Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I just purchased a Honda 2000 generator and have a small freezer I'd like to use for 2 weeks while camping and fishing in Montana.Does anyone have any secrets or recommendations as far as the best way to keep things frozen between stops.I read somewhere that it's best to fill a freezer with empty boxes just to take up space and keep it from running so much.Any thoughts on the subject will be greatly appreciated..

How small and could it be powered with an inverter running from the TV battery? Probably!

shadow catcher.It is a small maybe 7 cubic ft chest freezer and will be running from the generator.

What I do with my dorm size refrigerator is the following since it is not powered when traveling, but only when connected to shore power when camping.

I have two half gallon milk jugs that i fill with water and keep in the freezer at home. When ready to camp i put both of these jugs in the cooler with all my food which may include other frozen foods from the freezer. When I arrive at the campground and have power for the refrigerator, I put all my food in the refrigerator except for light perishables such as produce, water, canned beverages etc (what don't fit in the fridge) in the cooler. I take one jug of water and put in the freezer compartment of the fridge (it should just fit) and the other I leave in the cooler. The next day i switch the jugs. This way there is always a jug of water that is frozen for travel and to keep the cooler cool.

So i would fill up any free space with jugs of water for your freezer.

There are only a few options.

If the unplugged time is only a few hours, just keep it closed. Adding things like frozen water jugs will help by increasing the thermal inertia.

If you need to extend the off time without power then dry ice is an option.

The only other option that I see is to provide power as described earlier with an inverter or running the Genny.

The more mass you have in your freezer the longer it will hold its cold between cycling of the compressor. Filling any unused space with jugs of water to be frozen into ice will work well.

In addition, adding salt to the water will lower the temperature that the water will freeze at. Freezers, from what I gather, should be kept at about 0 to -10F. http://www.favoritefreezerfoods.com/ide ... ature.html

Here is a chart that shows the freezing temperature for various concentrations of salt water: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine

Your salt solution freezing temperature should be just slightly above what your freezer's temperature will be. Ice has about 80 times more "cold" than an equal amount of water due to it taking a lot more energy to melt ice versus warming water. Changing from ice to water absorbs a lot of heat. Soooooooo, a jug of ice will hold just as much "cold" as 80 jugs of water. So you wanna make sure that yer able to freeze the salt solution.

Filling the empty space with jugs of salt water will give the them longest periods between running your compressor.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

I think I should add some salt to the water jugs I use to keep my shad and alewives alive longer in my boat bait tank. On hot days, I go through a lot of jugs to keep the bait tank water temp below 70 degrees.

Thanks,

Bob

lrrowe wrote:I think I should add some salt to the water jugs I use to keep my shad and alewives alive longer in my boat bait tank. On hot days, I go through a lot of jugs to keep the bait tank water temp below 70 degrees.

Thanks,

Bob

Your situation, at 60f or so, is different than keeping a freezer close to zero f and using ice made with salt water won't alter the equation. Since the temperature you're trying to maintain is well above 32f using salt water ice with a freezing point below 32f offers no advantage. I can't find any numbers for the latent heat of fusion of salt water ice versus fresh water ice but I suspect fresh water ice's figure is higher. The point of adding salt is to lower the temperature that the ice melts at. Pure water ice, once it equalizes its temperature at 32f and starts melting can't keep anything colder than 32f. Salt water ice melts at a lower temperature and so it can keep things a lot colder than 32f which is important in a freezer.

A far better alternative for you would be to to insulate your bait tank and pumping system and to put an insulated lid on top of your bait tank. Perhaps a large marine ice chest would be better than a conventional bait tank.

Recirculating your bait tank water would be better than pumping warm ocean water into the tank if that's what you're doing. You'd have to make sure the water was aerated well enough to keep your bait alive. It might be that aerating the water might help keep it cool as aerating it will increase evaporative cooling of the water. Some testing is would confirm or deny this conjecture.

Just my two scents (and a friend recently told me my two scents both stink!).

Cheers,

Gus

Gus, your explanation shows how I did not understand this correctly.

And I do not want to take much time and attention away from this topic (i.e. not hijack it). But let me explain where I was coming from a little more.

For my tank, which is fresh water, on the boat I have a pricey, recirculating 35 gal bait tank. So far I have done pretty good keeping bait alive, even during the 90 degrees of summer. I use many ice jugs to keep the temperature on the boat tank below 68-70 degrees. I cannot afford for it to get too much lower, because I have to be aware of the lake water temps I will be putting the alewives into. Just like when you bring the tropical fish home from the pet store. You should let the water temp stabilize. I just go thru a lot of bottles of ice which I carry in a separate cooler. I also use them for my catch cooler should I be so lucky as to actually catch a Striped Bass or two. The salt idea for me was that maybe I could carry fewer jugs. But that really is no big deal.

Now when I get back to the dock, I transfer the remaining bait back to my large 100 gal holding tank. Now this one is the one that gives me a challenge. I have a recirculating and filtering system that works great during the cooler days. In cooler days, I can keep the temperature below 70 degrees with a minimal amount of work. But in July and August, times are tougher. First thing I try to do is to pump lake water pulled up from 35 feet at about 65 degrees and refresh the holding tank. I do this about every 24 hours and it brings in fresh and cooler water. The rest of the time, the tank water is recirculated and filtered. But the sun does bear down on it. I am going to add an awning which will help some.

Here are two pictures of my tank:




But one great idea I got from this forum is to take a 5000 BTU unit which I am getting at a low price used and do like the TD campers do. I will have it outside of the box with incoming and exhaust tubes to cool the ambient temperature in the box. I might even experiment with a small tube to divert some cooled air directly into the bait tank. My unscientific logic is that add cooler air into the water cannot hurt and should have some positive effect on the overall water temperature. Anyway, I like to experiment with things like this. And the AC unit itself will finally go to my trailer once I am ready for it.

Bob

This is an old thread .... but... we also use gallon frozen water jugs in our electric fridge. We also keep only cookable foods in it (all drinks, and snacks) go into cooler w/ ice that we get in and out of several times a day (also w/ gallon ice jug). Water from home, ice cold is always nice to have when it becomes almost thawed out and no longer useful in coolers.

We have a generator and also solar panels we use when on a longer trip. The battery w/ work the fridge for a couple of days and the solar panel will keep battery charged (or vehicle will also charge it). Ours is set up so we could be out for extended periods with no need for hook ups.

Also making sure you have your coolers sitting on some type of insulation and even wrapping the insulation around cooler/freezer will help extend it's use.

get a 12v frig/freezer. problem solved, you don't have to worry about temps that spoil your food or unfreezing, refreezing cycles. ice will not keep food frozen. unless you are talking dry ice but then condensation becomes an issue. highdesertanger

Love my Dometic cf35...really. The thought of camping out of any ice chest just has no appeal. Those are great for barley soda but terrible for food. My worst childhood memories come from soggy, salami sandwiches.

No thanks.