rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[SilverJimmy]

I have solved the soggy cheese in the cooler problem by using frozen bottles of water. Instead of ice I put 6-8 bottles of frozen water in with the food and drinks. Keeps everything nice and cold and as a bonus towards the end of the day I have some ice water to drink. I keep the same number of bottles in the freezer in our camper and just rotate them for any day trip we might take.

 

[ntsqd]

One of the things that Locos Mocos taught me was to only drain enough water out of the cooler to gain enough room for more ice. This is contrary to everything else that I'd ever seen or been told, but it makes some sense when you really think about it.

With a cooler full of water and ice it's all at 32° or colder (in the case of the ice) and it can't get any warmer until almost all of the ice has melted. Water is a massive thermal sink, it takes a huge amount of heat to change 32° ice into 32° water, and quite a bit more heat to raise the water to 33°. In contrast it takes very little heat to raise air's temperature by one degree.
Water & ice is also an excellent suspension media for the beer & eggs. A full-on flogging down a section of the race course won't foam the beer nearly as badly if the cooler is full of water and ice. It will definitely foam it if you've drained all of the water out, and the ice won't last anywhere near as long.

 

[rattle_snake]

I see the price of 12 VDC fridges has come down significantly in the last few years. I have a pair of lifetime small and medium size ice chests that do the job well.
That said I spent some time on the cabover camper 3-way fridge. It will light but not stay burning. Long ago a took it apart and determined that the design of the thermocouple wiring drops to much voltage across the various contacts to work reliably.
Aside from modify/repair an option is to replace the old fridge with a modern 12 VDC compressor type and abandon the gas. Would need a solar setup to run it, which I'm considering anyhow. Or even another 12 VDC portable to use on the ground outside, and for trips without the camper.
Also thinking of long run, the 110 VAC rooftop AC is 20+ years old. My Honda inverter generator struggles to run it, which it didn't before. Setup still works but is loud. A 48 VDC air conditioner, decent battery setup and panels would be a nice upgrade.

 

[zmotorsports]

I have solved the soggy cheese in the cooler problem by using frozen bottles of water. Instead of ice I put 6-8 bottles of frozen water in with the food and drinks. Keeps everything nice and cold and as a bonus towards the end of the day I have some ice water to drink. I keep the same number of bottles in the freezer in our camper and just rotate them for any day trip we might take.

We do the same thing Sterling. Our drinks are in the cooler with the ice, but our lunches go in a smaller soft-sided cooler using frozen water bottles to keep everything cool. Works like a dream and just keep rotating new ones into the freezer so there's always 4-6 frozen and ready for the next day(s).

 

[SilverJimmy]

I just upgraded or Arctic Fox 990 truckbed camper to a Dometic 12 volt compressor fridge. The camper already had a 200 watt solar panel so I also upgraded the batteries to two 105 amp hour lithium batteries at the same time. We just got back from a 3-1/2 week trip to Yellowstone and all points between and the new fridge has been rock solid, fridge at 33 degrees and freezer at -3 degrees always! Best thing I ever did and now the wife is happy, no more fridge failures! We also did a trip to ElMirage last May and the solar kept up perfectly with the fridge power draw.