We bought a 2013 DP Itasca-Meridian in Oct. We love the coach. Other than running the generator while driving down the road to power the refrig is there another
Option. The manual talks about running propane and or electric but we do not see an option to do that in this coach. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Manuals are often generic and cover many different coaches with different systems, so don't depend on what the manual says.
Simply, if your refrigerator does not have exterior vent panels top and bottom for propane exhaust venting, then it probably is a compressor fridge.
Some compressor fridges are AC powered and must be run with an inverter when not plugged in or running the generator. Do you have an inverter. Running it off of the inverter will let you drive down the road and keep the refrigerator on. The chassis alternator will (probably) supply the DC to keep the batteries up while running. I say probably because it depends on your coach's battery management system.
If not an AC fridge, like a Dometic, NovaKool, etc then it will run on DC with no inverter. The chassis alternator will keep up with the DC requirements as above.
A little clarification on this would help. What model frig do you have? If its a Norcold then you have options. If past owner put in a residential frig you still have options but you will need to add batteries. Just alittle more on the frig will help.
I have a question as to why you do not want to run the generator while traveling. Its there to use so why not use it. I think you will find running the generator while traveling is the way to go. You can run the AC to keep the coach cooler, stop and run the microwave and to run the frig. The fuel it takes to run the gen. to may is not as important as the above conveniences.
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07 Meridian 36G
Roadmaster tow dolly
Great Wife!! & Max the Frisbee chasing dog.
Am I missing something here? You should be able to power your (assuming you have a residential refrigerator), on an inverter while driving, OR a generator. It needs AC current, so either will work, but it will NOT work off of the batteries alone—the batteries need an inverter to take the battery 12v and make it 110-120v for the refrigerator, while on the road.
I like to run the generator while driving, because it needs exercising anyway. A generator that is not used frequently will develop problems. But once I hit the exercising requirements (two hours per month), I’ll switch to the inverter while driving. Make sense?
I have a 16cu-ft residential refrigerator I and I would NEVER own an RV without a residential refrigerator for lot of reasons.
Your Dimensions Inverter is fine. If you have another brand, not so much.
If you have 410-430AH of battery storage... as in 3-12V deep cycle or 4-6v-GC2 type batteries you will be fine.
Just get a $85 Keyline VSR so your alternator charges your house batteries while you drive and you will end up at your camp spot with 100% SOC.
However, your 430AH house batteries will only last through the night if you follow the 50% rule between recharge cycles.
Consequently, 400W of solar power is your fist step to upgrading your 12V power grid.
The second step is the change out those lead acid flooded batteries to LiFeO4 or you can build a separate LiFe04 battery bank, with a 800W-1200W separate PSW-inverter... to power your residential AC; and then you can let your OEM battery bank power your 12V lights and other 12V systems. ...I.e., you can build on the system you have vs. replacing it with LiFeO4.
Specifically, I don't see why you can't spit-off your residential refrigerator circuit and dedicate it to running on a LiFeO4 battery grid while all your other 12V loads utilize your OEM 12V inverter power grid.
This is the route I plan on going in 2021, but if you find you need to run your generator to power your AC in hot summer weather, then all bets are "off" and there is no need to spend money on this so-called "green new deal" if you need to run your AC to keep comfortable.
The brochure for your RV shows an optional residential fridge that comes with an inverter & extra batteries.
Quote:
Residential stainless steel French door
refrigerator w/ice/water dispenser and bottom
freezer drawer (w/2,800-watt inverter and 2
additional 12-volt coach batteries)
If you have an original equipment residential fridge you can run it off the inverter while driving.
If the former owner installed it then you are going to have to figure out if the fridge will run off the inverter.
Additionally your RV should be set up so the engine alternator keeps the house batteries charged while you are driving. Therefore you shouldn't have a problem running the fridge off the inverter while driving.
I have a 09Journey that I installed a Samsung Res fridge in. While driving, it is powered by the factory installed inverter. It is a MSW inverter as opposed to a sine wave and have had absolutely no issues with the fridge. The draw while underway is about 3-4 amps at 120 volts so that can easily be provided by the alternator and inverter. I also have 400 watts of solar on the roof. Good luck .... it makes a real difference!
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Bob
09 Journey 39Z
Southern Ontario
Thank you for all of your answers. I quess I failed to mention this was our first Class A Diesel and we are still learning. I found out we do have an inverter and if we choose not to run the generator while driving we can run the refrig by the inverter.
