We are a family of 3 planning a 12 month trip around Australia. Our van has a 152lt fridge/freezer that will run on gas/solar/240 and second car battery. My question is do you think we will need another fridge in our 4wd for extra fridge space or not? My wife and I seem to disagree. Thank you in advance for any advice.
Cheers
yobarr said
08:09 PM Aug 12, 2021
OutbackinfrontOz wrote:
Hello everyone,
We are a family of 3 planning a 12 month trip around Australia. Our van has a 152lt fridge/freezer that will run on gas/solar/240 and second car battery. My question is do you think we will need another fridge in our 4wd for extra fridge space or not? My wife and I seem to disagree. Thank you in advance for any advice.
Cheers
My suggestion is "Yes",as you may not always have the van in tow when you do day trips to attractions,and cool drinks always are nice to have on board.Your 152 litre fridge/freezer may seem OK, but for a family I think it'll struggle! As a lone traveller,I have a 175 litre compressor fridge/freezer in the van,as well as a big Engel in the car,both Solar powered,and they are full at all times.The one in the car is more freezer than fridge,and sits on -14 degrees,so it is handy to throw a few stubbies in when half an hour from parking up so by the time I stop,the beer is at the right temperature! Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Thursday 12th of August 2021 08:24:49 PM
Im only new here and most of these guys know far more than me, but I think it's a wise choice to have a compressor fridge in your car/ute too even if for a back up, Having had 12/240/gas fridges before I never ran them on 12v as they used a massive amount of power and very inefficient also you cant run them on gas while in motion.
Eaglemax said
11:30 PM Aug 12, 2021
We did a "lap in 2016 with a cf18 waeco chest fridge. Being too small we moved up to a 30 litre waeco draw fridge in our 2nd home built van. There's 2 of us and we shop every 3-4 days.
Admittedly we had weight issues, without that we'd likely have made do with 50 litre fridge freezer.
So imo your van fridge is more than large enough. Gee, some travellers must store sides of lamb in them lol
Tony
Whenarewethere said
12:00 AM Aug 13, 2021
We only have a 28L fridge 13kg net weight, but there is only 2 of us. Mostly for vegies, yoghurt, cheese etc. We use powdered milk to save space in the fridge. We would have gone for a 40L fridge but that's all we could fit in the car. It is a little tight once stocked up with lettuce.
I would go for a 40 - 50L fridge. Probably the only issue is the gross weight of the fridge is about 30kg plus 5kg for mounting bracket, unless you make it yourself.
Do you have the spare payload?
Cassie63 said
08:13 AM Aug 13, 2021
yes, 40/50 litre for when you do day trips away from the van etc
Radar said
08:44 AM Aug 13, 2021
OutbackinfrontOz wrote:
Hello everyone,
We are a family of 3 planning a 12 month trip around Australia. Our van has a 152lt fridge/freezer that will run on gas/solar/240 and second car battery. My question is do you think we will need another fridge in our 4wd for extra fridge space or not? My wife and I seem to disagree. Thank you in advance for any advice.
Cheers
Hi, no a ute frig is not needed but our 40 litre portable frig gets a workout and enjoyed. Away from the caravan carries our day supplies, coming home from shopping cold food gets dropped in there. Very handy as a back up.
Not a must have but totally enjoyed.
Whenarewethere said
09:08 AM Aug 13, 2021
Christmas Day 2019 our home fridge died. We had a bar fridge as well so could just cope with some culling. Stuffing down some food to avoid chucking it, but freezer space was a lost cause, so we used the Waeco fridge as a freezer until we got a new fridge.
if your doing any remote camping it is nice to have a fridge/freezer in the tug to keep any things that needs to be kept cool, when you go do the shopping on warm/hot days
Cupie said
09:48 AM Aug 13, 2021
I have always used a 30l Engel in the Patrol for wine, beer, a small amount of soft drink, some water and all the makings for a picnic lunch. I also carry a single burner propane cooker with a light weight plate/grill.
Nothing like pulling up at a beautiful often unexpected spot on the coast or even in the bush when on a day trip, geting out the aluminuim table & directors chairs, throwing on a tablecloth and whipping out a couple of wine glasses or stubby holders to accompany a lunch of fresh grilled steak or snags & onions in a bread wrap with salad & dressings ... without having had to go to the trouble of putting it all together before leaving the camp spot BTW, I can now round that out with freshly ground coffee brewed on my stove top coffee maker. (No flies on us!!!) Livin' the dream LOL
Let the plebes sit down in the dirt with the ants while scoffing their soggy sanwiches washed down with tepid water ....
ps. I use the engel to pull down the temperature of newly purchased food before I put it into the 3 way fridge. ALL food item groups in both fridges are contained in labled plastic containers (eg, Cheeses, Pizza stuff, sausages, steak, lettuce, tomatoes, breakfast fruit). Keeps the foodtypes together & stops them from being damaged/bruised & I don't loose cold air when opening the 3 way fridge. In the real hot weather when the 3 way stops working as well as it should then the car fridge comes into its own.
