Extra Freezer Install

wintertree · 04-18-2020, 02:41 AM

Greetings all..One of the important things for us is extra freezer space in our RW. I wrestled with this issue for some time and came up with the best option (for us).
We like our RV fridge...Being able to use our fridge when we are in between hook ups (services) is high on our list. We also have some solar...genset...extra batteries...etc. Yes , the vast majority of the time we are in a proper campsite with services....but there will be times our rig will be in storage...or even boon docking as we wait for long weekends to pass (most long weekends space is booked up for over a year).
I looked into an Engle....Or a Dometic chest freezer...these units have a good following...often can be run on both AC or DC....BUT cubic ft / dollar these units demand a premium.
In our boat (44' trawler) I retired our old AC / DC fridge when we did the refit a few years back. That fridge new today was thousands of $$...decided to go with two smaller AC fridge units..one fridge and one freezer...total cost was about $600. When we are power pinching (at anchor away from our marina) and we know we are not motoring the next day we often run only the freezer on the battery bank (inverter)...and freeze a couple of plastic milk jugs that are water filled to place in the fridge. Turns the fridge into an ice box to keep things cool with out running the generator to charge the house battery bank.
I followed that reasoning with our decision on an extra freezer for our RW. Next was to find a place to install an AC mini freezer. We have a 2015 38 RL so the only area available was on one side of the walk in closet in the nose...We have full laundry on board so that space was not available. After removing the "shoe hole box" on the camp side of the closet I managed to reach inside to check for obstructions. Anyone familier with this unit knows there is a curved wall on each side. To my delight there was nothing much behind it...My intention was to create enough space for a freezer unit by removing the curved paneling and install a straight wall. All though the whole install took some some wrangling and a couple of days...then end result was what we were looking for.
The freezer we purchased was an "Upright" 21.5 inches wide / 55.5" tall / 22' deep...approx 6.4 cubic ft of additional freezer space. The freezer draws 2 amps during operation (current draw will double during start up briefly).
The other thing that concerned me was knowing that there was power to the freezer at a glance. Sometimes stashing a unit like this could cause one to miss an issue (power) and have everything spoil before you notice things are off. So I installed a indicator light (pilot) in the corner of the cabinet just outside the walk in closet...now if there is power to the unit the LED light will be illuminated and can be checked with just a glance in passing.
We don't plan to have it chocker block full with heavy stuff....but really need to have some supplies on hand so we are not having to travel to re supply too much(something we are all having to do during this crisis). We are farm folk and are used having extra grub around in a freezer or other cool storage..
I thought I would post this modification for any and all that may be looking to solve this issue...I included the size of the freezer for those with a similar RW so they can have reasonable insight on what fits ....and where....I will also post pictures...Take care !