vents to install refridgerator

[smileyd]

Hi Ben and Marty,

I was wondering if you have the vents to install the refridgerator, or know where I can buy them. I can't find them for sale anywhere in the US. The lower and upper dometic vents to attach to the ouside of the camper.
L100 and L200.

We want to install our dometic refridgerator. I hope for your help

Thanks.
Angelina

 

[WarpathEngineering]

Angelina,

I've taken my fridge out and am in the process of residing the camper
to fill up the holes. If you want mine, there yours. Their in good shape
with no rust but may have stains under the screws (the screws are rusty).
Let me know.

Rick

 

[smileyd]

Thanks Rick

Hi Rick,

I would love your used vents. No need in getting new ones if yours work great. I don't care much about if there stained we will just blend in more down south. May I ask your reason for wanting to take them out and have no refridgerator..

I appreciate the offer. Let me know if you want anything for them. maybe shipping costs. or maybe your after some homemade cookies too. haha


I will send you a private message with where to send them.

Thanks again
Angelina

 

[WarpathEngineering]

Angelina,

When I considered the capacity of the fridge (and the propane tank since I removed the furnace and stove top too) vs the storage space it took up, it only made sense to remove it. My wife and I went out to Yellowstone last summer and took along two 5 day coolers. One for drinks and one for pre-made sandwiches, ground beef, pre-made sloppy joe mix, ect. In the drink cooler we used ice. In the meat cooler we used a 50lb block of dry ice and covered the contents with a bath towl. I had to buy 40lbs of ice on or 8th day to replace the ice in the drink cooler and an 8lb bag of ice to help out in the meat cooler. When I got home the drinks were still cold and the 8lb bag of ice was hard as a rock and just a sliver of dry ice remained. I can lay the coolers on the floor of the camper during the drive and under the truck during the day. Seems to work for me.

Rick

 

[benburnett]

vents

No problem getting vents for you if you need them. Sounds like the used ones will work for you though. If not, just let me know and we can send a set of new ones out to you.

 

[Kilroy]

When we bought our Hawk last summer it came with the smaller frigerator. I dealer (Shawn at Go AnyWhere) suggested we use an Engle fridge instead of trying to get larger built in. Sense using the Engle, it works great, I wouldn't hesitate to just use it (or two of them) instead of the 3 way fridge. (the Engle will also work off AC current so it is really a two way.)
Dave

 

[smileyd]

good idea Dave,

but we dont want to drain our battery with the fridge. Although propane is a hassle and dangerous it lasts a long time and therefore we will be able to stay on a deserted beach longer.

I did look into those, pretty cool fridges. We hope to be able to stay wherever for as long as possible before having to stock up on supplies.

Thanks for everyones help on another project.. I cant wait until our camper is done..... Dorian is working hard too.. We still have a long way to go in a short amount of time
haha

Angelina

 

[John D]

A refrigerator is a luxury, not a necessity. When we sailed our little ketch around the world, we assumed at first we needed cold food and drink. By the time we reached Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, we had learned that a cooler or refrigerator is in the way of more important things. We cast off from Cape Town with nothing cold for a couple of months until we reached South America. If you wish, you can do the same in an RV. The grocery stores are full of useful items for meals without refrigeration, canned goods, canned meat, boxed milk for cereal, rice, fruits – apples, oranges, bananas, etc., bread will last 10 days at least, eggs will not last as long, soft drinks and beer is almost as good warm as it is cold. Chips, granola, candy, and many other things are good. Nothing beats peanut butter and jelly as long as the bread holds out. My favorite food was white rice with butter, lemon juice and salt. Olive oil substitutes for butter on the rice. Pasta is almost as good as rice and works with canned food. Military MREs are rather expensive, not as good as stuff out of the grocery store, but they work. Supplimented with soft drinks, beer, and liquids from the caned food, you need less than a half gallon of drinking water per person per day which is less than the classic 2 gallons of water per person per day you read about in the books.

Camping in this country, you are not likely to be remote from stores for more than a week, except on a Grand Canyon rafting expedition. A cooler with ice is a luxury too but easy to keep with bag ice. Everyone uses their camper differently. If you spend a lot of time on the road, you want cold drinks in the cab of the truck. A refrigerator in the camper is not in the cab, so you will have a cooler with bag ice and drinks in the cab anyway. Our new camper has a 3 way refrigerator but we are putting blocks of ice in it until we decide it is worth the trouble. On the upcoming trip, we will camp three nights in one place. The rest of the time will be traveling from camp site to camp site along the Outer Banks. In my case, I am worried the refrigerator might accidentally run down my battery if I forget to switch it off 12 volts when we stop. This is my chief reason for using it like a cooler instead of the refrigerator it is. If we have 110V available, we might plug it in, but maybe not is we have to pay extra. In camping, we will probably do whatever costs the least. I think other folks in popup campers like ours understand exactly where I am coming from when I say, I don't enjoy wasting money.

 

[simimike]

Lot's of good ideas and suggestions there JonhD. But warm beer! Blasphemy! a crime against nature. When I was in London I spent hour after hour every night in the Pubs drinking warm beer. Oh the Horror. I swore I would never suffer such indignities again. I know I swore something the next morning. I just can't remember what for sure. So I run my refer on propane secure in the knowledge that a cold beer with my name on it is there for me.