IMHO it's a no brainer .. certainly need a car fridge. Best if it can be solar powered too, unlike mine, because the kayak takes up the Patrol roof space .. never know when you are going to come across 'That' perfect body of paddling water.
OutbackinfrontOz said
11:01 AM Aug 13, 2021
Thank you everyone for your advice!
We have decided to put one in the car, payload is not an issue as we have gvm upgrade. My wife still doesnt think we will need but I think she will come around especially for the day trips etc..
Cheers everyone!
Mike Harding said
03:16 PM Aug 13, 2021
OutbackinfrontOz wrote:
We have decided to put one in the car
Good choice, you'll need it. I suggest 40L, more if you have the space.
My 184L three way in the caravan is just big enough for two (I'm solo) but certainly not for a family of five. Also three way fridges need defrosting about once a month and a second fridge/freezer is great for keeping stuff frozen during that process.
msg said
03:46 PM Aug 13, 2021
Whenarewethere wrote: "We only have a 28L fridge 13kg net weight, but there is only 2 of us. Mostly for vegies, yoghurt, cheese etc. We use powdered milk to save space in the fridge. We would have gone for a 40L fridge but that's all we could fit in the car. It is a little tight once stocked up with lettuce."
Yep lettuce can take up a lot of space. and I like my lettuce with pretty well everything in summer.
One thing I am going to try this time is a Coolbag from the supermarket.
A lot of "experts" say that some F&V's don't need to be stored in the fridge. Lettuce, Tomatoes and bananas for instance.
I plan on putting one of those freezer bricks in the bag and fill with those types of F&V. I suppose for that matter anything that needs to be kept cool rather than cold could be kept there. The van can get pretty warm at times and the the freezer bricks may just provide sufficient coolness to be able to keep them a little longer. The bricks could be rotated one in fridge and one in the bag. Another thought, I have a cool pad that my dog uses to stay cool. It is cooled down in the fridge. Maybe one of these would also be good they are quite cheap. (new clean one of course). Thats my thoughts anyway.
Another thought regarding lettuce. I break it up into leaves discarding all the unwanted bits, wash them and dry them and store these in the fridge in ziplock bags with paper towels packed around them. Advantage is lettuce is already washed and ready for use and the bags can fit in a smaller space than a whole head. A lettuce seems to last a bit longer this way.
Whenarewethere said
06:04 PM Aug 13, 2021
Cupie wrote:
I have always used a 30l Engel in the Patrol for wine,...
Now you are being pretentious.
One evening when camping laying the table for dinner with white china Corelle we realised we had 7 different cheeses for after our main course. We had red wine to save room in the fridge!
Cupie said
11:08 PM Aug 13, 2021
Whenarewethere wrote:
Cupie wrote:
I have always used a 30l Engel in the Patrol for wine,...
Now you are being pretentious.
One evening when camping laying the table for dinner with white china Corelle we realised we had 7 different cheeses for after our main course. We had red wine to save room in the fridge!
Pretentious ???? It may have been cask wine ... some goon perhaps ... a sweet fruity Lexia from Berri or even Coolibah maybe
We had red wine to save room in the fridge! Are you saying that you don't chill your red wine to between 12 to 18 degrees? Oh dear!
-- Edited by Cupie on Friday 13th of August 2021 11:14:10 PM
Whenarewethere said
07:07 AM Aug 14, 2021
Cupie wrote:
Whenarewethere wrote:
Cupie wrote:
I have always used a 30l Engel in the Patrol for wine,...
Now you are being pretentious.
One evening when camping laying the table for dinner with white china Corelle we realised we had 7 different cheeses for after our main course. We had red wine to save room in the fridge!
Pretentious ???? It may have been cask wine ... some goon perhaps ... a sweet fruity Lexia from Berri or even Coolibah maybe
We had red wine to save room in the fridge! Are you saying that you don't chill your red wine to between 12 to 18 degrees? Oh dear!
We keep the the wine in the footwell next to the auxiliary batteries under seat for as stable thermal mass next to the air conditioning. In other words where we store the acid & vinegar!
