Best way to travel with Food?

jeanneross10 · 02-27-2013, 02:31 PM

New to the camper world. Wanted to know the best way to travel with food in the refrigerator 120v & propane only. I know it is not a good idea to run propane while traveling since the stakes are high. Do we use an inverter? Please any advise is appreciated. We had a 3 way fridge in an RV we had for a few weeks, but it died on us, so we did not get to use it but once.

Thanks EJ

EMD_Driver · 02-27-2013, 05:00 PM

Hi EJ..

Why would you not run the fridge on propane while traveling? Unless you are going through a tunnel, there should be no reason. We always travel with the fridge in automatic mode. Just make sure that you get the unit as level as possible, if you won't be moving for a while.

**JohnB** · 02-27-2013, 06:02 PM

When we travel, the fridge was cooled down the night before and the food cold to start with.

When it is time to hit the road, we move freezer blocks from the freezer to the fridge, turn the fridge off and leave the door closed until we get to camp or where ever we are going. This has works well on all the camps we have been to (1 to 8 hours) but one. We had a Meet and Greet last year where we needed to bring ice cream. Everything made it well including ice cubes in the freezer, but the ice cream was more cream then ice. This was a 9 hour tow with gas, potty and lunch break.

Hope this helps

John

mainah · 02-27-2013, 07:15 PM

The only reason I can see not to use propane is when refueling if it's close to your gas fill. I cool mine at night plugged in before I leave switch to gas and head out. Never had it go out while driving. As long as you are moving level is not important the solution sloshes around enough not to be an issue.

**Tweety** · 02-27-2013, 08:06 PM

We cool down the fridge over night, load it with food the next day. We freeze water in half gallon jugs and put one in the freezer and one in the fridge, and travel with the fridge off. We've never done that for longer than about 4 hours, and that works fine...even with ice cream

underdog · 02-28-2013, 07:36 AM

Always just ran on propane. As the others say, load the night before and have the food cold or frozen first. The old motorhome was a bit of a pain since if the flame got blown out you had to relight manually. It would happen sometimes on the interstate when big rigs passed. Someone would have to walk back & check periodically. This new one has an automatic relight feature which is really nice.

awellis3 · 02-28-2013, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mainah

The only reason I can see not to use propane is when refueling if it's close to your gas fill. I cool mine at night plugged in before I leave switch to gas and head out. Never had it go out while driving. As long as you are moving level is not important the solution sloshes around enough not to be an issue.

A big ol' X2 to that.

Teach

pwb01 · 03-01-2013, 06:37 PM

Some campers have fridges with a 12v operation as an option. That's the ideal situation. Run it on propane, stop short of the pump and just shut it down when refueling. Don't want an open flame near gasoline. Depending on the daily travel time sometimes I'll shut it down before I leave, stop for fuel then re-start after fuel. Rarely stop twice in one days travel. Lots of options and ways to handle it.

WASA 1500 · 03-02-2013, 07:27 AM

EJ,
An inverter can run your 120 side, may need a "cleaner" one. the cheaper ones are square wave, if yours is electronic controlled. They draw a lot of 12v, so one may upgrade charge wire on tt and tv. Add second battery.
An 8 cu draw is 300- 350 ac watts= 30 amp dc !!! - Check your data tag inside or out side the refer. Larger units need more heat.

Our tt came with a 120 compressor type, po replaced the dometic.

Cooled down with cold food - off stays cold for 2+ hours, it cools down quicker than yours. Our Tc has a 3 way rm2400 draw is 10 amps on dc.

You could add a 12 v element to your dometic, I did this on one years ago, don't like lp flame in transit, IMHO.
Even if it is less watts than the 120v it will keep the unit warm, to recover quickly after stopping and lighting of gas / elec.
dometic did have smaller watt dc on there larger boxes , amp draw to high.

mainah · 03-03-2013, 08:29 AM

The 12v DC side on a camper fridge is an energy hog the element is about the same wattage as the 120 but 10 times the current draw so your camper battery would have to be getting a charge from your TV or you'll end up with a dead camper battery and warm food. There are some co. that are making 12 volt compressor fridges now that pretty good but pricey. Many have replaced gas fridges with dorm style fridges but they too are energy hogs on 12 volts and require an inverter further adding to the current draw. Of course being plugged in would solve that problem.

**JohnB** · 03-03-2013, 12:27 PM

On our Coleman PU, we had 3 way fridge. The 12 volt DC option was a lot lower wattage heat probe. I do not know the wattage but it was lower. It would "help" keep the fridge cool but was not large enough to cool the entire fridge down.

The normal 120 VAC heat probe is about 325 to 350 ish watts if I remember right on the on our Sunline . I really do not what to run that on 12 volts DC. However I might look up what the DC probe is like WASA 1500 was talking about

mainah · 03-03-2013, 01:20 PM

I had a Toyota MH with a 12 volt heater it drew 175 watts a shade over 14 amps that adds up fast. It kept the fridge cool enough but the MH had better be running.