wade234

I have an ’01 Sunline travel trailer. The refrigerator works great when running off site/home power and propane. When I am thinking when going down the road it should auto switch to run off my truck battery. It is not the truck wiring because it did the same thing on my last truck. The only way I can get it to run while traveling is to run it off propane. My wife does not feel safe running it this way. Is this normal? What part should I check that controls this “Auto” switch? Thanks.

92DuallyCTD

Hey there, sorry to hear of fridge problems, my father had a similar experience with his motorhome. First, it's perfectly safe to run down the road w/propane operation, all the rv fridge's that are NOT 12V do this now. And there are lots of them that way. Second, when he had his troubles, the rv dealer tested the 12V heating element(that it uses when switched to 12V of course), to see if it may have failed first. It hadn't, so they ran a test on the control circuit board. It was defective, so they replaced the stock Dometic brand board with a Dinosaur brand and it has worked great ever since. All this was under warranty, so I can't tell you what the service may cost, but the board at that time was $99. Since the dealer(under warranty) suggested the Dinosaur board over the factory Dometic part, you can figure the control board a common fault, eh? I would imagine the 12V heating element would be at least $50 these days also, but check the board first. Good luck, hope you fix 'er, but remember propane operation is completely safe! And not nearly as tough on the battery/12V system as well. :-)

wade234

Maybe I only have a 2-way AC/Propane model. That would explain it. I assumed the all were 3-way. I will have to check. Thanks for the advice. After having a trailer jackknife on us last year the wife is a little paranoid. Thanks.

Hankpac

Exactly, you could have a 2 way. When I replaced the old one, I opted for the two way.

wade234

Why did replace with a 2-way any advantage? I would think the 3-way would be a higher-end model or better? If there is a reason to have the 2-way maybe I can reason why it is better to my wife. Having to keep the food in a iced cooler while traveling is a pain. Thanks.

Springer

I would think you have a 2 way fridge as most in travel trailers are because it would drain the RV battery fairly quickly. Alot of so called trailer packages dont have the 12 volt to the trailer to charge the battery ,only lights and brake.

ptgarcia

Double check your fridge. I bet its only runs on AC and LPG.

I would just use the LPG while travelling. Propane seems to cool the fridge better anyway. And it is perfectly safe to do so.

Good luck!

Hankpac

The 3 way is supposed to be smart enough to automatically switch to dc when the truck is running, and propane when not. Either way, it cools by heating an element in a tube, so a battery would go flat inn pretty quick order. 2 way seems to be cheaper, otherwise it is the same fridge. Look on line for RV fridges, and you will see they are the same. You CAN get a 3 way. Ask your RV tech for the "semi-official word" on this although there is still a lot of opinion out there.
The only time I use ice, is when I have to keep a ton of stuff cool, and am way over capacity.