Lance versus Arctic Fox, fridge in wall slide?

[pcoplin]

Currently have a hard side Lance, looking to upgrade to a slide unit. Most lances are just dinette slides, but the Arctic Fox have the full wall slide with the fridge in it.

I'd like the full wall slide, but concerned with fridge performance in the slide, using the side vent instead of the overhead. How is it? Anything to worry about?

Thanks for the help,

Paul

[trail-explorer]

pcoplin wrote:
Are these fans installed from factory, or are these the add-ons I'll need to install?

Yes, Fan is installed. Northwood installs them when the camper is built

[work2much]

wnjj wrote:

No doubt there with the larger over the rails floor plans. I was thinking more of the 9.5 foot campers where there even was the option of dinette-only slide versus full wall. The fridge slides out further but the floor plan remains the same. The extra space is a carpeted step in front of the fridge and the booth still sticks out the same so you can’t pass by each other any easier.

I can see that it would make a nice spot for a dog to sit/lay down.

Either way having to make a decision about options is a good problem to have. 😉

I see your point. That's how our Arctic Fox was. You're right the slide doesn't allow any increased walking room in front of the fridge and wardrobe. Aside from a small place to throw a pillow and lean against the wall it isn't terribly usable space.

[wnjj]

work2much wrote:

wnjj wrote:
I don’t get the appeal of full wall slides. I like the fridge close to the cooking area and venting through the roof without fans is a bonus. You don’t gain much for usable space since the area in front of the fridge has to stay open anyway.

You might if you travelled in one. You gain a huge amount of space. Across from our fridge is an enormous pantry.

No doubt there with the larger over the rails floor plans. I was thinking more of the 9.5 foot campers where there even was the option of dinette-only slide versus full wall. The fridge slides out further but the floor plan remains the same. The extra space is a carpeted step in front of the fridge and the booth still sticks out the same so you can’t pass by each other any easier.

I can see that it would make a nice spot for a dog to sit/lay down.

Either way having to make a decision about options is a good problem to have. 😉

[work2much]

wnjj wrote:
I don’t get the appeal of full wall slides. I like the fridge close to the cooking area and venting through the roof without fans is a bonus. You don’t gain much for usable space since the area in front of the fridge has to stay open anyway.

You might if you travelled in one. You gain a huge amount of space. Across from our fridge is an enormous pantry.

[work2much]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
'Work2much'

Those additions to the lower access cover louvers are to aid in keeping flame from blowing out while in transit.
Air Foil Baffle Kit

Maybe. There is also a baffle on the top that seems to force air all the way out of the top through the cooling fins. We didn't have these baffles on our AF 1150 and it stayed lit when we drove. That camper also had the fridge in the slide.

[pcoplin]

wnjj wrote:
I don’t get the appeal of full wall slides. I like the fridge close to the cooking area and venting through the roof without fans is a bonus. You don’t gain much for usable space since the area in front of the fridge has to stay open anyway. I guess the more open feeling can matter to some.

Like others have said, there are many, many slide-mounted fridges doing just fine.

WIth two adults, two small kids, and two dogs, the extra floor space would be more better. The dogs for sure get in the way when we all have to be in the camper.

[wnjj]

I don’t get the appeal of full wall slides. I like the fridge close to the cooking area and venting through the roof without fans is a bonus. You don’t gain much for usable space since the area in front of the fridge has to stay open anyway. I guess the more open feeling can matter to some.

Like others have said, there are many, many slide-mounted fridges doing just fine.

[Old-Biscuit]

'Work2much'

Those additions to the lower access cover louvers are to aid in keeping flame from blowing out while in transit.
Air Foil Baffle Kit

[bighatnohorse]

A note about full wall slides - they are heavy and tend to tilt the truck when extended. The tilt places extra strain on the camper frame.

That same full wall slide weight is retracted on the inside of the camper when going down the road (think bumps, railroad crossings, bridge overpasses).
It's just like driving with the slide out, only not as dangerous.

I would expect to see a slight crack at the lower front corner of the frame opening after a few years of travel.

Full wall slides are made to sell "big spacious" campers. I don't think the proper engineering is in them yet.

[GeoBoy]

Our AF990 refrigerator would have to be turned up to 8 - 9 to keep things cool because of the side vent design. So I did some research and discovered the ARPrv controller with 2 fans, we run the refrigerator on setting 6 now and the ice cream is hard and the beer frosty cold. Great mod to a side vent refrigerator.

[Devocamper]

We also added two fans to replace the original factory single fan , the original was pretty loud !

[Jack_Spratt]

We had the larger fridge in the slide of our AF 811
No issues with fridge but it sure opened up the living area.

[work2much]

As mentioned above the fridge will have a helper fan. We upgraded ours to 2 fans that are much quieter. It can also be helpful to cover the lower vents in the top vent to force air over the coils better.

Here is a couple pictures of how our top vent was modified. I'm not sure if this was done by Dometic or Host.





Here is the stock fan which despite its diminutive size is quite noisy.



Here are the two fans that replaced it.



The fridge cooled fine with the stock fan but after replacing the single fan with two larger fans we found that we had to turn the temperature setting down on the fridge as we were starting to freeze things in the fridge.

[Grit_dog]

There's a ton of them on the road. We've had 2 different ones, older. Never an issue. It's not a problem.