Truckfridge instead of Magic Chef?

[Mitzi Agnew-Giles]

Anyone have any experience with the Truckfridge TF130AC/DC that Lil Snoozy offers as an option? We used to have a Stirling Cycle Coleman Cooler- we bought it reconditioned about the time Coleman stopped carrying it and used it for many years before it died in a violent rainstorm which flooded the plug area and the inverter while we were gone from the camp. The Coleman was a portable, light enough I could lift it, and top opening. Looking for real world experiences with the truckfridge now please.

[Timber Wolf]

I installed a TF-130 12V DC only model in my Scamp a little over a year ago now. I like it a lot and would definitely do it again and would recommend it. Personally, I see no advantage to spending more for the AC/DC model. I have a 120/12 converter anyway so have plenty of 12 DC power all the time. There probably isn't a downside to the AC/DC model other than cost though. I don't know what to say about it other than it works just like the fridge at home and gets as cold as you set the dial to pretty quick.


Oh, one thing, the light inside is blue and may not be everybody's cup of tea. I guess it is like that so not to blow out a trucker's night vision. It appears to be an LED and somebody that cared might be able to swap it for a white bulb. It has not bothered me enough (yet) to look.


I really like the door rack layout. Larger bottles and half gallon milk jugs fit on the bottom row great and smaller condiment or soda cans on the upper racks. If I could change anything other than the blue light it would be for it to have a little larger freezer. Well, I would also like an ice maker.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Timber Wolf

Personally, I see no advantage to spending more for the AC/DC model.

Neither would I. My older Scamp fridge is as many of the older ones a 3 way AC/DC/Propane. Never used the DC option as its a power hog!

I suspect it is why most of the newer trailers offer 2 way only these days - propane and AC only - no DC.

Would not want to live without the propane option as I do to much time camping off the grid in poor weather and do not need/want to worry about the solar keeping up with the fridges DC consumption.

My new to me trailer has a brand new 2 way fridge in it that automatically switches from AC to Propane when unplugged - I need to do nothing other than to make sure the propane tank is turned on. Very cool.

[charlsara]

Originally Posted by Timber Wolf

I installed a TF-130 12V DC only model in my Scamp a little over a year ago now. I like it a lot and would definitely do it again and would recommend it. Personally, I see no advantage to spending more for the AC/DC model. I have a 120/12 converter anyway so have plenty of 12 DC power all the time. There probably isn't a downside to the AC/DC model other than cost though. I don't know what to say about it other than it works just like the fridge at home and gets as cold as you set the dial to pretty quick.


Oh, one thing, the light inside is blue and may not be everybody's cup of tea. I guess it is like that so not to blow out a trucker's night vision. It appears to be an LED and somebody that cared might be able to swap it for a white bulb. It has not bothered me enough (yet) to look.


I really like the door rack layout. Larger bottles and half gallon milk jugs fit on the bottom row great and smaller condiment or soda cans on the upper racks. If I could change anything other than the blue light it would be for it to have a little larger freezer. Well, I would also like an ice maker.

We have the 120AC /12V model. It didn't
Cost any more than the pure 12v model. It is seamless in operation and does what a fridge at home does. I have never used it on 12v alone more than 24 hours but I still had battery power at the end. It has a small freezer that works well. The cost was around 700.00. Money well spent. We also have the advantage of not needing to perfectly level the trailer as the fridge works at whatever attitude.



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[KenjiFox]

I got a KILLER deal on my fridge. It paid me $70.

I took my 3 way propane AC/DC stock(ish I think it was replaced once) fridge out of my Scamp 16 and sold it for $80. I then purchased an old 2 way AC DC Norcold fridge for a whopping $10. I took it all apart and foam filled the thing to make the insulation somewhat decent. The stock fiberglass fill was terrible in these. Works better than new, and has the same sawafuji swing motor compressor that Engel fridges use. It's a linear motor that has no peak startup current unlike rotary motors.

I've run it for a 500 mile trip across two days (no charging from the tug, and solar panels removed) along with running the furnace for one night as it was COLD on only a crappy marine "deep cycle" that was donated to me as it was questionable at best. the battery finally died when I got back home. With my two golf cart 6V batts and solar panels it runs forever with no thought at all. I've had it running as such for over a year now. Always on the DC setting.

I agree about the AC/DC version. If there is a price difference in favor of the DC only, get that. Use the difference on thicker 12v wires. The way that these fridges work is they run a converter to run an inverter anyway. The compressors run at 40v AC. With my swing motor fridge on AC, its still running through the same internal inverter that works right off of the 12v. It is just feeding it with it's own small converter.

I didn't look into the truck fridge you are speaking of, but that may use a small DC Danfoss compressor. Quite and efficient little units, but rotary.

[cityslicker]

Carol what brand of AC propane fridge do you use?

[David B.]

We use the truckfridge 12 volt only also, as the battery has a charger when plugged in, so I couldn't see any reason to pay for the 110 volt option where it converts 110 to 12 volts. We also have 200 watts of solar panels to keep the battery topped off because we are rarely plugged into 110 volts, and we have a generator if needed for backup, but have rarely used it in two years. By the way, I added 24" of self sticking ribbon LED lights to the blue light in the truckfridge to give a nice bright white throughout.

Dave & Paula

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by cityslicker

Carol what brand of AC propane fridge do you use?

Its a two way AC/Propane Dometic RM 2451 It has a decent sized freezer that will actually freeze ice-cream


My Scamp has an older Dometic as well but its 3 way AC/DC/Propane and I stopped using the DC even when driving as neither of my tow vehicles could keep up with the power consumption. As I often camp off the grid arriving at a campground with a battery that is not full did not work well for me. I have solar but being in BC on can not count on the sun always being out to charge things up. It also had a small freezer but not of much use in keeping ice-cream frozen but it did ok with the important items such as making ice cubes for drinks.

[Mitzi Agnew-Giles]

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