We bought a 2013 DP Itasca-Meridian in Oct. We love the coach. Other than running the generator while driving down the road to power the refrig is there another
Option. The manual talks about running propane and or electric but we do not see an option to do that in this coach. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Direct and to the point. Keep your inverter on. It powers the refrigerator 120V outlet. It also powers the outlet under the cabinets over the dash for your computer or what ever, your microwave and the outlets in the galley. No need to run the generator if your batteries are functioning correctly.
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Rick & Melissa Young & Dawson (RIP), 2011 Meridian 40U, FL XCL, ISL 380HP/DEF, Al 3000 MH, 2014 Honda CR-V, SMI AF1, Blue Ox TruCenter & tow equip.,EEZTire TPMS. Servants On Wheels Ever Ready. Best job we ever paid to do . (full time volunteers)
I have a 09Journey that I installed a Samsung Res fridge in. While driving, it is powered by the factory installed inverter. It is a MSW inverter as opposed to a sine wave and have had absolutely no issues with the fridge. The draw while underway is about 3-4 amps at 120 volts so that can easily be provided by the alternator and inverter. I also have 400 watts of solar on the roof. Good luck .... it makes a real difference!
Realize that 3-4 amps at 120v AC is about 30-40 amps DC to the inverter. Your chassis alternator should keep up with that as you note, but when you stop don’t leave it that way for long before plugging into shore power.
The goal is to arrive at your boondock-camp spot with full 100% charge on those house batteries so you do not have to run your generator until you house batteries drop to ~11.9V or 40-50% SOC.
To accomplish this you very easily connect the Keyline VSR (or knockoff device) by running a positive cable from the VSR post to your house battery... and a second positive cable from the VSR to the Chassis-Engine Battery. It is very easy. Just be sure you can extend your battery slides when you need to.
Problem solved.
Also, you refrigerator will draw about 100A-hours from you house batteries everyday. And you will use about 100AH for other 12V accessories to include those flourscent lights on the ceiling.
So if you have 420AH of house battery use, and you follow the rule to recharge your house batteries when you get to 40-50% SOC, then you really have only 210AH of battery use between charges.
This is why your batteries will need charging everyday, and your 400W of solar will only produce charging current during the sunlight. So it's a supplemental charge at best.
And since you said you are new to RVing, but have been paying attention to your battery use and charge cycles, you probably have noticed... your first day of boondocking provides you with the best/longest use of your house batteries; and the second day you are recharging them sooner than the first.
This is because your house batteries need days to recharge and time to rest in order to achieve 100% SOC. So on day two you are only able to recharge to 90%... and day three 85%... then 80%... and then you are talkin about 80% of 420AH times 50% ... which means you really have only 168AH of battery use even though your voltmeter (SOC Gauge) is indicating full charge.
So don't feel cheated. This is how it is until you decide to spend big buck to upgrade to LiFeO4 batteries, or you can just keep running your generator at about .75 Gal/hour on average, which isn't cheep after hours of generator time every season.
Note: If you have to run your AC then you have to run your generator so solar is almost a don't care item. And the same can be said for LiFeO4 battery upgrades.
Consequently, some people just run the FLA batteries down to 20% SOC and just replace them every year or 1.5 years. (TBD) There are people who claim they get 3-5 years of live out of there 4020AH, golf cart batteries, but I don't think any of them have a residential refrigerator.
And as far as I am concerned, I would never own a large RV without a residential refrigerator!
Happy glamping wherever you travels take you!
PS
There will come a time when you need to store your RV and maintain your house batteries to keep them "alive" in the cold. I elected to install a Victron Bluetooth 17A charger I bought on Amazon for $135 and it's working great. I also use it as my primary charger when I have 3 days of shore power or more to recharge my house batteries... and I just turn my Dimensions Charger "off" since I don't want and don't need a rapid charge. So yo might want to look into this by doing a search under my user name for links to this and other subjects that will assist you with your new RV.
Realize that 3-4 amps at 120v AC is about 30-40 amps DC to the inverter. Your chassis alternator should keep up with that as you note, but when you stop don’t leave it that way for long before plugging into shore power.
Depends on the size of your batteries.
