Fridge space

My husband and I just bought our 1st TM Friday We have not been camping yet but I can offer up some advice about fridge space. Every Thanksgiving we all have the problem of no fridge space. My solution...I take everything out of their original containers and put it in baggies. I do not use any type of tupperware unless the food will be crushed without it. (like deviled eggs) I hope this help out with your TM fridge space and at Thanksgiving too! ;D

Lisa

[RockyMtnRay]

[quote author=lahasse link=board=1;threadid=1505;start=msg10618#msg10618 date=1067972440]
My husband and I just bought our 1st TM Friday We have not been camping yet but I can offer up some advice about fridge space. Every Thanksgiving we all have the problem of no fridge space. My solution...I take everything out of their original containers and put it in baggies. I do not use any type of tupperware unless the food will be crushed without it. (like deviled eggs) I hope this help out with your TM fridge space and at Thanksgiving too! ;D

Lisa
[/quote]
First, welcome to the ranks of happy TM owners!

Using baggies (or any other repackaging into smaller, more flexible containers) is generally a good idea with the TM's smallish refrigerator. However as apparent newcomers to the wonderful world of RV style refrigerators, you need to keep in mind that there is miniscule inherent air circulation inside a TM's refrigerator compartment. By comparison, nearly all home refrigerators made in the past 20 or more years have an internal circulation fan that keeps the temperature within the refrigerator compartment relatively uniform...even when it's pretty much jam packed full of food.

Because the TM's refrigerator doesn't have this circulation, the cold air off the cooling fins on the back wall slowly sinks to the bottom...where, after several hours (like overnight), it often will freeze anything placed there (especially fragile foods like lettuce). Similarly anything very near the cooling fins will also tend to freeze. Other areas of the fridge (like the door shelves) get too warm...food put there can spoil. The problem is much worse if the refrigerator is full of air-flow-blocking plastic bags or mostly similarly sized/shaped containers that have little to no leftover space around them.

The solution is to emulate the fan of a home refrigerator by putting a small battery powered fan like the one shown below inside your TM's refrigerator. However, and this is a fairly important however, this fan doesn't work very well if the TM's refrigerator is packed completely full...it's very important to leave some space between and around various foods so the fan can circulate the air. One way is to not use similarly sized/shaped containers (like everything in baggies)...yes, you do lose some storage capacity but you gain the needed air passages around the containers. If you leave room for the fan to circulate the air, the cold spots and warm spots both go away...no freezing of food/no spoiling of food.

The freezer compartment, BTW, is a totally different situation...you can (and probably should) jam that as full of food as you can since you don't care how cold any of it gets.

These fans are available for around $15 to $20 at many RV dealer's parts stores or from camping world (http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...H&tcode=37). If you remove the batteries between trips, you can expect to get 2 to 3 camping seasons use out of a pair of D-Cells.

Thank you for the info Ray. I would of had a disaster in my TM fridge on my 1st camping trip. Guess I'll have to make a trip to Camping World.

Well my tip is still good for a normal fridge on Thanksgiving

Actually, we've always done pretty well with a couple hours of cooling, though I would agree in putting only cold things in the fridge. It does have a good deal of cooling power if you use it properly.

I find by using the gas initially to cool down the frig, and adding a small bag of ice in the freezer along with the circulating fan, the refrig cools a bit faster. The gas is more efficient then either electric or 12V

Good luck

George

Since we'll be travelling with the trailer this year on Thanksgiving, we bought the entire meal from 14 pound bird, potatoe's, gravy and veggies, to the pie, from one of our local grocery stores. (All natural bird. Taste's great too. You don't even notice it's not home cooked! - except maybe without the smells throughout the house...) ;D

We'll be carrying this food in both the TM's fridge AND our auxilliary fridge as well. (Our 7 year old son wants to go to Mt Hood and play in the snow...)

We will then simply reheat in the microwave when we get to the campground! Now I see the value of that doggone micro-go-round...

And best of all - there's no slaving away in the trailer to prepare the Thanksgiving Feast! I love heat and serve... 8)

Anyway - we'll have to try your food packaging idea's where applicable... Don't think we'll be able to put the bird in a plastic baggie... :

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Gregg in Portland

Pre-make your thanksgiving dinner and put on plates in servings for each person. Vacu-seal each plate stack in fridge and either boil or microwave to serve!