 

[Ted]

Amen Simimike

Reading this forum, it seems many owners of our little campers have them to get back to nature. For us, the opposite is true. Having spent years in a little Toyota with a shell, unable to sit up or cook during serious weather, we moved up for the luxury factor. We can still get away from most other people, but having a heater, fridge, stove, sink, and bed is like a well earned four star resort to us. So Simimike, I raise a chilled malt beverage to you. (Based on the tone of this submittal, probably an Arrogant Bastard Ale)

 

[Hayduke]

cold beer or lack thereof

I have done a couple big walls in Yosemite. This John D guy is an animal. He could easily climb big stone, eating spam and swigging warm beers sitting on a 14" wide ledge 2000' above the ground. A natural big wall master. I'm almost 50. Done my time in the death zone with no amenities or cold beer. No thanks. I gotta side with SimiMike and Ted. No offense John. Anyone who could sail that ketch as far as you and go months with no cold stuff has to be respected. I still want my cold brewskies.
You're the man
Hayduke

 

[John D]

I'm 64, going on 65. Carbonation tingles the taste buds better when the beverage is warm.

I will probably end up using my three-way refrigerator once I am confident I have it powered properly. I have been running it in the driveway for several weeks, both on 110V and propane to test it, trying different parking angles, starting the propane burner, checking to see if I can make ice, and I have even run it long enough to need defrosting.

How long do these little 3 way refrigerators usually go between defrosts? Anyone know what we are suppose to expect. I'm wondering if I have a leaking gasket? Has anyone replaced a gasket on these refrigerators?

 

[smileyd]

Warm Beer Sucks

We don't plan on leaving when the propane goes out expecially if the waves are good. I am a vegetarian I hardly even need a fridge, but warm beer does suck in the scorching heat. Just defrost the fridge and finish out our stay wherever. It is definately a luxury.

I will make sure to always switch the fridge when we stop, being a women I am confident in my home keeping. Thanks for the lecture.

Overall for us, I think having a cold refridgerator while traveling through Central America for over three months will be a blessing.

 

[Brian]

Warm beer...

As an ice chest guy I will add my experience here. Keep in mind I am a big guy that loves to eat! Having just spent 3 months in Central America, I found that ice is found just about anywhere. Most tiendas and gas stations have it any more. It was nice never having to look for propane..(check out the yahoo group '99 Days to Panama' for some of the difficulties with that). True that in Mexico there are nearly as many propane automobile fueling stations as there are gas stations, the problem is that their fittings are quite different I am told and they can't fill bottles or frame mount tanks.
As far as power for running things on 12v, of course the more stuff you need power for, the more certain you will be to need a solar panel(s). Once we left Mexico, we never had a 110v plug in again. So don't count on that.
We don't drink beer but do like our "agua mineral" or club soda and fresh limes and we like it cold. Ice does the job just fine. Our next purchase will be a better ice chest (a 6 day model and a bit larger)
Looking at the price of Engel reefers makes it a no-brainer for me. That is another month or more in CA!
I need to add that since my wife has MS and was using an injectable med that needed to be kept cold got us looking around for a way to do that other than ice. The solution was that she stopped taking the med. Much better, no side effects and no problem for storage....no worsening of the disease, thank goodness.
Our friends, Carla and Heiko who are traveling for a year in CA and SA as well as our friends Yasha and Juergen who are doing the same, both have hard sided truck campers with solar arrays that could run a small town. They both have fullsize fridges and enjoy frozen food and cold beer whenever. Note they are completely self contained and have Six-Pac and Bigfoot campers respectively. They never need a plugin and can stay somewhere as long as the propane tanks last....Heiko has another tank stuffed in a closet just to make sure he doesn't run out. Yasha and Juergen are actually on an openended trip 18 months long already. See: http://dare2go.com for Yasha and Juergens site.
I am of the thought 'less is more' unless you are actually fulltiming in the rig, and having worked as a mechanic and in maintenance all my life, I am completely convinced that I want as few systems that can break as possible. We were camped next to a guy in Mexico who had some system problems with reefer, air conditioner and electrical....he found someone to do the electric but the other two required trips back to the states.

Brian

 

[John D]

‘” The horror! The horror!”’
‘ I blew the candle out and left the cabin. The pilgrims were dining in the mess-room, and I took my place opposite the manager, who lifted his eyes to give me a questioning glance, which I successfully ignored. He leaned back, serene, with that peculiar smile of his sealing the unexpressed depths of his meanness. A continuous shower of small flies streamed up the lamp, upon the cloth, upon our hands and faces … ' Kurtz dies … (Heart of Darkness – Conrad)

Ahhh. Camping in the tropics. Sweat, warm beer, malaria ...

 

[benburnett]

warm beverages

Well John it looks like you struck a cord on that one. I used to drink hot pepsi when I worked in the oilfield due to a lack of funds and not wanting to spend the money on ice every day. You do get used to it.

I have to admit though, your a bit tougher than our average camper out there. Just your story of getting home was impressive, would love to hear about some of your other travels.

 

[benburnett]

refer

John,

Just caught you post on the refer. I have no idea on the defrost questions. Might give dometic a call and ask them how it should be operatiing.

Here is the number for customer service.

219-295-5228

 

[John D]

Ben, the number you mentioned did not work for me. I found Dometic using Google. An 800 number was provided. After working my way through a telephone maze, I talked to a very nice customer service person who gave me two good bits of information;

The refrigerator needs defrosting every 10 to 14 day and it picks up more frost in a humid climate, as in Alabama. She also told me about the "dollar bill test" which is closing the door on a dollar bill and checking to see if the gasket is sealing by noting whether the dollar bill has a bit of resistance from the gasket clamping it when you try to slip it out. John

 

[benburnett]

refer

John,

Thank you for the information. Will have to update my numbers.