Help I'm new to campers

You can replace the back side plumbing, heating, part but the fridge has to be out of the camper. Its a process but you can do it for less than half the cost of a new one. You Tube!

Ram,

Welcome!

I did the same thing in our first tt. Mounted a 4cu ft, 2 door dorm/apartment fridge. Worked of great, even on trips that took about 3 hrs to get there (stopping for breakfast/restroom). Only thing I will suggest if you didn't is to consider sealing around the fridge to keep the warm air from coming into the living area.

I will try to find pics from when I mounted ours. I used 1/2" (or so) plywood, screwed into the wood border. I then screwed (maybe 1" or 1.5") strips of plywood on the inside of the plywood filler, sandwiching a garage door seal between them, with the angled part toward the fridge, angled toward the living area. When I slid the fridge in, it bent the seal back againstt it's natural "angle", keeping a pretty good deal against the fridge. I also mounted a small 110v fan (one that rotates 180*) behind the fridge pointing up. Only used the fan on warmer days. Everything worked as planned!!!

Also get a childproof fridge lock for when traveling. Don't want stuff falling out. We have used the one that sticks on the side of the fridge and has a vinyl strap that goes around the corner to the door, sliding into the base.

Hope it all works great for you!

That was fast work! For your situation, you'll probably be fine running it with the inverter; I don't think it could drag your battery too low to run the fridge off it for just 2 hours, and it will keep everything at proper temp.

Happy camping!

I'm just gonna see how this dorm fridge works out I'm not gonna drop 1100 on one this camper is temporary till I get a bigger one next year

I had to replace my fridge last weekend. Similar situation - went to precool the fridge on Wednesday and it wouldnt cool for a Friday trip. Found the ammonia evidence. Used a dorm fridge for the weekend until the replacement arrived. It really was a simple job to replace it. The three hardest things were: getting the old mounting screws out (one was in a stripped out hole so it would just spin in place rather than backing out, and one was at an angle that was difficult to get with a driver), getting the fridges through door (1/8 of an inch clearance with the fridge doors off), and last but not least -paying for the new fridge ($1,100 - ouch!). All is good now. If you decide to do this - remember on Dometic fridges the door panels are sold separately. Mine slide onto the door from the top down. My old ones fit perfectly, but I had to put them on the door before installing the fridge because the doors are close to the ceiling and there wasnt enough clearance above when the doors are on the mounted fridge.

We only go like to cg only about a 2 hour ride from the house as we both work full time and add the dorm fridge I have already took out the old fridge last night and put the dorm fridge in and will be adding a 12v power converter jic if we need it to run off the batteries

mobilefleet wrote:
replace the fridge. Ammonia leak in cooling unit

X 2 RV refrigerators have a "life span" and this is shortened if previous owner(s) weren't careful about leveling the RV before running the refrigerator. Your dorm room fridge idea is OK if you're just heading to a local CG for a couple of days but will be a pain if you plan to take long trips. JMHO

A dorm fridge will only maintain coolness for a couple hours while unplugged for travel. If you are camping close to home this works ok. For farther away, you can prolong coolness by freezing a jug or two of water at home and putting them in the fridge before leaving. This all assumes you will have shore power at the CG. If not, a different solution (other than dorm fridge) is advisable.

Where's the green stuff coming from - the controller board, or somewhere in the plumbing?

I know not to do that was just testing to see if it would work and after a few seconds of it working started the green stuff I pulled the fuse and unplugged the fridge guess I'll be pulling it out tonight and putting in a dorm room fridge