Help Me Pick A Fridge!!

Hey TW!,

So recently I have been thinking about getting a fridge to put in my truck.

Background: Double-Cab and I want this fridge to be in the back of the cab.

So, I live in the very hot and humid Southeast. Currently my wife and I are not taking weekend camping trips and off-grid adventures, nor are we likely to anytime soon. The GOAL is to get a fridge set up in the truck that I can use DAILY. I take a lunch with me to work each day and some drinks. I would prefer to be able to just pack what I need and leave it in the truck. Ice packs do not work for the heat of the summer where I live. Second, and the most important, is when my wife and I go somewhere for the day, whether in the city, for a hike, a drive to somewhere, or even a couple day trip where we rent a cabin, I would like to always have the ability to have some cold water, maybe throw some meats and cheese and fruit in the cooler and go for a picnic. Im looking for flexibility and ease. Does anyone have a suggestion for a cooler that would fit this? I have researched a bit, Dometic mostly, and from what I am seeing, there are just too many options. I know I wont be able to keep the fridge on all the time, but what I am wondering is if there is a way to get the right fridge that I can kick on for a bit and then turn off, keeping the coolness inside, much like when the power goes out? Coolers are simply just too much of a mess with ice and I want the on-demand of a fridge if possible.

Thanks in Advance!

 

You can absolutely leave them on all the time with the proper set-up. Dometic is the best, I love mine and you would too if you went that route.

This battery fits in the stock location with no modification.

https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/sli27fagmdp

Add a 100w solar panel to keep it topped off and you can leave the fridge on indefinitely. I also recommend the insulating cover for the fridge, it helps it's efficiency a lot.

 

National Luna, Dometic, sno master, Engel, arb, then theirs Amazon and the like. I myself after have three other branded fridges bought a dometic.

 

Any suggestions for a model in regard to what I need from the fridge? I know I don't need the multi climate, ice making, big ones. I have also been doing a lot more research on the battery/power set up so thankfully I feel like I have a solid plan for that at least.

 

It sounds like the 35 would fit your needs the best. That's the smallest one in the cfx3 line but for just storing drinks and some snacks, it would be perfect. You'll be surprised how much stuff you can find in a fridge when you don't have to worry about ice taking up room.

https://shop.dometic.com/store/dometic/en_US/pd/productID.5363870300

 

I’ve run both arb and dometic. I’m currently doing something similar - here’s my setup

x2power 27f
Goose gear seat delete
Arb wiring kit run to rear seat with socket mounted in the plastic along the drivers side rear of cab
Dometic cfx35w

you could pretty much run this all the time if you have enough drive time to recharge the battery. I’ll also plug the fridge into AC if it’s just sitting in the garage so I’m not draining my battery.

 

Everyone gets fancy Dometic fridges. I've been happy with my CC series. I have a Dometic CC40 that I bought from a camping reseller for just over $300 new. It's been great the last few years.

It doesn't get down to freezing, but it works great to keep lunch and drinks cold.

 

I went with the

$275 Alpicool CF55 Portable Freezer,12 Volt Refrigerator, 52 Quart (49.4 Liter) Fast Cooling 12V Car Fridge Freezer -4℉~68℉, Car Cooler, 12/24V DC and 100-240V AC for Outdoor, Camping, RV, Truck

Alpicool CF55. 55 liter, 12/24 DC, 45W.

Probably not as good as a Dometic, but at a third of the cost, plus m/l similar quality, I'm ahead $500.

Kyocera 130 PV panel, Renogy LiFePo4 100AH, Tracer 4210 MPPT charge controller, Xantrex 2kW sine inverter, real USB 3.1 jacks, etc.

 

I'm thinking about something similar as well--did you add this as an 2nd battery, or a replacement for the original?

 

I have that as my only battery. I'm never parked more than just overnight so it works great for me. If I was going to be somewhere for 2-3 days without running the truck, then I would add a solar panel or secondary battery, or both.

 

Thank you for the suggestion, I think for me just hearing what people are running that is similar to what I want helps quite a bit. Ill look more into it.

 

I will definitely check that one out! I am always looking to save a bit if I can without completely giving up quality.

 

Personally I am going to be using a 2nd battery for the fridge only so that I can completely control every part of the operation better. There are some fairly inexpensive set ups you can do in order to run the fridge on its own that are quality.

 

Instead of getting a second battery mounted in your truck, you can look into something like a jackery battery that you can plug into your cigarette lighter while you're driving and plug the cooler into the battery. When you shut your truck off the cooler will still run off the battery. You can also hook a solar panel into the battery to charge it if you're not driving the truck for a while.

 

I have the Jackery lithium battery that plus into my 12v and the fridge is plugged into the battery - it's super simple & it works great!

 

I personally am running the same battery @EatSleepTacos mentioned as my primary battery. I also have a secondary 105ah battery in the bed that is now ran as a dual battery setup but prior to that I ran it independently with a 100w solar panel (Courtesy I’d knowledge from @fatfurious2 )wired to it to keep it topped off. After I did this set up I never once had a shut off on any of my fridges. Even sitting for 3 days. You don’t have to go dual battery but I got a red arc and everything to switch over to dual for less than 400.00 so it was just a meh why not.

 

A 55im in the back seat of my truck. I got it when it was on sale with free shipping.

 

What area do you live in? I’m selling a Dometic CF80 with cover it’s in great condition I’m in Texas I won’t ship it though.

 

Definitely not close. I will keep an eye out for people selling them though, because brand new they are simply quite overpriced. A mini-fridge is cheaper and I bet I could easily hook one up in a somewhat functional manner, haha.