Norcold 2-way Fridge

[BikerJohn]

On our 2004 Born Free we have a 2-way fridge, so it only runs on propane or 120 VAC (shore or generator). Does anyone know of a way to cool the fridge while you are driving down the road? I am thinking of needing an inverter to do so? Any suggestion?[/img]

[Dallas Baillio]

Unless it is defective, it should run on propane while traveling. They are designed to do just that.

[BikerJohn]

I guess it's me, but I don't really like the idea of an open flame while driving down the highway.

[Dude]

I also keep it on propane while driving. If you are worried about an open flame, shut it off. Like all refridgerators, they will keep cool for a few hours. Then when you stop somewhere fire it up to cool it down again.

[shilohdad]

We also travel with the refrigerator on propane. We do turn the refrigerator off before we pull up to the gas pump to fill with gasoline. We then pull away from the pump and turn it back on.

As for how long the refrigerator will stay cold, that depends on what the outside temperature is. We try to keep our refrigerator between 35 and 40 degrees. During summer travel, we find that the refrigerator can easily rise 10 degrees in a couple of hours.

We are especially careful with our refrigerator temperature as we feed our 3 little papillons (Shiloh, my avatar, is the middle one) on a commercially prepared raw diet. Don't want that spoiling!

[tomzleapin]

It's possible to run the fridge on an inverter. My fridge is rated at 300 watts. If you want an inverter to just power the fridge you should use at least a 400 watt one. While using an inverter keep in mind you will be drawing at least 25 amps from your battery. While driving, your alternator will be charging your batteries so there should be no problem.

I have had no problems leaving my fridge on propane while driving.

[al1florida]

We usually leave our fridge on auto, so when we don't have shore power it switches to propane. We always leave the fridge running on propane while driving. We have traveled about 60,000 miles this way in the last 8 years in a travel trailer, 5th wheel, diesel pusher and now the BF. Never had a problem with running the fridge on propane while driving.

I'm not trying to be unkind with the following, but I think there is far more danger of a gasoline leak than propane leak.

So, to be totally safe you should put a cutoff on your gasoline tank. While driving, if the fuel line from the gas tank in the rear all the way to the engine should spring a leak you will have a gasoline fire and burn the rig up. There are several rubber hoses along the gasoline fuel line. If you cut off the fuel at the gas tank you don't have to worry about fuel leak while driving. Of course you won't be able to drive the rig, but at least you will be totally safe.

Also taking risk into consideration, we are in far more danger of someone running into us on the highway, or blowing a tire and loosing control and crashing than having a propane leak. Again to be totally safe we shouldn't get on the road, some reckless driver or blown tire could kill us.

We are exposed to a certain amount of risk in everything we do. Many people die in their homes from fire or burglars breaking in and killing us in our sleep.

[bigdipper]

I also keep it on propane while driving. If you are worried about an open flame, shut it off. Like all refridgerators, they will keep cool for a few hours. Then when you stop somewhere fire it up to cool it down again.

Having worked for an oil company and being exposed to considerable refinery fire risk training, classically, it is a very real hazard to drive with refrig on propane, and even to drive without tank valve closed. However, in spite of this, I travel with refrig on propane but absolutely shut off refrig when refueling with gasoline and have nobody in RV when filling propane tanks.
Just me.
Ralph

[tomzleapin]

Just because some of us choose to take risks is no reason to suggest that someone else should. John stated that he is uncomfortable having an open flame while traveling. We should suggest other options rather then suggest something that he is uncomfortable in doing.

[mockturtle]

Although I do travel with my fridge on propane, I have also found that, unless it is very hot or you open the fridge frequently, it will stay cold for several hours without benefit of either propane or electric. Another tip: Freeze some of those ice packs overnight and put them in the fridge while traveling.

[Steve]

We also have our unit set to auto and run on propane when driving, we always shut it off when refueling.
We had a Chinook before the Born Free and it had a 3-Way Refrigerator, I had to install a relay (it didn't come with one) to shut off the 12vdc to the reefer when the ignition was shut off. It would drain the coach batteries when we stopped for several hours since it was continuously drawing around 300 to 400 watts.

Steve

[BikerJohn]

Thanks for the replies. It is good to hear everyone's thoughts on this subject and didn't realize it was a touchy topic (reminds me of bringing up helmet use on a cycling forum...). So I apologize for touching the hot button.

So, I guess, I'm not so worried about an open flame as I am about what happens when that flame goes out when driving down the road? And part of this is my ignorance on how the propane system works on the refrigerator. Is there a detection method to shut down the flow of propane when the flame goes out? What is the method for relighting? How often does the system "sample" to know if there is a flame or not? I just don't know how the systems works and I should probably do my research on that.

I understand the comparison to the gas line going bad, but with that I know what to look, listen, feel, and smell for. If the gas line is goes bad, the engine will immediately be affected and that's an obvious signal. If the flame goes out on the refrigerator, what similar signal do I get? The frig works great on propane and you can't hear the thing run at all, which actually super impresses me. So I guess my point here is that for those of you that use the propane as you are going down the road how have you mitigated the risk in your minds?

The idea of 400 watt inverter does make sense. I could tie it into the entire electrical system so that things like cell phones could be charged with a normal outlet while driving down the road (even though there is an obvious efficiency losses in going from 12 DC to 120VAC and then to 5V DC!)

[tomzleapin]

The Norcold fridge has an electronic ignition system and a gas solenoid valve. If the flame goes out the solenoid valve will close. The fridge will attempt to relight the flame periodically and I assume will give up after a certain number of cycles. The valve is open only during the ignition attempt or when the flame is finally relighted.

[mockturtle]

As I understand it, the main risk is the spark of ignition at a fuel station, not the flame, per se. That is why most RV manuals instruct us to turn off the propane appliances while refueling.

On our Foretravel, the refrigerator would stop, with a flashing red light, when the engine ignition was off. The blinking light was to remind you to turn the fridge back on.

[charlesbell]

If the fridge is on the opposite side of the motorhome from the gasoline fill, how likely is an ignition of gasoline vapors with the fridge not turned off. Just wondering..... Thanks.