TreeSeeker wrote:

RvFNG76,

A 125w refer is going to draw roughly 1 amp on 120vac. That will be 12 amps on a 12vdc source and that is not even counting the draw of the converter. And remember the refer has to run 24hrs so at night it has to run only on battery power. For 8 hrs of darkness you would need 12amps x 8hrs = 96 amp hrs of battery power.

For a 120 amp hr battery you can only use half of that without damaging it. So you only get 60 amp hrs. But to charge the batteries back up you need to double the number of batteries since the refer draw continues even when the solar panels are charging. And I haven't even counted all the other battery draws.

The are reasons RVs come with gas refers.

Leeann wrote:

I would do the same as Stingray.

And then I'd install a new propane line and a 3-way fridge. I bought mine on Craigslist for not a lot of money and my husband fixed the 12v (wired backwards) so it runs correctly on propane, 12v and 110v.

We run the 12v while driving so we don't have to stop and turn off propane at tunnels, then switch to propane as soon as we reach our destination. We cool it down via 110v before we leave.

Griff in Fairbanks wrote:


Check your gas mileage when running the fridge on 12v versus not. You may be surprised.

BitsPerSecond wrote:



I assume you mean that the gas milage would go down due to higher draw on the alternator? What kind of difference are we talking?

I havent looked at the fridge in my brougham yet. But I would like to be able to run it on 12V while driving.

Leeann wrote:

Has made zero difference. 7 mpg without 12v fridge, 7 mpg with 12v fridge.

And anywhere we go in ours, we would have to stop, turn off propane, drive through tunnel, stop and turn propance back on. For some trips, more than once. No thanks.