49 quart truck fridge (1 Viewer)

[Jason hansen]

I have been thinking of getting a 12 v fridge and was thinking it would be nice to just open the door on a stand up fridge and get a beer. There would be no sliders or unpacking gear to get to the fridge. My wife could easily acsess food. I know they are less efficient but the practicality might out weigh the efficiency. Any thoughs on why this would work or not work well.

 

[george_tlc]

Hmm, specs say 24W per hour, if that is true, then you are looking at about 2AHr so in 24 hours it would be 48AHr... Say goodbye to you battery after a day or two not moving.

Decent fridges, Engel, ARB, NL etc are well proven offroad with many miles of serious vibration and off angle use. Not sure how one of those 'truck' fridges would deal with that. Also, stuff would move around a LOT in a front opening fridge unless you pack everything into tupperware etc.

cheers,
george.

 

[Pacer]

I'm all for it, my wife has been pushing me to get one of these also. items inside me move around more and not be stored as securely as a cooler style fridge would.

I believe they are made by Dometic and use a Danfoss compressor, as that Truck Fridge company sells the Dometic cooler style fridges also.

As for reliability, these things have logged billions of miles and semi trucks and camper rigs all over the world. I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

[Jason hansen]

Thanks for the feedback, I may call truck fridge tomorrow and ask them about the lactching system and if the fridge would hold up to offroading all though I am pretty smooth because of my bad back. I am not worried about food rolling around because my wife over packs things. I plan on having dual batteries and solar for long trips. So I guess the only issue would be the door not opening inadvertently after my wife over packs the fridge or an avalanche when I open the door.

 

[Pacer]

Thanks for the feedback, I may call truck fridge tomorrow and ask them about the lactching system and if the fridge would hold up to offroading all though I am pretty smooth because of my bad back. I am not worried about food rolling around because my wife over packs things. I plan on having dual batteries and solar for long trips. So I guess the only issue would be the door not opening inadvertently after my wife over packs the fridge or an avalanche when I open the door.

Have it firmly up against a closed tailgate, no?

 

[Jason hansen]

Yea if it was up against the tailgate I guess that would not be a problem. I think i will get one. Will be posting install picks soon.

 

[Jason hansen]

I was just about to pull the trigger then I saw this model.

 

[Jason hansen]

I talked to the guys at truck fridge. They said the slide out model would not stand up to off roading and that the slides would probably break. They recommended the tf 49 so that's what I ordered. I will post some pics once is is installed and do a review to see if it was worth it. I like the fact that it has a freezer so I can freeze water bottles for my yetti cooler if I need more food capacity.

 

[Pacer]

Cool!

 

[hoser]

I have been thinking of getting a 12 v fridge and was thinking it would be nice to just open the door on a stand up fridge and get a beer.

I've always liked this design. Beverages are down low, easy to access and extra cold. Just gotta make sure your meat juices don't spill on your drinks!

For your TF49, I'd recommend adding some type of damn or tray to catch liquids. Somehow, I often gets liquids at the bottom of my fridges. Condensation or what not.

63 Litre Drawer Ridge Ryder Fridge/Freezer

 

[Jason hansen]

Truck fridge came in today. I think I am going to build an insulated cabinet for it to make the fridge more efficient.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

items inside me move around more

The older I get, the more issues crop up... but, you’ve got me beat!

 

[80t0ylc]

Looking at the rear view of your new fridge got me to thinking about power. The power leads shown are connected to your 12v on your rig, but there's no alternate AC power connection. So I had to do some digging on the websites, because they are not very tech friendly if you're looking for specs. This page shows your model is 12v only, with the AC/DC option being extra. I find having the AC option convenient for getting the fridge cold before you leave on a trip, without taxing your rigs battery to get fridge temps down. AC option is also handy if you want to temporarily use it for a added beverage cooler at a home activity. I'm hoping this isn't bad news for you and you already know this.

 

[Jason hansen]

I could have got the 12v or 120 v ac model if I waited. I am going to run solar, I could also just put a battery charger on or a frozen water bottle in out of the house fridge to cool it off faster. With this fridge I will be giving up some convenience of a arb style fridge. What we wanted is a fridge that is easy to get to on the road or wheeling with the rig packed to the roof. I wanted my wife to be able to make lunch with out me getting everything out of the cooler for her so that I can drink beer and talk about land cruisers.

 

[Jason hansen]

Built the insulated cabinet today. I’m just waiting on the marine carpet and then I need to wire it up. Had to cut in some ventilation holes in the cabinet so that the coils could get some air across them.

 

[Jason hansen]

I installed my truck fridge. Before it was installed I made one modification. I reversed the cooling fan. From the factory the cooling fan was sucking air in through the coils and blowing hot air onto the compressor. The fan was only held on with zip ties. So I reversed the fan so that it would blow air through the coils and out the vent hole that was cut into the cabnet, pulling fresh through the vent hole on the other side of the cabinet passed the compressor.

 

[Jason hansen]

We went on our first trip to test out the new fridge. The wife had never been on the white rim in canyonlands national park so we decided to drive it in a day clockwise and camp by mineral bottom. At the end of the day I isolated the battery that was running the fridge. Opening the fridge the food was pretty much where I left it (no avalanche). As we were hanging out at camp I could here to fridge cycling on and off occasionally. The fridge was set at 4 on the dial which was in the middle of the range. I’m not sure what the temp inside was but there was a little frost in the freezer. In the morning I checked voltage on the battery. Voltage was 12.66 on a Napa group 27 agm battery. All in all I’m pretty happy with the fridge. I think a 100 watt solar panel would be able to keep the battery up for extended camping.