Travel with Food?

[MartyinSC]

I've read the same horror stories about having a propane flame on during refueling. With our old, shorter camper, it might have been a factor. But when we pull up to gas now, the part of the camper with the fridge vent is SO FAR back away from the pump, and the pump island, that I don't worry about it. Especially if the wind is favorable.

[Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Bert

We traveled over 8K miles this summer. Usually driving 8 hours a day and our fridge kept the food cold without it being on. The ice cream may have gotten a little soft but for the most part it stayed cold enough.

Bert, do you have a thermometer in your fridge and freezer?

If I run that long with our fridge turned off, I think things might be in tough shape.

[johnwill]

If I remember right some state laws forbid running with propane on. May want to check this out.

[MartyinSC]

Originally Posted by johnwill

If I remember right some state laws forbid running with propane on. May want to check this out.

Not true in the U.S. Some Canadian provinces may, and many tunnels and ferries prohibit it. Remember, these are designed to run on propane on the road, ever since they quit making a 12V option. Several Google searches provided only this 2010-dated info. This page is not available on their current website: 2010 Driving Laws for the US and Canada

[johnwill]

Your right I searched this and nothing. wow for some reason when I bought mine I saw something about local laws and running propane. Must have been late at night like I am now LOL.

[lenny]

When we had our Seville, we always would fire up the fridge the day before to get it cooled down. Electric or gas didn't seem to make a difference, it needed a fair amount of time to cool off. Then propane on all the time when travelling. We towed it somewhere around 50,000 miles and the only time I shut the propane off was to travel on a ferry.



Our Trilogy has a residential fridge that runs off the inventor when travelling, so everything stays perfectly cold. Those post setup beers have never been so good!

[Bert]

Originally Posted by Lloyd

Bert, do you have a thermometer in your fridge and freezer?

If I run that long with our fridge turned off, I think things might be in tough shape.

I do not have a thermometer. I wanted a fan as well but my wife had the fridge full. But like I said I had no issues only the ice cream got a little soft. Now I kept it on number 5 which froze my eggs a few times. Had to move them to the bottom. They do say a small fan keeps it cooler longer.

[Tim D]

Our Trilogy has a residential fridge that runs off the inventor when travelling, so everything stays perfectly cold. Those post setup beers have never been so good![/QUOTE]

How long will it run on just the batteries?

[Lloyd]

You have to remember, about the only time a rig like that would be running on the batteries is when it's going down the road. They use an inverter, and that would be getting charged by the coach when running.
Really not a rig you see out boon docking.

[Tim D]

Originally Posted by Lloyd

You have to remember, about the only time a rig like that would be running on the batteries is when it's going down the road. They use an inverter, and that would be getting charged by the coach when running.
Really not a rig you see out boon docking.

Sometimes it's the simple things isn't it? I was not even thinking about the tow rig charging it while going down the road.

[jayace]

We leave ours running on LP while on the road as well. I typically bring it home from storage and plug it into shore power to cool it down overnight. Then we can load it up the next morning and we're ready to roll after work. The only thing that has given me issues a couple times in the past on two different trailers is turning the fridge onto LP when I pick it up from storage and travel with it right away. Not sure if it's caused a small air lock or something? It's taken a couple weeks to settle and start working again when that has happened. Now if the fridge has been off and I'm turning it on to LP I make sure it's sitting for a couple hours before I travel with it. If the fridge has already been running and is cool then I don't have a problem disconnecting from shore power and hitting the road right away with it on LP.

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[mark5w]

When I have that problem, I light all the burners on the stove to get the gas to travel through the gas lines. After about 5 minutes, I turn it off. So far, it always works.

[jayace]

I know what you're talking about and have to do that too to get LP to the fridge after everything has been shut off. This was different and I think it was an air lock in the cooling unit of the fridge, not the LP line. The pilot would light but the fridge just wouldn't cool. Wouldn't work on AC either. On my last unit I was a couple weeks away from replacing the entire fridge as everyone I talked to told me the cooling unit had likely failed and wasn't serviceable. Then after a cold night that went down below freezing the darn thing started working again and was fine after that. Go figure.

