When on the road?

Hardly ever is a topic a new one....How many interior lights are not working have been posted?...how many of the same AC questions get posted?
Dont forget about the tow vehicle questions repeated over and over.
Very rarely is anything new and fresh.
Some things i have asked and i know its been asked before but not every member sees everything and things change over time.
Maybe theres a better way of doing something now vs 5-10 yrs ago.
Example here...i asked about propane splitters and hose adapters and about battery disconnects
and solar panels.
I would have been turned off if people jumped on and said do a search its been discussed at length.
But a few members smarter than me jumped into help me and stuck with me until i understood things.
You never know....Maybe the OP will return the favor someday when you are in a bind and have a issue come up 3 days before your upcoming trip and u need help now vs looking thru the archives.
If somebody doesnt want to help they can roll on vs telling somebody to do a search.

 

I think you need to have the pup level while on propane, otherwise, it will not work/cool properly. Personally, I cool down the fridge for a day or two using 120v and then run on 12v while driving.

 

100% correct for when trailer is stationary to promote the ammonia returning to the reservoir.. but when under tow.. the constant bumping of the trailer acts to do the same..

 

Got it, makes sense! Thanks!

 

I was referring to the small Dometic refrigerators that can run on 12V, 120V and propane. Since the poster mentioned using propane I assumed that is what they have. I do use a small 12V in the truck when just traveling for other purposes than camping but here in FL you will never have to worry about it getting to cold during summer....lol

 

We took a different approach and bought a bigger bar fridge with a freezer and plug it into an invertor in the back of the truck during travel. We didnt get a fridge in our popup.

 

I run electric the day before towing with a bottle of frozen water to speed the cool down process. Tow day I load up my frig with cold goods and switch to propane. At campsite I switch back to electric when I hook up. Works great.

 

I tried running on propane once (our maiden trip) and it kept blowing out. I have never run it on 12V. Not all fridges are designed to run on propane while driving. We prechill ours before a trip if we plan on using it and when we are only less than a few hours from the CG. I have heard of folks prechilling it and then placing frozen milk jugs full of water in there to keep it chilled till they get to the CG.

 

Sjm911 said exactly what I'd tell you. There's many people that will tell you that traveling with a propane burner lit is dangerous, but I'd have to disagree. It's no more dangerous than traveling with propane tanks in general as far as having an accident goes. The only issue you have is when you go to a gas station. You're supposed to turn it off before you pull into the station and restart it after you leave so you don't ignite the gas fumes.

When we had our pup I used propane on the road, especiallyin the summer. 12v doesn't cool enough on hot days. I made a wind baffle with 2 12v fans in it to circulate air away from the pilot flame. Never had it blow out.

Now with our hybrid, propane is the only option for the road. I never turn it off to fill up either. The fridge access panel is on the driver's side, opposite side of the pump and @ 20 feet back from the fill port on my truck.

If +/- 95% of the travel trailers and motor homes are using propane on the road, why can't a pup? Personally I've never heard of a camper blowing up because of it. If you're in an accident, you'd almost have to rupture a tank to have an issue which would happen regardless of your pilot light being lit or not. But if it was lit and I had an accident, I'd turn the propane off 1st thing anyway.

 

I had better luck running propane than 12v in ours. The last time I tried 12v I arrived at camp with a completely flat camper battery at our boondocking site. Not sure whether that was user error or not. We also have had the propane go out a few times. Something to check occasionally on a long haul.

 

To the people who think he should have searched: certainly, but it's also worthwhile to get a fresh opinion on any matter. I have a relatively new PUP. When we first started with it I read many forum posts where people said the fridge is useless because it is either too small or does not cool down enough. Some people replace them with fully electric fridges and we figured we would eventually go that route. However, there was a small minority that gave a different opinion and we gave that a shot before abandoning hope. I'm glad we did.

The key to the heat exchanging fridge is to stock it with COLD food. It can cool down food, but it will take a very long time, even on shore power. Before a trip we plug into shore power in our garage and turn on the 120v on the fridge at least one day before we depart. We refrigerate everything that we plan to put in the PUP fridge ahead of time (at home) before transfering to the PUP. One thing that has surprised us about this approach is that food actually stays quite cold and that we can actually pack quite a bit more food in there than we previously thought. One other item is that we don't buy food for long trips in advance. We plan for a grocery run a few days after we are on the road. We rarely take a cooler with food, although I usually bring a small one along in case we need extra space.

Once we're done packing, we fold down the PUP and hitch it up. The last thing I do is disconnect shore power from the garage and switch it to 12v power before removing the wheel chocks. We've traveled 10-12 hours this way and the food stays quite cold. I've never run propane on the road for the various reasons that others have shared, particularly my concern that I'd forget about it at a gas station or something like that.

 

in most states with tunnels, i believe it is illegal to have propane gas on when traveling through them. just sayin. you'll see the signs on approach.

 

With the signs there are also places to pull over to shut them off. Its no diffrent than planning your route before you set off on your trip. Some bridges dont allow towing at all with certian mph winds or low bridges for those that have TT or rvs. Or pulling into a place to eat and having no room for the combined pop up and TV in the parking lot. You need to plan a little. Or adapt as you go.

 

You know what they say about opinions.......there like noses, everyone has one.

( i had to steal that line )

 

My father always said: "Opinions are like A$$holes... everybody's got one and they always think everyone elses STINKS!"

 

Had this same question a few years ago. This is what I learned. Don’t drive with gas on. Against the law to go through tunnels. Police actually will pull over campers with trailers and check. Battery won’t do it. You’ll get to your site and the battery will be drained. We now put a block of ice on a shelf in it Shut it off just as soon as we leave and turn it on when we get there. Have driven all day and still a cool fridge and ice has not melted. That’s how we now do it.

 

This topic looks pretty well covered, I use dry ice to cool unit so its pretty much ready to work when propane is in use, my concern w a pilot burning is fuel stops which could be problematic.

 

We travel with our 3-way on propane most of the time. For long trips the 12v just doesn’t cut it. We generally carry our food with us, so putting in frozen bottles would require less food. Our pilot light stays lit and the fridge stays cold. The regulator and bottles all have flow control devices to cut of the propane in the event of a catastrophic hose failure. Otherwise, it’s the human factor to worry about. Use caution when refueling and such. I work with a guy that won’t keep propane, because it could explode. But, he’ll keep 4 5-gal gas cans in his garage. Pick your poison.

 

Just returned from 2.5 weeks on the road, propane stayed on entire time.