David
I have used this residential fridge since 2013. I have 4-110ah 12v batteries and it is more than adequate. The solar puts out 25 plus amps into the batteries on a good summer day. My only issue triggering generator use is at night or dark days. I have my genset AGS programmed to kick in automatically and charge the house batteries when the bank reaches 12.2 volts. Works exceptionally well and I wouldn't be without a res fridge. I am an electrical engineer so knew what was required for reliable power to the fridge.
Do you have any personal experience with res fridges in RVs? You don't have any RV indication in your profile.
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Bob
09 Journey 39Z
Southern Ontario
One type is made specifically to operate on 12V DC and often has the ubiquitous Danfoss inverter compressor. These use 3-6 amps when running. I have owned 6-8 cruising boats with these on board. They typically use 50-75 amp hours daily and are in the 6-10 cu ft range. These are made by Nova Kool, Dometic, etc.
The other type is an AC powered residential fridge like you would buy at a big box store. These use a couple of amps AC when running and are much bigger- as much as 20 cu ft.. You need an inverter to operate one of these and they draw about 20 amps to make the 2 amps AC. They operate at a lower cycle percentage than DC fridges typically but even still they use 100+ amp hours DC daily to power the inverter. They are made by LG, Samsung, GE, etc.
Class B, Cs and small Class As use the 12V types. Larger Class As use the 120V AC types. This mostly has to do with size. AFAIK there are no 20 cu ft 12V fridges.
Do you have a Norcold 4-door Gas/Electric Refrigerator?
I have not owned a gas frig for a long time, but I think your manual is saying you can power your Frig on propane gas or 120V electric shore power or 120V inverter power. Either way the goal is to boil the ammonia in the gas frig coils.... bah, bah, blah.
Your Norcold also needs 120Vac if you have an icemaker, and when you pull off the back vent you should see a 120V outlet the icemaker plugs into. In addition you should have a 15A refrigerator circuit breaker in your power panel.
...At least that how I remember it when I yanked my old Norcold out and installed a GE 15.5 CuFt Frig.
Since then, I have never regretted that upgrade, but I do put up with replacing my house batteries more oven ($500 for 420AH at Costco/Sam's) and I may have to run my Generator more often when I boon dock because I am using 100AH/day to run the residential frig.
However, in the summer when I boondock... and have to run the AC anyway... and that means I also need to run the generator. So there is no downside to the residential frig when you boondock and you need AC.
I also have 400W of solar on my roof, and that helps a little, but really too little if you ask me. I will say that when I boondock and DO NOT need to run my generator as much, because 400W of solar is helping to charge my house batteries (limited to sunny days). Consequently, you can measure the benefit of adding solar by the reduction in generator hours you do not burning X-gallons of diesel. And surprisingly at $3/gal to run your diesel or gas generator (per day) you will quickly learn that generator power isn't cheap either. And you we all know that running a generator can be noisy.
Personally, I spent ~$1000 to install 400W because it was novel and I thought it would be more effective. It's not. And if you have a residential frig is really just a pittance. Maybe, one day, if I end up living like a mountain man I will be glad I installed my 400W solar system, but that day will never come.
* 5 years ago when I installed my 400W of solar there was not a LiFeO4 affordable solution. And I still don't think we are there yet. So IMHO, just keep running your generator if that's not a problem and wait until next year to see if you can put 300-400AH of LiFeO4 of battery storage in your coach for $2,000 (DYI). ...In todays world this is not possible. ...And I don't boondock with running my AC that much.
Note: It may never be possible to get cheap Lithium if all the raw materials gets sucked up by the automotive industry.
Right now I'm more concerned about the price of diesel after 2025 the automakers stop selling gas driven engines. I.e., I wonder what the cost of diesel will be after 2024. Will it go up or go down when the refineries stop making 3 grades of gasoline in volume?
Maybe supply vs. demand will drive the cost of diesel down... but then you know the Biden crowd is going to increase gov't taxes to punish everyone else who is not driving an electric car. Those diesel truck will still be rolling in greater percentage so maybe that new tax will only be placed on gas cars.
Holly sh*$t. What are all the independent gas stations going to do?
Anyway, when you upgrade to a residential frig, you will not be aggravated by gas frig repairs (and food loss) or big repair bills that come with owning a Norcold (aka NeverCold) or Dometic frig. Why do you thing the entire market has gone to residential frigs? ...Besides the fact you will wake your wife very happy!
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