How important is airspace?

[Sharon Herman]

Taking a poll....
I have a Trillium 5500, would you give up 4" of real estate to go from a 2.7 cf refer to a 5 cf? We would have to move the wall out (where the refer was originally installed) 4" to accommodate the deeper unit. Only other sacrifice is a drawer and I can certainly do without that. The 5cf is AMAZING! I am struggling a bit because the open space is a big part of the trailer's appeal..
Thanks!


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[Carol H]

Why not put a piece of tape on the floor where it will stick out to and then a large piece of cardboard up from there to get a feel for what it might be like. Suspect its going to be something only you can decide as to which is more important to you.

As far as a bigger fridge goes my Scamp has a small fridge and I got by just fine with it BUT new trailer came with a new 2 way Dometic RM2551 that is 5 cf and it is indeed an improvement. Have only had a chance to use it for a week but not only is the extra space great to have but it automatically switches over to propane without having to do a darn thing the moment the electrical is disconnected. Also auto temp as well so no messing around with that either.... got to love it when life camping gets really easy :-)

[Carl V]

I don't think I would do this just to get a larger fridge, but if I ever have to replace my fridge and couldn't find one that fits the hole, yes this could be done. Our current fridge is a 3.6cf (RM360).

I think it would be possible to modify this entire wall, from the corner left of the fridge to the bathroom wall, and then keep the drawer and cupboards as original but deeper. 4" isn't much. The only thing it that would possibly make access to the dinette seat on that side a little more difficult, but maybe you're like most 5500 owners and use this dinnette permanently as a bed, so no issue here.

[Timber Wolf]

I have had a 4.7 fridge for about a year and it is definitely an upgrade over the smaller original unit. Or maybe we are just spoiled by he giant fridge at home and want "more" while camping? Anyway, I have had a thought recently concerning fridges and size. I wonder if we would not have been better served by a smaller fridge in the trailer and 12V compressor chest type fridge that could be set outside or carried in the tug. We would use the smaller chest fridge for drinks and lunch stuff and would avoid "dumping" cold air every time we open the fridge just for a cold drink or piece of cheese. I am probably overthinking it butI tend to do that.

[varmint]

We lived 3 months a year on a boat with just an ice-box. A refrigerator is a huge improvement. Our 16" Scamp has a 2.7 cu ft refrigerator. We appreciate it. That said, we have found that travelling with food in the refrigerator doesn't work out well. The trailer bounces around too much. If I run the tires below 45lbs, I get excessive tire wear. At 45 lbs I get a good deal of bounce. We take the grates off the stove or they might end up on the floor. I'm talking about travelling 250 miles a day at 60 - 70 mph. My wife puts the food in an insulated bag with a bit of ice, while underway. For this reason, the smaller fridge works out well for us.

[David Tilston]

The secret to happiness is low expectations. I have four trailers that have an RM211, (2.1 cf?) and two with an RM36. The RM36 seems huge to me. I suspect that this is kinda another version of two-footitis. You put in a 5 cf fridge and you will then be looking longingly at the double door fridges. Just say'n.

[WaltP]

Tim
Sounds like you should consider adding a set of shock absorbers as a lot of Casita owners are doing. I added them to my Bigfoot and am very pleased with the results.

And I went from a tiny fridge on my 16' Casita to a two door 5 cf Americana fridge on the Bigfoot. Any time I think about downsizing back to a unit with a smaller fridge I balk. I love having hard frozen ice cream and ice cubes with no need to carry a cooler.

Walt

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by varmint

We lived 3 months a year on a boat with just an ice-box. A refrigerator is a huge improvement. Our 16" Scamp has a 2.7 cu ft refrigerator. We appreciate it. That said, we have found that travelling with food in the refrigerator doesn't work out well. The trailer bounces around too much. If I run the tires below 45lbs, I get excessive tire wear. At 45 lbs I get a good deal of bounce. We take the grates off the stove or they might end up on the floor. I'm talking about travelling 250 miles a day at 60 - 70 mph. My wife puts the food in an insulated bag with a bit of ice, while underway. For this reason, the smaller fridge works out well for us.

Two things about this. First refrigerator bars work great to contain and keep the stuff from bouncing around.
Second trailer tires are meant to inflated to full sidewall marked pressure.
Third the maximum speed for trailer tires is 65mph.

[David Tilston]

Byron, if trailer tires are meant to be inflated to full pressure, why does the data sheet on my Trilliums recommend tire inflation to 28 lbs?

