroplast and eternabond. It fits like a glove.

I like that idea for the cover... does it fit like a cap? covering the lid and down the sides just a bit? that's how I picture it at least.

I was thinking of bypassing the t-stat as well, put in my own cut out t-stat set to a higher temp, so I could have the freezer work like a fridge instead, depending on needs.
Huntindog
Explorer
Feb 01, 2017
GordonThree wrote:
afidel wrote:
The Wynn's really like their dometic 120/12/24v freezer and they're on a boat in the tropics so anything short of the desert is going to be easier by comparison.

My level of funding is not quite up to what that young couple enjoys. I'm sticking with a ~$150 unit from home depot or walmart...

I carry a cheap 5.0 cubic foot freezer on my rear rack. I installed a toggle switch to bypass the T-stat. So when I am boondocking, I can make sure that the freezer never shutsoff when on generator power. It will pull down to 40 below. Then it can last a loooong time before needing to cool down again.
I did have to make a custom cover so the rain would not freeze the lid shut.
I used coroplast and eternabond. It fits like a glove.
GordonThree
Explorer
Feb 01, 2017
afidel wrote:
The Wynn's really like their dometic 120/12/24v freezer and they're on a boat in the tropics so anything short of the desert is going to be easier by comparison.

My level of funding is not quite up to what that young couple enjoys. I'm sticking with a ~$150 unit from home depot or walmart...

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