[Buttercup]

Well, I have just about had it with our fridge. It is 3 years old and despite my best efforts – it just doesn't work.
Here's the situation... We replaced out original fridge with a nice new Dometic of suitable fitting. The old fridge would actually heat up on the road, then run fine if it was allowed to sit still.

Now, our new fridge is doing something similar. With us prepping the trailer I start the fridge so it can get all nice and cool – no problems there. It's when we hit the road that the problems start. What happens is that the fridge temp starts to go up and the freezer stays cool. Standard absorption cycle issue, right?
Well, with our old fridge, once you stopped rolling and got all settled out it would work again. Now, the fridge compartment just keeps getting warmer and warmer.

Here is what I do know – the fridge was installed poorly and actually has a few degrees of lean forward (that plus the crunched wheel well and the completely unsealed cooling section allowing dust to come in, it was a very bad job). I have attempted to compensate for level by jacking the trailer in the opposite direction to get the fridge level. It still does not help. I am measuring the levelness of the fridge per Dometic's instructions – using the floor of the freezer compartment if you will.

I have tested the unit per Dometic's instructions and find that it works fine if it is started with the trailer and fridge level enough for comfort. What I have not done yet is to actually pull out the fridge and test it on the ground. The reason I have not done that is because in testing at home with everything still it works. So that makes the frustration level very high!

A little more about the testing I have done based on Dometic's suggestions...

After the unit has been operating for approximately one hour, carefully touch the unit at the boiler box and the absorber area. These areas should be approximately the same temperature, regardless of the ambient temperature. Equal heat between the boiler and the absorber indicates the fluid circulation within the unit is good.

which it usually is when all is well.

However, on the road or after towing and settling out the absorber is actually cooler than the boiler – much cooler! And so...

One of the faults with a cooling unit is a blockage. This can happen when the unit is operated off-level, or if too much heat has been applied to the boiler area. To the touch, this unit will be extremely hot at the boiler with little warmth at the absorber. In other words, no circulation.

Due to the temporary nature of the malfunction I suspect a temporary blockage due to improper draining in the evaporator section and thus:

Liquid trapped in the evaporator sections, caused by out-of-level operation for a period of time. Resetting the refrigerator to a level position will not necessarily correct the problem as liquid can remain trapped even after level is corrected. Shut off the heat source and let the system cool down, then re-start it and observe the temperatures at A and B again after several hours.

Blockage symptoms on the newer cooling units almost always, indicate trapped liquid in the evaporator, which can be corrected by proper leveling and allowing the cooling unit to cool off before restarting.

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O.K. Fine – but I still can not drive down the road with my fridge on because that is when the problems start. We are going to pull the fridge and level it correctly and even put in a fan for improved ventilation. But I believe that there is more to the story. We replaced our axles when we first got the trailer. We had the stock 2800 pound versions and swapped them out for a fresh set of 3500 pound axles thinking that the additional weight would allow us to haul out more things (like beer) if needed.

A very sagacious individual on these forums told me that it might be a bad idea to do that as the trailer will ride rougher on the road. I believe that this may be exacerbating the refrigerator problems we are having. So we will be looking into getting those 3500 pounders out and a set of 2800 pounders in. Hopefully the combination of a better level and a smoother ride will once again allow us to run our fridge as just about everybody else does – running as you are cruising down the road.