In my previous RVs I liked to travel with propane off at tanks as safety measure.
The older fridge models had manual switches that when I opted for 120v from inverter - they would stay or die on this mode.
Motorhomes had bigger charging wires, so running fridge for couple of hr on house batteries, still would recharge them when I continue driving later.
Now I would like to do the same on TC and having built-in inverter on my truck, would be nice to take advantage of it and secure 120V cable from truck directly to the fridge plug.
My dilemma is the computerized system, that when I stop at gas station and turn the truck off - in lack of 120V the computer will start sparking the igniter and with lack of propane it will spark for a while.
That brings safety concern at gas station as well.
So for those who are good with computer controls - how to override the propane option and let the fridge go off or into 12V mode when 120V turns off?
The older fridge models had manual switches that when I opted for 120v from inverter - they would stay or die on this mode.
Motorhomes had bigger charging wires, so running fridge for couple of hr on house batteries, still would recharge them when I continue driving later.
Now I would like to do the same on TC and having built-in inverter on my truck, would be nice to take advantage of it and secure 120V cable from truck directly to the fridge plug.
My dilemma is the computerized system, that when I stop at gas station and turn the truck off - in lack of 120V the computer will start sparking the igniter and with lack of propane it will spark for a while.
That brings safety concern at gas station as well.
So for those who are good with computer controls - how to override the propane option and let the fridge go off or into 12V mode when 120V turns off?
The way I check the controls - the on/off and and auto/propane are manual buttons.
Once I press on and then auto, when panel comes to life and 120V is automatic default.
To turn 12V heating, there is 3rd manual button, but that will stay off all the time.
That part sounds easy at this point.
Now have to figure out how to run the 120V cable.
Can't be bed-mounted becouse my camper fits with minimal clearance and can shear the cable on bed edge.
So drilling small hole in back of the cabin to run cable with weather-proof female connector, than another hole on the bottom of fridge compartment and male connector under fridge floor plugs into female from the cab.
This way it is easy to plug and in case I forget to unplug (when dropping the camper), they will simply pull off.
It cooled down to 110F, so if colder weather stays, I can start doing camper side.
Once I press on and then auto, when panel comes to life and 120V is automatic default.
To turn 12V heating, there is 3rd manual button, but that will stay off all the time.
That part sounds easy at this point.
Now have to figure out how to run the 120V cable.
Can't be bed-mounted becouse my camper fits with minimal clearance and can shear the cable on bed edge.
So drilling small hole in back of the cabin to run cable with weather-proof female connector, than another hole on the bottom of fridge compartment and male connector under fridge floor plugs into female from the cab.
This way it is easy to plug and in case I forget to unplug (when dropping the camper), they will simply pull off.
It cooled down to 110F, so if colder weather stays, I can start doing camper side.
I hope you had "highly-combustible beverage" to enjoy while watching?
Is it Eric or Lisa BTW?
Is it Eric or Lisa BTW?
"It never happen to me". 🙂
Hard to understand the mentality on forum who suppose has mature only members.
Back to technical dispute. I pulled the control panel on my Dometic and the main switch is soldered into computer board. It is dual switch anyway.
So soldering new wires to computer board is a bit risky for me.
But the 12V supply wires are right on the back of the fridge next to 120V plug, so I think I can put a relay on main 12V wire -leaving the switch on panel ON all the time. That would make for 30 amp relay, but that's OK.
That is how my mechanical skill would figure it out, but any guy good with electronics see something wrong with it?
Hard to understand the mentality on forum who suppose has mature only members.
Back to technical dispute. I pulled the control panel on my Dometic and the main switch is soldered into computer board. It is dual switch anyway.
So soldering new wires to computer board is a bit risky for me.
But the 12V supply wires are right on the back of the fridge next to 120V plug, so I think I can put a relay on main 12V wire -leaving the switch on panel ON all the time. That would make for 30 amp relay, but that's OK.
That is how my mechanical skill would figure it out, but any guy good with electronics see something wrong with it?
When gas stations have several levels of safety and their blow -ups are unheard of, they still have regulations who prohibits entering them with flames.
Than I think I already wrote 3 times that gas stations are only 1 of several issues here.
Google "RV fires" and you will find lot of incidents where RV was totaled mostly becouse of propane fire.
It is just like seat belts issue. You don't hear every day that somebody got killed by not buckling up, yet you still buckle up.
EDIT. You never know until you check.
Gas stations fires are not as rare as we would like to think about.
We can speculate how many of them were due to open propane, but as I said -overheated brakes on motorhomes have lot of record of burning whole RV simply becouse of live propane lines.
1 of listed fires was started by a bus with overheated brakes.. downtown San Francisco.
Go figure.
GAS STATIONS FIRES
Than I think I already wrote 3 times that gas stations are only 1 of several issues here.
Google "RV fires" and you will find lot of incidents where RV was totaled mostly becouse of propane fire.
It is just like seat belts issue. You don't hear every day that somebody got killed by not buckling up, yet you still buckle up.
EDIT. You never know until you check.
Gas stations fires are not as rare as we would like to think about.
We can speculate how many of them were due to open propane, but as I said -overheated brakes on motorhomes have lot of record of burning whole RV simply becouse of live propane lines.
1 of listed fires was started by a bus with overheated brakes.. downtown San Francisco.
Go figure.
GAS STATIONS FIRES
So far I run my 120V air compressor on Ford inverter, so that is good.
It is small compressor, but you know they need high amp for start, what makes them good supply testers.
When it comes to "dirty" voltage - fridge uses resistor heating element and they will run no matter how all the power surges.
Additional, I have lot of stuff in my garage, so instead of buying 120V relay, I will use small 12V power supply and 12V relay who I already have.
Used them this way in my house for humidifier, what with addition of WI-FI plug made for home automation. Those small power supplies will run on anything between 70 and 250V.
I don't plan to use my camper for next 2 months, but when temperatures drop a bit from 115F we have daily, I will get on the project preparation.
Main issue will be finding safe way of running 120V cable from cabin to fridge compartment.
Ford installed inverter behind rear seat, but the plug is on dashboard. I already check that it would be hard to tap into inverner harness, so running the cable to front plug will be probably best option.
It is small compressor, but you know they need high amp for start, what makes them good supply testers.
When it comes to "dirty" voltage - fridge uses resistor heating element and they will run no matter how all the power surges.
Additional, I have lot of stuff in my garage, so instead of buying 120V relay, I will use small 12V power supply and 12V relay who I already have.
Used them this way in my house for humidifier, what with addition of WI-FI plug made for home automation. Those small power supplies will run on anything between 70 and 250V.
I don't plan to use my camper for next 2 months, but when temperatures drop a bit from 115F we have daily, I will get on the project preparation.
Main issue will be finding safe way of running 120V cable from cabin to fridge compartment.
Ford installed inverter behind rear seat, but the plug is on dashboard. I already check that it would be hard to tap into inverner harness, so running the cable to front plug will be probably best option.