[Lloyd]

Originally Posted by MartyinSC

I've read the same horror stories about having a propane flame on during refueling. With our old, shorter camper, it might have been a factor. But when we pull up to gas now, the part of the camper with the fridge vent is SO FAR back away from the pump, and the pump island, that I don't worry about it. Especially if the wind is favorable.

Marty, I just wanted add this.
Another thing to keep in mind. Sometimes, it's not your pump that the wind will whip the gasoline fumes back to, but someone else might be pumping gasoline up wind from you.
Example---A friend of mine was welding in his shop. There was an empty gasoline can clear across the building. The gasoline fumes traveled to where he was welding and there was one tremendous bang. It blew the end out of the can and almost put it thru the far wall.
We were both glad neither one of us was in direct line of that can.

One more note for this thread.
A good rule of thumb to remember on these gas fridges like what the most of us have. The freezer will be about 30 degrees colder then what the fridge is. Give or take a couple degrees.

[COCamping]

Originally Posted by Bert

I've read a few articles about fires from having the gas and the fridge on. Also not wanting to have to remember to pull over and shut the gas off before refueling. I had no issues with my food staying cold so why chance it. Obviously you have to get the fridge nice and cold before you head out.

I haven't read horror stories, but I've read debates on this topic. Currently we are staying within a couple hours of home so we just travel with the fridge off. Talking 8 to 12 hour trips next summer, so I suspect we will need to reconsider our approach. Either more frozen food defrosting in the fridge or get comfortable with the idea of the propane on while on the road.

[mark5w]

Get comfortable now with the gas on for the fridge. Just be cautious when fueling up. I'm not aware of any issues of gas problems just driving down the highways and byways. But don't look at the last few pic in the Basecamp Lounge section of this form, the funny rv pictures, it might scare ya.

[johnwill]

Hate to beat a dead horse but I just wanted to let you all know. I loaded both of my refrigerators inside and out with stuff. Started it a few days before. I did get 3 larger plastic Ice blocks from Walmart. froze them and placed them, one in the freezer, one into the frig inside, and placed one into the outside frig. I shut everything down and drove for Myrtle Beach. 12 hours in 88 plus heat outside. I was thinking the worst. once we stopped and open them found that everything was great nothing and 2 Ice packs were still semi frozen the ones in the refrigerators. Freezer everything was still rock hard. I for one see no need to even turn on the LP for travel. I just wanted to see how well they worked and I have to say OUTSTANDING.

[Loneoak]

Our fridge quit working on gas or a/c and a tech fixed it. Here is what it said on the bill:

"Fridge not cooling. Flashing 6 light error code. Locked out because of low voltage. Hard manual reset performed."

Not sure what it all meant, but it hasn't given us trouble since then.

[Lyrics]

Originally Posted by COCamping

I haven't read horror stories, but I've read debates on this topic. Currently we are staying within a couple hours of home so we just travel with the fridge off. Talking 8 to 12 hour trips next summer, so I suspect we will need to reconsider our approach. Either more frozen food defrosting in the fridge or get comfortable with the idea of the propane on while on the road.

We towed an '04 Forest River Wildwood from Alaska to Florida, took a few weeks, longest day of driving was about 16 hours. We did NOT travel with the fridge on (this was during July, it was so hot we had to travel at night through Kansas because we could not keep the bed of the truck cool enough for the critters, even with running evap coolers during the day) and we never lost any food. We traveled in temps up to the high 90s before we had to switch to night driving for the critters.

We recently traveled almost 2000 miles towing our Sunset Trail, had a couple 90+ degree days, again did not travel with the fridge on, and had no spoilage, even with stopping and opening it to make lunch. I did make sure to open and close quickly for lunch, and we did not have ice cream,but our meats stayed frozen solid and the fridge stayed plenty cool. Even our 2nd fridge in the bunkhouse was plenty cool (it's just a plug in, not powered by propane) and we didn't lose anything in it either.

The only time we've had possible food spoilage was due to the 2nd fridge not having power for a couple of days when we kept popping the breaker. I didn't trust that the milk was still good and tossed it.