Stocking your fridge...before you leave.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Newbie question:  Is there a way to turn the fridge on in our TT, about 24 hrs before we leave, so I can stock it with food? And I guess the second part to that question would be... can I keep it cold/on while we drive to the Fort (about 8 hrs)? 

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Well that all depends on what type of fridge you have and whether you can plug in your camper at home.

 

Is your fridge all electric/12V

 

If it is electric/12V, then the best bet is to be able to plug in your camper at home, then turn on the fridge, cool it down, the you are good there.

To run it on the road, you would need a charge line from your vehicle to the camper.  To test if you have one, hook up the electric from your vehicle to the camper, then disconnect the camper battery, crank the car, and turn on a camper light. If the light comes on, then you have a charge line. If the light goes off when you turn off the car ignition, even better, you also have an isolation relay which will prevent the camper from draining your tow battery.

 

Is your fridge gas/electric

 

If your fridge is gas/electric, then turn on the gas and run the fridge. You will use some propane, but it will get cold.  A lot of campers use propane for the fridge while on the road. Just have to bypass some of the tunnels. (But you are in Georgia, so no issue I don't think)

 

Is your fridge 3-way gas/electric/12V

 

If your fridge is 3-way gas/electric/12V, then run the fridge on gas if you have no electric hookup, run it on electric if possible, and ONLY run it on battery while driving if your tow vehicle has a charge line and isolator. Most 3-ways use the most juice on battery and will kill your camper battery in a couple of hours.

 

Oh, and if you don't have a 30-Amp plug at your house, get an adapter to plug it into a standard household outside outlet. If you don't run the air conditioner, microwave, or anything like that, your regular household plug should be able to run the fridge.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

What Carol said, but you may need to turn in on more than 24hrs before you leave. We run ours on gas all the time when on the road.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Being a TT, I am going to guess that you have a gas/electric model.  What I do is plug the trailer into an outlet in my garage a couple days before a trip.  My TT has 30 amp service, so I use one of these adapters.

 

 

Like Carol, if plugged in this way don't run anything that draws a lot of amps like the A/C.  But it'll run the fridge just fine.  

 

Then, when ready to hit the road, remember to unplug the trailer and put your cord away.  Otherwise your neighbors will laugh at you as you have a cord trailing behind you.  To run on propane, turn on the valve on your propane tank, and turn the fridge on to run on gas (or auto mode).  It will likely take a bit of time for it to fire up, as your gas lines need to be purged of air.  I will usually run a stove burner (which is next to my fridge) until it lights to get air out of the line.  I find that if I stand outside the trailer next to the fridge vents, I can hear it "clicking" as the ignitor is attempting to light.  Then when it lights, you'll hear the sound of a gas burner.  Most fridges will attempt several times and then if not successful the light on the fridge control panel will blink.  If that happens turn it off, wait a minute and try again.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

What they said.... but definitely do it more than 24 hours in advance. You might want to get a fridge thermometer at first just to be sure it's ready. You can get one for a few dollars. 

[DaveInTN 3,247]

What they said.... but definitely do it more than 24 hours in advance. You might want to get a fridge thermometer at first just to be sure it's ready. You can get one for a few dollars. 

 

My fridge thermometer comes in brown bottles with twist off tops.  When they're cold, the food can go in.  

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

My fridge thermometer comes in brown bottles with twist off tops. When they're cold, the food can go in.

Brilliant!

[Memphis 105]

When running the frig at home or parked on the road be sure your trailer is level.  You can burn your frig out running it when not level.  When in motion level is not an issue.  I agree you need to plug it in more than 24 hours.  A lot of RV frigs don't have a circulation fan so they don't cool off as fast as a household frig. I plug mine in Wednesday after work when leaving Saturday morning for the trip and be sure to load only chilled items.   

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Thanks fiends!  Lots of great advise, as always, but this one has to be my favorite as truly... I could see us doing/forgetting this :)

 

Being a TT, I am going to guess that you have a gas/electric model.  What I do is plug the trailer into an outlet in my garage a couple days before a trip.  My TT has 30 amp service, so I use one of these adapters.

 

 

Like Carol, if plugged in this way don't run anything that draws a lot of amps like the A/C.  But it'll run the fridge just fine.  

 

Then, when ready to hit the road, remember to unplug the trailer and put your cord away.  Otherwise your neighbors will laugh at you as you have a cord trailing behind you.   

[Mtnmanky...aka Leon 72]

All the above, plus this last summer we added one of those little battery powered circulating fans that sits in the refirgerator.  It made a huge difference in the even temperature and how the food kept.  It ran on two D cell batteries all season for us, and was well worth the cost.  Think we paid about $15 or $20 for it.

[Augie56 2]

Nothing new to add, but when we drove down and back two weeks ago, we made sure the fridge was as cold as it could be before unplugging.  Then we switched it over to run on propane when driving, then back to AC when we pulled in to camp.  No issues.  Even if we couldn't run it on propane while driving, it would've stayed cold enough over 8 hours without opening it.

