Refrigerator Question

Oreonut wrote:


How do you travel with the fridge running without the risk of draining the truck battery at meal stops? We do have a small solar system that came with the trailer but that is all new to us too.

This may be an option for you, as it worked for us for years before we started running the fridge while traveling.

Create several freezer blocks as you put them in the ice chest. In our case, we had the fridge plugged in at home a full day ahead of the trip to cool down the fridge before we put food in. We had the freezer blocks unfrozen in the freezer section the day before not to have to carry them frozen from the house. The blocks were frozen and the fridge cooled down before we put the food in the night before the trip.

The night before we headed out, we packed the fridge and freezer fully filled with food still plugged in. If yours has no freezer, then pre-freeze them. The fridge with food was cooled down and only maintained temp over light. Before we left for travel, we moved several freezer blocks from the freezer to the fridge compartment. There was still some left in the freezer.

On 4-hour drives, the fridge never lost more than 1 or 2 degrees inside. On an 8 hr tow, we could lose about 4 to 5 deg. Went from 32F to 38F

The main thing, precool the fridge with food in it. Only open the door to move the blocks, then do not open the door until you are plugged back into shore power.

We use one of the simple remote wireless outdoor battery-operated thermometers inside the fridge and the display on the wall outside the fridge. Then we can see the inside temp and not open the door.

I know you said you were not plugged in the night before; the only thought is, again, to make sure all food and the fridge are cooled down before you unplug for the night with the freezer blocks in place. And read the wireless thermometer the next morning to see how much you lost in temp. The nighttime is cooler; you will not lose temp like during the sunshine hours.

Hope this helps.

John