I am also sure that there are trailer tires that are rated to above 65 mph.

[WaltP]

Some manufacturers publish charts for their trailer tires showing recommended psi vs load. Sidewall pressure limits state what pressure the tire itself is rated to safely hold.
My Bigfoot has a manufacturer's sticker inside which includes a recommended tire pressure of 32psi.
Running at 80psi would give a punishing ride. I run at 50psi as a compromise, running the tires at a cooler temp.

Walt

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

The secret to happiness is low expectations. I have four trailers that have an RM211, (2.1 cf?) and two with an RM36. The RM36 seems huge to me. I suspect that this is kinda another version of two-footitis. You put in a 5 cf fridge and you will then be looking longingly at the double door fridges. Just say'n.

I so agree; having low expectations is, philosophically, a lot easier position to live up to!

We are working very hard to develop properly low expectations of our amerigo.

We expect any water lines we have in it will leak. So: no water lines inside the trailer.

We expect any gas lines to leak, and any gas burners to leak, causing asphyxiation and huge flame flares. So: no gas lines or gas appliances in the trailer.

We expect the trailer to bounce like a kangaroo on acid when travelling, so we plan to use a billion bungees as well as latches, locks, clips, clamps--to try to keep the blizzard of possessions somewhat in roughly the same place where we set them before heading down the road.

We expect our beds to be too small, too hard, too soft, too cold, too hot...so we plan to suffer with language as creative as we can make it, in case we cannot sleep, we can at least be entertained.

We expect to be bored out of our minds. So we are taking crosswords, word searches, books, small projects, the dogs, and both a wooden and metal xylophone, so at least our fellow campers' comments will waken our wandering attention.

We expect to eat badly, and dislike much of it. So we'll be eating picnic style...if we want to cook something that comes out perfectly, is healthful, and tastes good, , we'll stay and home and eat well.

We expect there to be bugs. All kinds of bugs. So we'll take bug spray, and see if we can manage a screen door, and bring calamine lotion, and develop the ability to point at our bug bites as if they were honorable war wounds.

We expect the termperature will never be quite right. We feel confidant the two space heaters and fantastic fan we have will fail us. Again with the creative language.

We expect gas mileage to be low, irritation factors to be high, fellow campers to run their generators all night, other rigs to be far better than ours, envy to set in, money to run out, reservations to be lost, US to be lost, maps to be wrong, our GPS Magellan to be inoperable...

We expect our solar panel to be inadequate even for a few LED lights and a small microwave. We expect our TV (YTBP--yet to be purchased) to break early and often. We expect our batteries to quit putting out a charge, and to leak battery acid all over the place.

We expect wildlife to be elusive, unfriendly, and possibly dangerous.

We expect flora to be poisonous, intrusive, and heavy.

We expect the weather to be inclement in every direction known to humankind, including cold, hot, windy, rainy, twisters, earthquakes, spontaneous earthen combustion...

In fact, our expectations of camping in our amerigo are so low, I'm beginning to think we could manage to be plenty miserable by just staying home and doing nothing!

THEREFORE: we feel we will totally live up to our low expectations, and so we should be COMPLETLY happy!



Wishing you all the very BEST!

[Sharon Herman]

Hahahaha!! No thank you!!!


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[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Byron, if trailer tires are meant to be inflated to full pressure, why does the data sheet on my Trilliums recommend tire inflation to 28 lbs?

I am also sure that there are trailer tires that are rated to above 65 mph.

Probably because that's information for tires back in the 1970s.

And yes, there are a few ST tires rated for above 65 mph travel. From what I've found, they're bigger... like 16" tires. Most all-molded-towables are 13" to 15"

[Jon in AZ]

So a discussion about grease guns is morphing into a discussion of tires and tire pressure…

Guess it's a double feature!

If anyone mentions bathrooms, I'm taking my popcorn and going home!

[WaltP]

Okay, what kind of popcorn. LOL

[Jon in AZ]

Oops! Must be tired... Think I've got my wires... err... threads crossed!

[Kai in Seattle]

Originally Posted by Jon in AZ

So a discussion about grease guns is morphing into a discussion of tires and tire pressure…

Guess it's a double feature!

If anyone mentions bathrooms, I'm taking my popcorn and going home!

Topics veer, that's true.

Sorry for going so far off-topic earlier...got any extra popcorn?