Is Your Fridge Running?

[HappyCamper87]

When you tow?

I ask, because I am leaving for the Fort on Sunday.. and I would like to pack the fridge - We only live about 3 hours away.

If it does run while you tow, does it run off the battery or propane?

I know, I know, stupid question, but I had to ask...

P.S. We are in a travel trailer.

 

[Brumeiser]

We run it while driving to our destination. We can either run it off the battery where we plug the electrical cord to the outlet part which runs off the battery or we can switch it over to propane and have it run off the propane. I hope I am explaining this right.

 

[Donna]

We keep ours on automatic which means if we have the generator on, it will run off that, if generator is off..it runs off the propane (if on), off the electric once we plug in. whole 'nother thread as to whether to run the propane thru tunnels and at gas stations.

 

[clkelley]

My fridge is 12V only and it runs while I'm on the road, but my car battery is charging my camper battery while I'm driving.

 

[medic9016]

I turn on the fridge a few day before we go, our camper stays plugged in at home. Then runs off propane while traveling.

 

[njcamper95]

A tt will run on gas while on the road and needs the battery to ignite the burner to make it work we use ours while heading to disney but we travel fron NJ so all our stuff would go bad in the 2 day trip if we didn't
Tunnels you are suppose to either turn your gas off or take the bypass which is marked hazmat this is what we do and as mentioned earlier we leave ours on auto also so when we plug in at camp we are switched over to electric most tt's only run on electric when plugged in to a outlet at camp or home

 

[HappyCamper87]

Thank you everyone! I appreciate the info.

I did know it ran on electric when plugged in and we do keep ours on auto. I think we'll be okay. Just first trip to the Fort and the longest trip so far, we've only camped locally since we got the TT in April and I guess I'm a little nervous. I'm sure DH has it all under control.

 

[RunningKicksButt]

Yup-ours runs while we tow our 5th wheel. We load it two days before our trip. We stop along the way at rest stops and eat lunch/dinner. Enjoy your stay.

 

[AuburnJen92]

i load ours about 3 or 4 days out and run it on auto (ours is propane) and it stays nice and cold...it sure beats packing everything in coolers...

have a great trip

 

[Camping Cat]

If you are only 3 hours away, you would be fine just shutting your fridge off while you are traveling. As long as you turn your refrigerator on a couple of days before the trip so it is nice and cold and load it up with already cold stuff, it will stay cold for at least those 3 hours you will be on the road. I was given that advice here on the FW board by a very wise person and I checked it out at home before we left. I put a ziplock bag with ice cubes in my already cold refrigerator and also the freezer section, then turned off the fridge and closed the door tightly. I checked back after 4 hours and again for the next 2 hours. The ice in the refrigerator section was starting to melt just a little after 4 hours but the cubes in the freezer stayed frozen. So, I knew the contents of our fridge would be fine for a few hours at a time without the propane turned on.

 

[chilipyro]

Not a dumb question at all. In fact, the related question of whether you should shut the fridge off (from propane) before filling at a gas station is a hotly debated topic at every camping forum I have visited. Hint: you will not find a clear answer to that question, but a search will turn up much information that you should know about before making your own choice.

Unless you have a very small fridge, it will only run on propane or 110vac. My popup fridge was able to operate on 12vdc, and that is what I used while traveling - mostly because the propane would not stay lit while driving. Propane is the most efficient method of keeping the fridge cool, followed by 110vac and then 12vdc. Operating on 12vdc (if your fridge is capable of that) will drain your battery pretty quickly, if you were to leave it running that way while not driving. So, make sure to switch off the 12vdc after your stop.

Now that we are camping with a TT, the fridge is running on propane while driving. I plug the trailer in to 110vac a couple of days before leaving, to cool it down. When I unplug from shore power, it switches over to propane automatically. It is not possible to run our TT fridge on 12vdc.

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Here's my 2 cents. I start the fridge a couple of days prior to leaving to cool it down. Fill it with food prior also and use as much frozen food as possible. It acts as a giant cooler on the way down so I don't have to run it off the propane for our 19 hour trip. If you don't open and close it a lot, it is okay. When we stop overnight, I plug it in and cool it down again. I think for your 3 hour trip there is no reason to run the fridge if it has been properly cooled and loaded ahead of time. As far as turning off the propane at gas stations, if you read your owner's manual it will tell you to do this. I think it's more of a potential liability issue than an actual problem, since I have never heard of gas stations blowing up from the flame on an RV fridge, but I figure, why take any chances.

 

[HappyCamper87]

Not a dumb question at all.

Thanks, I needed that...