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

I will add one more thing... Even if you are running your fridge on gas it still requires 12 volts to the electric board that runs it (not an issue if you have it plugged in). There was one time I turned my fridge on a couple days in advance and with all the parasitic draws in the camper the battery died, and when that died the fridge turned itself off. We went to stock the fridge as we were leaving and found a nice room temperature fridge...that wasn't a fun surprise.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

All the above, plus this last summer we added one of those little battery powered circulating fans that sits in the refirgerator.  It made a huge difference in the even temperature and how the food kept.  It ran on two D cell batteries all season for us, and was well worth the cost.  Think we paid about $15 or $20 for it.

 

That's something to consider...

 

 

Nothing new to add, but when we drove down and back two weeks ago, we made sure the fridge was as cold as it could be before unplugging.  Then we switched it over to run on propane when driving, then back to AC when we pulled in to camp.  No issues.  Even if we couldn't run it on propane while driving, it would've stayed cold enough over 8 hours without opening it.

 

Thanks.  Good to know that chances are the fridge will still be cold, even if we don't run it while we're driving.  I may shove some frozen water bottles in there, the morning we leave, and then not run it on the drive... still debating which way to go.

[dblr....Rennie 224]

I was going to suggest the frozen water bottles as some folks do not like to travel with the gas on. We travel with it on and have not have a problem.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks fiends!  Lots of great advise, as always, but this one has to be my favorite as truly... I could see us doing/forgetting this :)

 

Sometimes I come home first, pickup the camper and go get DH at work.  Whenever this happens he leaves me a note AND texts me to remind me to unplug the camper. 

 

I would sooooooo be that girl.  

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Sometimes I come home first, pickup the camper and go get DH at work.  Whenever this happens he leaves me a note AND texts me to remind me to unplug the camper. 

 

I would sooooooo be that girl.  

 

Glad to know that I'm in good company :)

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Being a TT, I am going to guess that you have a gas/electric model.  What I do is plug the trailer into an outlet in my garage a couple days before a trip.  My TT has 30 amp service, so I use one of these adapters.

 

 

Like Carol, if plugged in this way don't run anything that draws a lot of amps like the A/C.  But it'll run the fridge just fine.  

 

Then, when ready to hit the road, remember to unplug the trailer and put your cord away.  Otherwise your neighbors will laugh at you as you have a cord trailing behind you.  To run on propane, turn on the valve on your propane tank, and turn the fridge on to run on gas (or auto mode).  It will likely take a bit of time for it to fire up, as your gas lines need to be purged of air.  I will usually run a stove burner (which is next to my fridge) until it lights to get air out of the line.  I find that if I stand outside the trailer next to the fridge vents, I can hear it "clicking" as the ignitor is attempting to light.  Then when it lights, you'll hear the sound of a gas burner.  Most fridges will attempt several times and then if not successful the light on the fridge control panel will blink.  If that happens turn it off, wait a minute and try again.

 

Hey Dave... help me understand the a/c part.  If I plug this into my camper and then plug an extension cord in (one of those larger/thicker orange ext. cords), I am NOT able to turn the a/c on in the trailer?  I was going to turn it on for a few hours, to test it out before we left...but it sounds like that might not be a good idea?

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Hey Dave... help me understand the a/c part.  If I plug this into my camper and then plug an extension cord in (one of those larger/thicker orange ext. cords), I am NOT able to turn the a/c on in the trailer?  I was going to turn it on for a few hours, to test it out before we left...but it sounds like that might not be a good idea?

 

No, because a standard household outlet (which I assume is what you would be plugging into) doesn't supply enough amps to run the A/C.  You'd trip the circuit breaker in your house that supplies whichever outlet you use...at best.  At least this is per my knowledge of most RV A/C units.....maybe some don't pull that many amps.  But I think they all do.  

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

I have been able to run my camper AC on my outside house outlet, as long as I'm not running anything else. On our original outside outlets, they are also connected to our bathroom outlets (1 ground fault outlet in the entire house), so running the hair dryer could not be done when the camper was plugged in.

 

I have since had additional outside outlets connected on a separate circuit and except at Christmas time (with all the Christmas lights), I can still run the A/C on my camper.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

No, because a standard household outlet (which I assume is what you would be plugging into) doesn't supply enough amps to run the A/C.  You'd trip the circuit breaker in your house that supplies whichever outlet you use...at best.  At least this is per my knowledge of most RV A/C units.....maybe some don't pull that many amps.  But I think they all do.  

 

I have been able to run my camper AC on my outside house outlet, as long as I'm not running anything else. On our original outside outlets, they are also connected to our bathroom outlets (1 ground fault outlet in the entire house), so running the hair dryer could not be done when the camper was plugged in.

 

I have since had additional outside outlets connected on a separate circuit and except at Christmas time (with all the Christmas lights), I can still run the A/C on my camper.

 

Thank you, both.  I understand now.

[Daverene 14]

I can run my ac on my outside plug no problem