That'd be great to have under the bed.You could get your first beer whilst still in bed! Cheers
Craig1 said
05:33 PM Aug 24, 2021
Wife had an uncle who had a long neck whilst showering. The wall has only 5 ft high and a double brick wide to sit the bottle on.
2_Paws_Up said
06:19 PM Aug 24, 2021
yobarr wrote:
2_Paws_Up wrote:
Essential? no. Handy? Definitely.
Surely it is ESSENTIAL that the beer be cold? Cheers
Bicyclecamper said
09:10 PM Aug 24, 2021
When I bought my first Vitara new in 2001, we were given a Waeco Hot/Cold cooler, as a gift with the car. What I had heard about them was they were not that much good. But I started freezing a bottle of water, then turning the temp to high cool, and we used it on every trip. This thing worked extrememely well, except, I had to turn it off every time I stopped as the factory fitted 12 volt plug down the back, worked all the time, so did not turn off after the ignition key was removed. I still have that cooler, and we still use it. If we put 2 X 2 litre frozen bottles in there, the drinks we leave in it, cool down about 20 C below ambient. So having the aircond on helps as well. I do also have a Finch 3 way 41 litre fridge, and it freezes on all power sources including on 12 volt, if we are doing a 6 hour trip. But I prefer to carry the cooler, but just for transits, as it takes up less room and is much lighter. For people thinking of using cooler bags, I recommend 12 volt coolers instead, you wont regret it. EDIT: What I mean about the 3 way freezing on 12 volt, so long as the fridge, is frozen to start with, the 12 volt keeps it this way and goes not let it get warm.
-- Edited by Bicyclecamper on Tuesday 24th of August 2021 09:27:04 PM
Hello everyone,
We are a family of 3 planning a 12 month trip around Australia. Our van has a 152lt fridge/freezer that will run on gas/solar/240 and second car battery. My question is do you think we will need another fridge in our 4wd for extra fridge space or not? My wife and I seem to disagree. Thank you in advance for any advice.
Cheers
My suggestion is "Yes",as you may not always have the van in tow when you do day trips to attractions,and cool drinks always are nice to have on board.Your 152 litre fridge/freezer may seem OK, but for a family I think it'll struggle! As a lone traveller,I have a 175 litre compressor fridge/freezer in the van,as well as a big Engel in the car,both Solar powered,and they are full at all times.The one in the car is more freezer than fridge,and sits on -14 degrees,so it is handy to throw a few stubbies in when half an hour from parking up so by the time I stop,the beer is at the right temperature! Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Thursday 12th of August 2021 08:24:49 PM
Im only new here and most of these guys know far more than me, but I think it's a wise choice to have a compressor fridge in your car/ute too even if for a back up, Having had 12/240/gas fridges before I never ran them on 12v as they used a massive amount of power and very inefficient also you cant run them on gas while in motion.
Admittedly we had weight issues, without that we'd likely have made do with 50 litre fridge freezer.
So imo your van fridge is more than large enough. Gee, some travellers must store sides of lamb in them lol
Tony
We only have a 28L fridge 13kg net weight, but there is only 2 of us. Mostly for vegies, yoghurt, cheese etc. We use powdered milk to save space in the fridge. We would have gone for a 40L fridge but that's all we could fit in the car. It is a little tight once stocked up with lettuce.
I would go for a 40 - 50L fridge. Probably the only issue is the gross weight of the fridge is about 30kg plus 5kg for mounting bracket, unless you make it yourself.
Do you have the spare payload?
Hi, no a ute frig is not needed but our 40 litre portable frig gets a workout and enjoyed. Away from the caravan carries our day supplies, coming home from shopping cold food gets dropped in there. Very handy as a back up.
Not a must have but totally enjoyed.
Christmas Day 2019 our home fridge died. We had a bar fridge as well so could just cope with some culling. Stuffing down some food to avoid chucking it, but freezer space was a lost cause, so we used the Waeco fridge as a freezer until we got a new fridge.
It's nice to have options.
A bit of information on our fridge:
https://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t65059593/extra-fridge-insulation-wattage-test/
I have always used a 30l Engel in the Patrol for wine, beer, a small amount of soft drink, some water and all the makings for a picnic lunch. I also carry a single burner propane cooker with a light weight plate/grill.
