refrigerator when moving

[Lily&Me]

Thank you, Terry....my first thought to that statement was whaaaat???

I have never seen a sign to that effect nor other alert to the gazillion RV’s on the road that any state has such a prohibition.


Maggie

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Even in this day of "everything is on video" there are limits. We talk about trailers flipping over and video showing it. I've seen trailers flip in front of me. I didn't get it on video. The same thing applies to a lot of accidents. Even with video, it's tough to come up with a cause. Generally that involves some pretty careful analysis. In the case of RV accidents of any sort, that analysis is just about never done.

The result of all this is we are left with guesses and ideas. There is no hard data. How dangerous is this or that practice? You don't really have the statistics. A lot of bits and pieces on RV's fail from time to time. How often? We guess at it.

Sure, it would be nice to have data. Collecting it properly costs money. Unlimitedly that money comes out of your pocket. Trust me when I say it's not a small amount of money to do it properly. What's it worth to you? How many people is it worth that much to? Unless the math adds up to a big number, we keep guessing ....

Bob

[rastapoodle]

I thought trailers were designed to travel with the propane on. That is why they have all the shielding around the flame. Gas stations are another store , but that said all gas pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that illuminate fuel vapors from getting into air.

[FarFetched]

This was one of the issues that almost made me swap my soon-to-arrive Serenity for a Globetrotter. The fridge in the Globetrotter will run on 12V while towing.

[Chrisy]

Clearly I was wrong! Thank you all

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by rastapoodle

I thought trailers were designed to travel with the propane on. That is why they have all the shielding around the flame. Gas stations are another store , but that said all gas pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that illuminate fuel vapors from getting into air.

Hi

All quite true. Pretty much all the video you can find of gas station incidents involves something like a spark right at the fuel nozzle. That's not going to happen from your fridge.

The somewhat more remote case is a fuel spill. Bob grossly overfills the tank and it spews out all over the station as he pulls out. Again, this is unlikely with a modern vehicle. Maybe Bob is driving a 64 Chevy. A 5 gallon gas can that tips over is another possible source.

In any case, gasoline vapors are heavier than air. The fridge in most trailers is pretty high off the ground. Getting a concentration of vapor up there that will ignite (or explode) from the ground isn't going to be easy. You now are into the "hose sprays gas on the trailer" sort of event.

For added fun, peek inside a modern gas pump. Notice all the electronics in there? Now take a look at the enclosure. Head off to Mr Google and take a look at a proper explosion proof electrical enclosure. Gee ... not the same thing at all is it? That said, pumps don't explode on a regular basis ....

So what's the big deal here? Why all the "open flame" warnings? The simple answer is a lit cigarette in somebodies hand. Hand goes under the gas nozzle, fumes flow down out of the nozzle. Not a good situation. Far easier to say "no flame" than to get into all the details of all the possible cases.

So is that an exhaustive list? Most certainly not. Should you take risks you can easily avoid? It does not sound like a good idea. I'd suggest that understanding the risk is the first step in the process of avoiding it.

Bob

[DreamStreamr]

Originally Posted by rastapoodle

but that said all gas pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that illuminate fuel vapors from getting into air.

Uh, no. New cars have on-board vapor recovery systems. Some gas pumps have the vapor recovery nozzles, some don't. Apparently the vapor recovery systems now installed in cars are incompatible with the nozzle boot systems?

Federal vapor recovery mandate seems to have fallen effective 2013 after a proposed revised EPA standard issued 2011. Some states opt to maintain the "stage II" requirement. Some states never complied, never adopted gas pump vapor recovery requirement.

[David F]

My wife and I recently finished a nine day vacation with our newly renovated and new to us '67 Caravel. The not original, but still old Dometic 2 way fridge performed perfectly to the point where we had to dial down the temperature to keep everything from freezing in the fridge. But, the only issue we had was the propane flame would not stay lit while traveling down the road. I assume this is due to wind currents entering the belly vent and blowing out the flame. Any suggestions on if or how to shield the belly opening to prevent the flame being blown out?

PS: Sorry if this post is seen as thread hijacking, but it is somewhat on topic as we WANT to travel with the propane on.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by David F

My wife and I recently finished a nine day vacation with our newly renovated and new to us '67 Caravel. The not original, but still old Dometic 2 way fridge performed perfectly to the point where we had to dial down the temperature to keep everything from freezing in the fridge. But, the only issue we had was the propane flame would not stay lit while traveling down the road. I assume this is due to wind currents entering the belly vent and blowing out the flame. Any suggestions on if or how to shield the belly opening to prevent the flame being blown out?

PS: Sorry if this post is seen as thread hijacking, but it is somewhat on topic as we WANT to travel with the propane on.

On my '70s Argosy, I had 2 problems that would blow out the fridge flame (and it was the old fully-mechanical pilot system, no 12v brain to relight it.) I first found that I had low gas pressure, replacing the auto-switching regulator with a new one corrected that but it would still occasionally blow out. I covered about half the air vent at the bottom of the fridge compartment with a section of AC filter material and after that the only times I had to relight the fridge was after going over high mountain passes. It was 50/50 over Raton, but every time I went over 11,312-feet Monarch pass (admittedly a low n-count of 4) I had to relight the fridge.