Camper Casey still here

[Casey Freswick]

It has been too long, thought I would give an update in travel 2024. I am totally enjoying the reliability of my 300 watt solar, 300 Amp battery pack, and 3,000 watt inverter running all 12 volt and an electric only fridge. With normal sun my system is balanced. I often boon dock for several days. I was down to 39% after 4 days of almost no sun.

This has been another busy travel year. I am at the beginning of a two week outing with family in Nebraska. After this trip we will have put on 7,500 for this year. This follows an 8,000 mile year last year.

We had one major problem. In July, traveling with friends in NW IW, we got a call that our camper was smoking. We were literally right by a exit, we got off and discovered the passenger side wheel was crooked, the bearing was burned up, the hub was shot, the brakes were gone, but apart from some spurs the axel was OK. I had all the tools to fix it, but had to go 1 hour one way to get the parts. After 5 hours from the initial problem, we were back on the road. I also replaced my tires during this trip. I SHOULD HAVE replaced them before, but thought one more trip would be OK. I had endurance tires, I liked them, but they had over 30,000 in 6 years. So yes, I should have replaced them. I have now spent over 6 weeks in the camper the last couple of years averaging 5,000 plus miles. We are hoping to take a drive to Alaska in 2026. Hope you all had a great year.

[Shane826]

Hello and welcome back! Is your fridge electric only like it’s 120VAC and running off the inverter?

[Casey Freswick]

Yes, it is 120 only running off my inverter. I have a cheap Magic Chef from Home Depot. I got it because of the fit. It fits and is significantly larger my old 3 way which was not working. Even with the upgrade below it was cheaper, since I already had the inverter and battery set up, to buy 3 100 watt solar panels, a Victron smart solar MPPT 100/30 controller, and an electric refrigerator than buy a new 3 way refrigerator.

However, the temperature gage is not connected to a gauge that measure temperature by degrees, but a nob control. Certainly, this does relate to a temperature measuring system, but I have a thermonitor in the fridge and depending on the outside temperature I adjust the nob for cooler or warmer setting.

I am convinced that if I had payed double the price ($500) and gotten a OUTDOOR refrigerator made for outdoor patio set ups it would have been much better. These normally use 10% more electric, but are higher quality and specifically made for variable outside temperatures, which mine is not made for. The one I bought has been working OK to good, better than my old 3 way, and has kept everything cold and even frozen in the freezer at 90 plus degrees outside. But that is not what it was made for and I would not recommend it. But with an upgraded "outdoor" fridge/freezer I am convinced a system like mine would work great.

[Casey Freswick]

One item we really like is a present from my son. It is a magnetic screen door that you velcro in. We have it just on the top part of the door, but we have found that it works great.