Nothing like pulling up at a beautiful often unexpected spot on the coast or even in the bush when on a day trip, geting out the aluminuim table & directors chairs, throwing on a tablecloth and whipping out a couple of wine glasses or stubby holders to accompany a lunch of fresh grilled steak or snags & onions in a bread wrap with salad & dressings ... without having had to go to the trouble of putting it all together before leaving the camp spot BTW, I can now round that out with freshly ground coffee brewed on my stove top coffee maker. (No flies on us!!!) Livin' the dream LOL
Let the plebes sit down in the dirt with the ants while scoffing their soggy sanwiches washed down with tepid water ....
ps. I use the engel to pull down the temperature of newly purchased food before I put it into the 3 way fridge. ALL food item groups in both fridges are contained in labled plastic containers (eg, Cheeses, Pizza stuff, sausages, steak, lettuce, tomatoes, breakfast fruit). Keeps the foodtypes together & stops them from being damaged/bruised & I don't loose cold air when opening the 3 way fridge. In the real hot weather when the 3 way stops working as well as it should then the car fridge comes into its own.
IMHO it's a no brainer .. certainly need a car fridge. Best if it can be solar powered too, unlike mine, because the kayak takes up the Patrol roof space .. never know when you are going to come across 'That' perfect body of paddling water.
We have decided to put one in the car, payload is not an issue as we have gvm upgrade. My wife still doesnt think we will need but I think she will come around especially for the day trips etc..
Cheers everyone!
Good choice, you'll need it. I suggest 40L, more if you have the space.
My 184L three way in the caravan is just big enough for two (I'm solo) but certainly not for a family of five. Also three way fridges need defrosting about once a month and a second fridge/freezer is great for keeping stuff frozen during that process.
Yep lettuce can take up a lot of space. and I like my lettuce with pretty well everything in summer.
One thing I am going to try this time is a Coolbag from the supermarket.
A lot of "experts" say that some F&V's don't need to be stored in the fridge. Lettuce, Tomatoes and bananas for instance.
I plan on putting one of those freezer bricks in the bag and fill with those types of F&V. I suppose for that matter anything that needs to be kept cool rather than cold could be kept there. The van can get pretty warm at times and the the freezer bricks may just provide sufficient coolness to be able to keep them a little longer. The bricks could be rotated one in fridge and one in the bag. Another thought, I have a cool pad that my dog uses to stay cool. It is cooled down in the fridge. Maybe one of these would also be good they are quite cheap. (new clean one of course). Thats my thoughts anyway.
Another thought regarding lettuce. I break it up into leaves discarding all the unwanted bits, wash them and dry them and store these in the fridge in ziplock bags with paper towels packed around them. Advantage is lettuce is already washed and ready for use and the bags can fit in a smaller space than a whole head. A lettuce seems to last a bit longer this way.
Now you are being pretentious.
One evening when camping laying the table for dinner with white china Corelle we realised we had 7 different cheeses for after our main course. We had red wine to save room in the fridge!
Pretentious ???? It may have been cask wine ... some goon perhaps ... a sweet fruity Lexia from Berri or even Coolibah maybe
We had red wine to save room in the fridge! Are you saying that you don't chill your red wine to between 12 to 18 degrees? Oh dear!
-- Edited by Cupie on Friday 13th of August 2021 11:14:10 PM
We keep the the wine in the footwell next to the auxiliary batteries under seat for as stable thermal mass next to the air conditioning. In other words where we store the acid & vinegar!
a 40 litre drawer type fridge, who knows?
Surely it is ESSENTIAL that the beer be cold? Cheers
That'd be great to have under the bed.You could get your first beer whilst still in bed! Cheers
When I bought my first Vitara new in 2001, we were given a Waeco Hot/Cold cooler, as a gift with the car. What I had heard about them was they were not that much good. But I started freezing a bottle of water, then turning the temp to high cool, and we used it on every trip. This thing worked extrememely well, except, I had to turn it off every time I stopped as the factory fitted 12 volt plug down the back, worked all the time, so did not turn off after the ignition key was removed. I still have that cooler, and we still use it. If we put 2 X 2 litre frozen bottles in there, the drinks we leave in it, cool down about 20 C below ambient. So having the aircond on helps as well. I do also have a Finch 3 way 41 litre fridge, and it freezes on all power sources including on 12 volt, if we are doing a 6 hour trip. But I prefer to carry the cooler, but just for transits, as it takes up less room and is much lighter. For people thinking of using cooler bags, I recommend 12 volt coolers instead, you wont regret it. EDIT: What I mean about the 3 way freezing on 12 volt, so long as the fridge, is frozen to start with, the 12 volt keeps it this way and goes not let it get warm.
-- Edited by Bicyclecamper on Tuesday 24th of August 2021 09:27:04 PM