Here's my 2 cents. I start the fridge a couple of days prior to leaving to cool it down. Fill it with food prior also and use as much frozen food as possible. It acts as a giant cooler on the way down so I don't have to run it off the propane for our 19 hour trip.

Well, if it works for a 19 hour trip, I'm not sweating it. We will have it on for a couple of days before we go, plugged in of course and then even towing the trailer we will be at the fort in 4 hours. So thanks for sharing

i load ours about 3 or 4 days out and run it on auto (ours is propane) and it stays nice and cold...it sure beats packing everything in coolers...

have a great trip

Thank you nice lady.

 

[LarryJ]

When you tow?

I ask, because I am leaving for the Fort on Sunday.. and I would like to pack the fridge - We only live about 3 hours away.

If it does run while you tow, does it run off the battery or propane?

I know, I know, stupid question, but I had to ask...

P.S. We are in a travel trailer.

I leave it on automatic and usually start loading it up 2 weeks or so before leaving, just because we can. Same for our electric only N645 freezer which runs off 12V or 110v and again has an automatic switchover and it only draws like 2A on DC.

Larry

 

[Shan-man]

I would add that you might want to consider adding a thermometer to the inside of your fridge. I have a couple of clip-on cheapies from WalMart, which can help confirm what coldness setting to use (so food stays cold enough without freezing the lettuce) and give you peace of mind that your time unplugged on the road didn't cause unsafe temps. What I would really like to have a hi-lo therm, which has tabs that show what temp extremes your food has been exposed to. I travel with my gas on and have had no troubles, and really only turn it off on ferries, as instructed. But, my drive to the Fort is much longer. I generally turn on the fridge 24-hours before we start loading it, or about 30 hours before we depart.

 

[Mmketeer]

We live about an hour and 20 min from the Fort and we don't run our frig while traveling. We turn it on the day before we leave , I pack it the night before we go. It's stays cold enough for us to make it there even during the middle of summer. Course' we always have left over ice for the trip back so that helps and then of course once we make it back we plug it all back up again for me to unload it.

 

[LarryJ]

I would add that you might want to consider adding a thermometer to the inside of your fridge. I have a couple of clip-on cheapies from WalMart, which can help confirm what coldness setting to use (so food stays cold enough without freezing the lettuce) and give you peace of mind that your time unplugged on the road didn't cause unsafe temps. What I would really like to have a hi-lo therm, which has tabs that show what temp extremes your food has been exposed to. I travel with my gas on and have had no troubles, and really only turn it off on ferries, as instructed. But, my drive to the Fort is much longer. I generally turn on the fridge 24-hours before we start loading it, or about 30 hours before we depart.

That's a great idea and something I have done for the last 15 years or so and forgot about since wasn't a direct question in this thread. I even had an aux fan setup to turn a fan on inside (still have the aux inside fan, but is manual along with the blue 2 "D" cell fan that runs all the time) the frig to help cool things and keep the inside frig temp more even. I've been using the following on my last two trailers for over 10 years. Nice and compact, but alas it seemed to be no longer available. It's even more important because of the wifes diabetes meds that for the unopened stuff needs to be refrigerated and can't be frozen. That pic was taken about 10min ago in our preps for this month's trip the FW.

Larry

 

[disney4dan]

Lots of great advice here. I would just like to add in that most gas stations now are set up in ways to minimize any loss of vapors (at some it's because of clean air regulations, others it's mainly because of the availability of excellent equipment that reduces liability). Let's face it, the switch to self service gas stations pushed the industry to "idiot proof" the operation as much as possible, because leaks are expensive and dangerous things that ruin business. So the chances are very small that anything will happen. I still see people who smoke at gas stations while filling up. Your RV fridge is probably a good 15 or 20 feet further away from the dispenser than a cigarette is when someone is smoking while filling up.

With that said, I don't like to travel with my fridge running because it only runs on propane when travelling and tends to blow out anyway. We did try to keep it running while on the way to the Fort this August because we would be on the road for 8 to 10 hours (or more some days). Many times I would check it at rest stops and would find that the flame had blown out and the fridge was in "fault" mode.

 

[des1954]

The other item you may wish to buy is a refrigerator fan. It circulates the air in the fridge & helps avoid super cold spots. We find when we camp in the summer here in Florida, it's very helpful. Not needed so much in the winter when the temps aren't as high.

 

[HappyCamper87]

The other item you may wish to buy is a refrigerator fan. It circulates the air in the fridge & helps avoid super cold spots. We find when we camp in the summer here in Florida, it's very helpful. Not needed so much in the winter when the temps aren't as high.

Thanks Deb, that sounds like a great idea. I hate it when something freezes in the fridge.

I'll be there in 24 hours!