propane fridges

[Joseph Domingos]

I'd wondered about the 'do you travel down the road with your propane fridge lit' question myself. Upon asking a few family oldtimers (Uncle, Grandpa, etc) I was told (with that wise oldtimer confidence!hehe) that it's just fine to do, that they've all done it for years, etc. and that's what you should do too, you silly 'youngin'!hehe
Honestly I'd never really thought about the danger of explosion at the gas station. My concer was if there would be a problem since IMHO the trailer is not level 100% of the time while you're driving. You're going to go up and down grades of various degrees of slope, rough roads, etc and I'd always been under the impression that you had to be PERFECTLY level or else the burner wouldn't work or something...
But now I'm DEFINITELY thinking twice about it! If nothing else, this is just more motivation for me to get my 12V line for my tow vehicle set up, so that I can run the fridge on 12V! hehe

[Herb P]

Honestly I'd never really thought about the danger of explosion at the gas station. My concer was if there would be a problem since IMHO the trailer is not level 100% of the time while you're driving. You're going to go up and down grades of various degrees of slope, rough roads, etc and I'd always been under the impression that you had to be PERFECTLY level or else the burner wouldn't work or something...
But now I'm DEFINITELY thinking twice about it! If nothing else, this is just more motivation for me to get my 12V line for my tow vehicle set up, so that I can run the fridge on 12V! hehe

The burner will work fine and come to no harm if it's not level. The carefully configured tubes will not cause ammonia to vaporize/condense if the trailer is not close to level, and thus, no cooling... On average though, your trailer will be 'level' on a long drive and you will get some cooling... Unless you're driving to or from the moon, that is....

[Neil W']

This will only be posted for a day or two but check out

(gone)

In short a steam cleaning truck was being filled with gas and propane. Although it was believed the pilot light for the steam cleaning eqipment was out it ignited fumes. The quick thinking employee shut off all power and saved a complete disaster. He received minor burns. The truck, pumps and canopy over the pumps received extensive damage. Good picture!!!!

Any source of ignition "must" be shut off in a fueling area. All it take is the right mixture of fuel (fumes) and air and you have big trouble. Imagine the potential for a real disaster.

[Roger H]

Not to add fuel to the fire... (ok, bad pun)...

Despite the fact that most RV fires on the road start in or around the fridge, (and there are very few for the number of RV miles driven), I don't see a whole lot of risk from fire in driving with the fridge on. The risk (and I'm with Gina on this one) is that when you crash with an open valve on a 20lb propane tank, and the line ruptures anywhere, there'll be a pool of propane lying somewhere at the lowest nearby low spot. Hopefully, you won't also be in that low spot. Whether or not it can ignite is dependent on the wind, the gas/air ratio and ignition sources, but I'd just as soon not find out.

Roger

[Benny K]

I`m not too concerned with the propane being on while fueling and the propane tank exploding....the concern is the little pilot light on the propane fridge igniting the gasoline vapors from a vehicle being fueled, either the vehicle with the propane or other vehicles that are fueling gasoline.....it`s the gasoline explosion that`ll cause one heck of a fire ball and could possibly end in a terrible disaster encompassing all the vehicles under the fuel island canopy....the chance of something like this happening is very real! ....but then again, what do I know... ..Benny

[Roy in TO]

I'd wondered about the 'do you travel down the road with your propane fridge lit' question myself. Upon asking a few family oldtimers (Uncle, Grandpa, etc) I was told (with that wise oldtimer confidence!hehe) that it's just fine to do, that they've all done it for years, etc. and that's what you should do too, you silly 'youngin'!hehe
Honestly I'd never really thought about the danger of explosion at the gas station. My concer was if there would be a problem since IMHO the trailer is not level 100% of the time while you're driving. You're going to go up and down grades of various degrees of slope, rough roads, etc and I'd always been under the impression that you had to be PERFECTLY level or else the burner wouldn't work or something...
But now I'm DEFINITELY thinking twice about it! If nothing else, this is just more motivation for me to get my 12V line for my tow vehicle set up, so that I can run the fridge on 12V! hehe

I asked the propane expert about travelling with the fridge on propane a few weeks ago as I was picking up my trailer from being serviced. This is all the guy does is propane repairs, so I would tend to believe him, especially after he mentioned that was going up the next day to examine an RV that went up in flames earlier this year for an insurance claim.

His answer to my question was that my fridge built by Dometic was designed specifically for the VW Westfalia campers which were meant to travel while running on propane. There was no reason why I shouldn't.

When we got to the discussion of being level, he indicated that a fridge could run off level for short periods of time but if we were going to stop for any longer than 10 or 15 minutes off level we could cause damage. It all has to do with essentially gravity feed of the various systems in an [b]ammonia based fridge. If you are travelling where there are hills and your fridge level is going every which way, no damage will happen. On the other hand, if you were travelling up or down a mountain, where you were nose up or nose down for the same periods of time (10-15 min.) you do not want to run your fridge as can get damaged. That is on either propane or 12 V

[tracy.c]

i wouldn't do it thinking better safe than sorry. We have a few omaha steak styrofoam coolers that are heavy duty and tight. I plan to just put the food in there and add ice or dry ice for hauling. We also have a 12/ac coleman cooler that we can throw in the car.

or just eat up the food before you haul and dry ice it if your boondocking.

[Bigfoot Mike]

I addressed this topic in my own trailer a while back. I tried using propane and found it works well for keeping the frig cool while traveling. My problem was, I didn’t want to be the poster child for why you shouldn’t run propane while traveling. So I decided it wasn’t for me. (while boon docking we always use propane to keep the frig cool.)

That said, 12 volts is the next best option while traveling down the road. I found I can’t remember to disconnect the trailer every time I stop. After a couple battery jumps, I needed to come up with a solution.

So for running electricity there are two things you need to do.<blockquote>1) When the tow is turned off, the power to the trialer needs to be disconnected.
2) When the power is not coming from the tow, the trailer battery needs to be isolated so it will not drain and kill it.</blockquote>I did two things. I placed a relay to shut off when the tow is shut off. Easy-Peasy.

Next, I placed a battery isolator in the path of the frig so that electricity can not run back up to the frig from the trailer battery.

So every thing is totally automatic and brain dead simple.

The 12 volts runs the frig quite well. I did increase the wire size, #8, and make shorter, more direct runs to the frig.