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Old 08-14-2011, 10:31 PM   #1
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Name: Greg
Trailer: 1977 17' Boler
Saskatchewan
Posts: 60
Keeping it Kool.

Have been reading the forum for a long time . You are a wealth of knowldge, and I would like to pick your brain if I could. I may have to send this in several messages though, if that is fine with you.

I own a 1977 Boler 17' fiberglass trailer, much like the Casita and was made in Canada.The trailer had sat for 19 years at the po lake, covered with a trap. When I brought it home and blew everything out, I more than surprised that the fridge still worked, that was back in 1999. The old dependable fridge worked for 10 years then gave up the ghost. I replaced it with a Dometic RM 2354 and was totally unhappy with it from day one. Over the past two years though I have found how to improve the temperature somewhat. I guess what I would like to do is throw this out at you and see what you think.



The old fridge always cooled right down, never had a flame blow out, never neede any extra fans, it just worked. The 2354 has had a few design flaws. There is really no really good door latch, at least what I would call a good one. The old style had a pin for the upper door and everything stayed shut. The 2354 had a flimsy at best little plastic catch thingy. Never held any shut except when parked. Did Dometic forget that these trailers flex when going down the road. That stupid door flung open so many times I lost track. Then I came up with the idea to order anothe hinge bracket for the bottom, on the door opening side. This helped support the door as well. The 2354 had a bowed door design so allowed you to put 1 litre jugs of milk and condiments in the door. There are three shelves and has alot more spacedesign than the old one, only good thing about it.http://www.dometic.c...uctdataid=71135 http://shop.rvsquare...ages/RM2354.png inside view.


You might hve to copy and paste the link, sorry. This gives you an idea what it looked like. Because the door can be opened either way depending on the hinge configuration, this worked well. There was a hole on the open door side for the hinge pin and one in the lower hinge bracket that I had installed. Slip the pin in right and all should be good , right. Not . I finally had to remove the door and shim the hinges up slightly so the door would catch on the above door latch. . I still use the pin setup for the lower hinge as a lock when travelling.

I have a remote thermometer that I placed in the fridge, and found when I travelled that the temp woulkd go as high as 7 degrees celsius and take along time to cool down. Part of the problem was the flame as blowing out. I had seen another member post the fix for this and fashioned a cover for the flame. No more blow out yet. When I do travel down the road though, the chimney is fairly warm to the touch and the upper piping out od the chimney at the first bent horizontal is quite hat, the cooling fins have no heat in them at all and the s tubes at the bottom are absolutely cool to the touch. The three fans are shut off. Can a person have too much air flow. I found out that because the trailer is a singlre axel and rides rough and because the top door latch of the fridge did not latch , that the door would flex open at the top once in a while and let in warm air, my only explanation. Do you have one? Now that the hinges are shimmed , the door stays latched and I pin the bottom.




The vents for the fridge are the old metal kind, one beneath each other, just above the belly band. The measurement from the top of the upper vent to the bottom of the lower vent is 32". The fridge specs call for 34". Probably very little difference that would make. The upper vent is 12' from top to bottom and 22" in width. The lower vent is approx. 18' from top to bottom and the same 22" in width. There are three rows of louvers on each vent from top to bottom. I had placed a single 4" x 4" computer fan attached to the center louvers at the top vent. It states that it will push approx 74 cubic feet of air/ min. You could really feel the hot air cooming out. No real significant change in the fridge temp though. I then installed two more, for a total of three fans on the top louvers pushing air out. This made more of a change . I pulled a wire up the drainage tube of the fridge and installed a three speed fan on the inside. One mistake that I did was to blow the little fan against the inside cooling fins. I didn't get a very good cooling like this as it must mix up the control board or something. Any ideas here? I then lowered the inside to the bottom to mix up the air and that improved things alot. Also mad sure that the thermister was to the top as far as itwill go, as it can shake down from time to time.



One question for you, the back of the fridge has about 6 inches of space from the vents on the outer shell of the trailer to the s curve tubes. The old fridge didn't care. Maybe the new one does, I don't know. I thought of blocking off the back of the fridge area, and force the air to flow up over the s curved tubes and up to the upper cooling fins and add a baffle as Dometic suggests for these fridges, I would still keep the tree outer fans just in case. Another thing. Would it be better to block of the chimney from the upper fin area. There would be the two upper louvers for the cooling fins and then there would be one for the chimney, this way the hot air from the chimney would not mix with the hot air from the fins. Just wondering.



All suggests and help with this would be appreciated. Maybe I am doing things wrong, I don't know.

Thanks all
Boler77 Greg


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