Starting fridge on propane

Good to hear you are all vaccinated up and ready to begin to pod! Now I can't answer your question directly as we are awaiting our 192. But, from what I have noted as I have perused many of the discussions here I will try to touch on some important points to help you out.

First, is your trailer level? It must be less than 3 degrees away from level for the propane flame to operate the system properly...damage can quickly occur to your trailer fridge cooling system if it is at more of a tilt than that (damage may occur in as quickly as 15 or 20 minutes from what I have researched).

2nd, is your TT battery(s) fully charged? If it doesn't have a solar panel and charge controller on it and you haven't brought your battery(s) home to charge for an extended period of time (or even a few days if you have no battery isolation switch on your TT), your battery(s) may be low or discharged. And you need battery power to operate your fridge on propane and for it to last until you hook up to leave.

So, if all is good so far I would say you would be able to use your propane to precool your fridge, as long as you don't precool it for a week, and I don't think that is your plan.

From prior experience and also again from other posts her on the forum, make sure you are only putting things in your fridge/freezer that are already cool/frozen. Don't try to use the trailer fridge/freezer to cool or freeze items, you may be asking too much from it! Make sure it is all cold before putting it in before you go.

Hope this has helped and you have a great trip!

ANDY

Thanks all. I need to buy a new battery because even though I’ve been putting the trickle charger on my original deep cycle battery it no longer holds a charge anymore. I noticed that last year when I tried to move the trailer and the battery wouldn’t operate the power lift. So I need to get a new battery at work. Luckily we are an AC Delco distributor and I can get an M 27 Marine battery at cost. I guess I will install a battery this coming weekend and start the fridge. I know some people have had maintenance issues when their pods have sat for a long time and the fridge won’t light. Is there anything I should clean or look at before hand? Thanks all.

Haven’t put any screens in, but that’s a good idea. I’ll get the compressed air and try that. I’m sure there’s bugs up in there. They’re everywhere.

Kind of hesitant to install the battery on Sunday, the day before the trip, because the storage yard is fairly dark and there have been problems with theft. Just last week I came over and found the both my storage compartment doors had been opened and some of my stuff thrown on the ground and everything rifled through. Doesn’t look like they stole anything, but I’m having a locksmith come out today to replace the universal locks with better key locks including replacing the thumb locks with key locks.

The last thing I want to do is install a $130 battery and then have it stolen that night! I might just do it Monday morning and put all of our food into an ice chest in the back of the truck until we get up into the redwoods.

I have a cover over the trailer, but I’m thinking I should remove that before I start the fridge because I don’t want to block airflow. It would hide the battery on the tongue though. Can I start the fridge on propane first and then remove the cover of the following day? Or is that a bad idea?