I see there was a lot of good information pertaining to the electrical setup. I did not see anyone discuss the propane setup. I don't know if that is because it just does not perform well or if the original preference was leaning to electric? I too have been debating this issue and would like to boondock at times so I was leaning towards a 3-way fridge for most flexibility. Any thoughts pertaining to that?

Thanks,
Tom
76 Eleganza II with electrical fridge now

Thanks everyone for the info. I understand that in the real world a lot depends on the use. I wonder if the energy star ratings account for some kind of "typical" days use opening the door and what not. IF I were to go this route what would be a good battery configuration. Right now the house has one 12v deep cycle battery which the PO had just installed.

A Hamilto

..... the next day, run the genset long enough to get it back to 55%, and so on until the battery is toast.

It takes a lot of digesting because the author is long-winded and buries the gold pretty deep in his writing, but the second link I provided says that a battery needs to be brought to WELL OVER 14 volts AND HELD THERE for a lot longer than any commercially available converter/charger will do. An RV converter/charger will run at 13.6 volts or so for a bit then drop off to 13.2 long before the battery is charged. Some SOLAR CHARGE CONTROLLERS can be reprogrammed from factory default to do the job. But an RV converter/charger ain't gonna do it. A converter/charger would need to run a couple of days to completely charge a battery.

Bottom line, at least for me, is you cannot beat propane for space heating, water heating and running the refer while dry camping in a GMC. In another presentation made at the GMCWS rally in Coos Bay, OR, in October of this year I also talked about running our Onan generators on propane, as well: http://www.gmcmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Feeding-the-Barbarian-Jerry-Work.pdf Once you make that switch you will never look back at things like home refers and massive battery banks because your Onan will start easily, run quieter and more smoothly, outlast you and the next several owners and have no more ugly exhaust smell so you can run it easily and as often as you need to to keep everything in your GMC running comfortably whether plugged into shore power or not.

I have to disagree on efficiency of the propane fridge. I do not know how you can compare it to the electric fridge, but my GMC fridge never seems to ever effect the level of propane in my coach. ...

So my conclusion after all of this is that an electric fridge will work for our uses.... EXCEPT for our 3-4 days in Yellowstone without hook ups. But I don't really want to invest a great deal of money to get us set up just for those few days when most of our use will be on shore power.

So I'm trying to think outside of the box now for those several days. What if I bought a block of dry ice right before entering Yellowstone and stuck it in the fridge? Perhaps that would maintain the temp in the fridge well enough that it wouldn't have to run as much and enable us to make it through. Remember, I do have the genset and will be driving the GMC around the park every day as well.

Thoughts? Anyone ever tried this before? (Thanks for playing along with all of my hypothetical questions!)

Here photo's of the installed Votronic VCC 1212-45, which does a good job in charging the batteries while driving.
And has a Characteristic Line of Charging: IU1oU2

The most easy way to understand its function, is to compare it to a state of the art 110/120v Battery charger, but now the input is not 110/120v but the available current from the alternator. And giving that alternator a lower chargelevel of the battery, by "fooling" it, and letting it still keep charging, even if the starterbattery is full (and that mostly happens very fast) Controling and transforming those current and amps to a higher level if necessary.
Info at: http://www.votronic.de/index.php/en/products2/series-vcc/standard-version/vcc-1212-45

[......................]
Daniel