Appliance education needed!

[dickwhite1]

I’m a new member this week and the new (I think proud) owner of a 69 21’ Globetrotter with a very good body but well-worn interior. I have reasonable skills and tooling, but virtually no trailer or Airstream knowledge (other than they are gorgeous).

Roof mounted Dometic Duo-therm air conditioner FO says was added in 1995 works, but range, refrigerator and furnace did not and have all been pulled.

Question now, of course, is what to replace them with.

Furnace was a Duo-Therm Model 61604GA-9 and probably original. Next to it was a Dometic refreigerator Model 9283131, probably not original since it was plugged into an added 110 line as well as LP. There are also two clusters of cut and taped off wires coming into the area but not hooked up to anything. One is a 4-wire cluster - black, brown, red and green - which comes down through the refrig vent tube and goes ??? The other cluster is two wires - red and white - also taped off and going ???

The range is a Magic Chef Model 165-2F.

Seeking all possible info - what to replace with (and sources), identity of mysterious wires,
etc., etc., etc. Help, help, help!!!

[lewster]

Hi Dick and welcome!

Your choices sort of depend on where you are going with your interior.....as in keeping it original for the period or modernizing the appliances. It would help if you know the sizes of the openings where these appliances should fit. Matching if possible would make your job a whole lot easier on the install side of things. There are lots of choices for RV appliances today.

BTW, your Dometic refrigerator model # should start with 'RM'.

[overlander63]

Hi. Your fridge should be a two way (120 volt and LP), and almost every replacement you will find will be the same way.
Replacement stoves are plentiful, you can either get a range with an oven, or just a cooktop, with either storage underneath, or a good spot for a microwave.
If your furnace is original, and has been used much at all, it should be replaced just because it is old. Even if it works, it can still leak exhaust and CO into the coach, with the real possibility of causing you to wake up dead one morning(not a good way to start the day ).
How is the water heater? Does the plumbing all work, both fresh and waste?

[dickwhite1]

Originally Posted by lewster

Hi Dick and welcome!

Your choices sort of depend on where you are going with your interior.....as in keeping it original for the period or modernizing the appliances. It would help if you know the sizes of the openings where these appliances should fit. Matching if possible would make your job a whole lot easier on the install side of things. There are lots of choices for RV appliances today.

BTW, your Dometic refrigerator model # should start with 'RM'.

Hi!
Modernizing rather than restoring. Some of the cabinetry needs to be replaced anyway, so appliance openings can be whatever. Prefer appliances as small as practicable, especially refrig and furnace. Stove shoud have oven. RE: Refrig Model # - there is no "RM" - just the numbers shown.

[dickwhite1]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Hi. Your fridge should be a two way (120 volt and LP), and almost every replacement you will find will be the same way.
Replacement stoves are plentiful, you can either get a range with an oven, or just a cooktop, with either storage underneath, or a good spot for a microwave.
If your furnace is original, and has been used much at all, it should be replaced just because it is old. Even if it works, it can still leak exhaust and CO into the coach, with the real possibility of causing you to wake up dead one morning(not a good way to start the day ).
How is the water heater? Does the plumbing all work, both fresh and waste?

Forgot about hot water heater. It needs to be replaced also. Water supply system seems to work fine - pump work, no leaks apparent, etc. Can't guess what taped off wires originally serviced. Any thoughts? Thanks for help!

[silverleeper]

Originally Posted by dickwhite1

Hi!
Modernizing rather than restoring. Some of the cabinetry needs to be replaced anyway, so appliance openings can be whatever. Prefer appliances as small as practicable, especially refrig and furnace. Stove shoud have oven. RE: Refrig Model # - there is no "RM" - just the numbers shown.

Welcome! I think your fridge was a Dometic RM50. If so, a good replacement is a Dometic RM2510.2 Freedom. I spent a week and some bloody Knuckles fixing my RM50 and it works ok but its sits in the garage... LOL The new fridge is more reliable.

[bhayden]

Our trailer came with a fairly new Dometic 3-way fridge. We're totally new to this so there is a fair amount of operator error here but I gotta say this thing is REALLY annoying.

