Lighthawk
Weekend warrior
I thought this might be best served as a separate thread for FWC owners who want to swap out their 3 way fridge with a compressor refrigerator. We chose the Dometic CRX-1065 since it will fit inside the OEM cabinet with no mods to the cabinet face.
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I just installed a Dometic CRX-1065 in our Hawk as replacement to original 3-way Norcold.
I had to remove the optional surface mount flange and replace the 3/4" tall rubber feet with shorter feet.
Otherwise, it slid right into the opening.
We have 120 watt solar with 100 AH battery. According to my math, it's a close call for minimum sun hours and maximum laptop charging along with other devices. We're going to try it out and see if we need to replace the panel with something more robust.
I disconnected the 3/8" gas line and used a flare fitting to cap the gas line under the stove top.
Then I used a grinder to cut down the tabs of the angles holding the cabinet face around the refer opening.
I had to add two pieces of 3/4" plywood on each side to fir in the opening for the new refer, which has four screw connections to the side wall.
I kept the hinge as a right hand (hinge right) because it can swing 180 and allow us to swap out the shelving and optional freezer compartment. Hinge left only allows 110 degree opening which constricts shelf/freezer options. We want flexibility while we figure out how to best use the new fridge.
The wiring was simple. Just crimp on the new black / red leads to the existing black / blue FWC 10 ga. wiring.
The unit fired right up when I pulled out the kill switch on the camper. Voltage dropped from 18v to 13v upon initial cooling. Later I looked at the meter and we were back to 17v +. Temp dropped down from 65F to 34F.
I saw daylight around the edges, mostly at the top. I used some fiberglass batt, cut down and put inside plastic bags and tucked them around the sides and top, secured with a bit of duct tape to close off the gaps. I also put some backer rod under the front and rear of the cooler. The rear of the refrigerator is also supported by two sheet rubber shims I placed with contact cement and a screw to help support the refer, which is otherwise supported only by four #10 screws through the side walls.
Tonight we have the cooler packed for our first test, a two nighter. I have plugged the camper into the AC in our garage. The Dometic unit I picked up is AC/DC, and has a separate pigtail to plug in the AC. When I plugged in the camper tonight, I heard the refer compressor stop, then restart with a different hum.
If successful, this is a good replacement unit for Hawk owners with same 17 3/4" X 20 1/2" opening.
Even without modifying the cabinet face, it took me nearly four hours to do the install.
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Epilogue: We just finished two nights/ three days with new refer. We're happy with the results. Our solar/battery kept up with consumption and the refer maintained a high degree of cooling. I turned it down to level one at night and the compressor light hardly ran. During the day, when we had lot's of solar input, I cranked up to level four cooling and got down to 38F inside. Note: We removed the optional freezer compartment, so the entire interior is one large space.
============
I just installed a Dometic CRX-1065 in our Hawk as replacement to original 3-way Norcold.
I had to remove the optional surface mount flange and replace the 3/4" tall rubber feet with shorter feet.
Otherwise, it slid right into the opening.
We have 120 watt solar with 100 AH battery. According to my math, it's a close call for minimum sun hours and maximum laptop charging along with other devices. We're going to try it out and see if we need to replace the panel with something more robust.
I disconnected the 3/8" gas line and used a flare fitting to cap the gas line under the stove top.
Then I used a grinder to cut down the tabs of the angles holding the cabinet face around the refer opening.
I had to add two pieces of 3/4" plywood on each side to fir in the opening for the new refer, which has four screw connections to the side wall.
I kept the hinge as a right hand (hinge right) because it can swing 180 and allow us to swap out the shelving and optional freezer compartment. Hinge left only allows 110 degree opening which constricts shelf/freezer options. We want flexibility while we figure out how to best use the new fridge.
The wiring was simple. Just crimp on the new black / red leads to the existing black / blue FWC 10 ga. wiring.
The unit fired right up when I pulled out the kill switch on the camper. Voltage dropped from 18v to 13v upon initial cooling. Later I looked at the meter and we were back to 17v +. Temp dropped down from 65F to 34F.
I saw daylight around the edges, mostly at the top. I used some fiberglass batt, cut down and put inside plastic bags and tucked them around the sides and top, secured with a bit of duct tape to close off the gaps. I also put some backer rod under the front and rear of the cooler. The rear of the refrigerator is also supported by two sheet rubber shims I placed with contact cement and a screw to help support the refer, which is otherwise supported only by four #10 screws through the side walls.
Tonight we have the cooler packed for our first test, a two nighter. I have plugged the camper into the AC in our garage. The Dometic unit I picked up is AC/DC, and has a separate pigtail to plug in the AC. When I plugged in the camper tonight, I heard the refer compressor stop, then restart with a different hum.
If successful, this is a good replacement unit for Hawk owners with same 17 3/4" X 20 1/2" opening.
Even without modifying the cabinet face, it took me nearly four hours to do the install.
========
Epilogue: We just finished two nights/ three days with new refer. We're happy with the results. Our solar/battery kept up with consumption and the refer maintained a high degree of cooling. I turned it down to level one at night and the compressor light hardly ran. During the day, when we had lot's of solar input, I cranked up to level four cooling and got down to 38F inside. Note: We removed the optional freezer compartment, so the entire interior is one large space.
