Executive wrote:
NEVER refuel your vehicle with any pilot lights lit, including your fridge and your water heater!! Period!! Just like using your cell phone while refueling is dangerous. If there is a fuel spill, the fuel can spread and the FUMES could ignite due to your carelessness. Just because your trailer is not close to YOUR pump it may be close to someone else who is pumping in the next lane. Don't be foolish around fueling stations.
Ok, folks, the bit about the cell phone use while refueling being dangerous is one of those myths that won't die. See
Snopes for further information about that.
That said, it is just generally a bad idea to do anything while distracted on your phone: driving, walking, fueling your car, etc.
And otherwise, there is some additional risk involved with refueling in the vicinity of a lit pilot light.
But to chime in on the Original Question: while you can safely drive with the fridge on propane, you can as easily drive with it off for 5 or 6 hours without it warming up excessively. And indeed you cannot take a rig with the propane on through many tunnels or aboard any ferries.
I've spent months and travelled thousands of miles with my fridge running on propane without incident. Since my TV is diesel, I've also rarely had to shut off the fridge while refueling, as diesel is not flammable like gasoline, and there's no gasoline around the diesel truck pumps.