It's suppose to just work. Perfect for the dunce newbie like me, right? The fridge has two buttons. Simple right? One is on an off. Simple enough. No light to tell you it's on. Stupid design error #1. The second button is Manual or Automatic. What the hell? Like I said, two buttons are the extent of the controls. Looked around, no thermostat, no switch gas/electric, nada. Instructions on the inside of the fridge! Hey, that's reading the instructions for something twice in one week, my head hurts.

So, from what it says I'm gathering that "Manual" means it runs full time and "Automatic" cycles the so called cooling on and off. Thing is, on our two outings so far the only time it's actually frozen something in the freezer is when it's been on "Automatic".

I thought the first trip it was functioning (i.e freezer got cold) when it was on AC. Now I'm wondering if it was actually running on propane. Push the button for on and you can here the automatic ignitor trying several times. Then the check light comes on. Cycle the power on and off per the instructions to "reset". Let me guess, same guy used to work for Microsoft in the operating systems division . Do this a couple of times and the "Check" button doesn't come on. So is it working on AC, Propane, DC???

After it's been "working" for a while you cycle it On/Off and you don't hear the ignitor clicking away. Is that because it "fired up" right away?? I openned up the access panel. There's basicly no idication of anything. Can't tell if there's a flame buried under all the shrouding or not. There's a couple of leads going down to a terminal strip. Check that with a volt meter. Terminals labled 12V are hot. The other two aren't labled but are black and white which might make one guess they are 110AC. No voltage. Theres a cover with a diagram that suggests two fused are underneath with a warning to disconnect 110VAC and 12VDC before removing. Swell, the braker or just unplugging will disconnect AC but short of pulling out the battery and disconnecting the terminals how do you disconnect 12VDC?

When it works it's OK. Fully automatic is a nice concept but cripes, would it be too much to ask for an indicator to know if it's on AC or DC? Maybe a site glass like our old Suburban furnace so you can see if it's lit?

Hopefully this is just me being stupid but if not I'd definitely NOT recommend this fridge.

-Bernie

[markdoane]

Bernie,

I'm guessing that you didn't get a manual, other than the instructions on the side of the door.

Here's a link to a site where you can download instruction manuals and parts lists.

http://www.dometicusa.com/refrigerators.php?product=12

[bhayden]

Thanks for the link. It appears Dometic has realized the "brainless" no-control idea was bad. Ours is an RM2612. Here's a picture:



Tried clicking on the link for product manuals and got this. "To get an older model's manual, e-mail us or check back later for another major website revision where we offer you the ability to download your choice of user manuals" Again I'm less than impressed with Dometic although the newer models do look better. And when ours works (magic) it works well.

We did get the manual, and the reciepts for ~$1700 installed.. ouch. That's close to half what we paid for the trailer. The paint job (it's an Argosy, calm down) had to be a G note. Of course we're dumping money into it pretty fast too ;-) 40-50k for a new one is still steep but doesn't seem so unreasonable anymore. Especially after this last weekend. We were literally "trailer trash". I think at least 60-70% of the rigs in Yakima were diesel pushers. I'm guessing median price for the RVs in the campground was $750,000!

[lewster]

Hey Bernie,

Don't feel too bad! I bought a 1998 Monaco Dynasty 40' diesel MoHo in 2000 and came to FL. Bought a lot in what turned out to be one of the most exclusive RV parks (excuse me.....that's 'Motorcoach Resort') in the county. I was pretty much in the middle when I got there and in 2005 when I sold the lot, I was barely entry level. Now, the park is 35% Prevost and the rest are mostly less that 4 years old. I would say that the median price of the coaches in there is $600K!

Funny thing is, I work in that park almost every day now and here I am with my 19' CCD Airstream. All of those moneyed folks are now my 'customers' and I think it's GREAT!!!

[wunderful62]

hello there, i read your post and saw you were in gilroy. i am in san jose,and i have a globetrotter also. i may be intersted in your old oven for parts. my cell no in 408 828 1707. also you can talk to ron socorro for help with questions you might have at toscanos airstream in los banos at 209 826 2488.could you e mail me about the oven asap.thanks .

[tn2]

I'm sure you have your answer by now....but your many colored wires go to an ice maker which I guess was removed when new refrig put in
Charles