Off grid Furrion 12v fridge.

[SASurvival]

Hi All,
We just purchased our 2022 260RD, which came with the 12v furrion fridge, updated from propane, i realize or the pro's/cons but looking to find out what or if anyone has been off grid for longer than w week with this style of fridge, without using a Generator, just using the factory or added solar in areas where solar is not an all day every day occurrence, but could hit >28 degrees C, like the pacific northwest.
How did your batteries last.
Setting it to eco/overland mode did it keep everything cool/frozen?
We will have 560Ah of Lithium and a total of 565w solar added in the spring.

But at the moment we have 165w solar and 70Ah Lithium (interim battery)

I am more interested in the batteries and drain from the fridge.

Thanks

[howson]

Hi All,
We just purchased our 2022 260RD, which came with the 12v furrion fridge, updated from propane, i realize or the pro's/cons but looking to find out what or if anyone has been off grid for longer than w week with this style of fridge, without using a Generator, just using the factory or added solar in areas where solar is not an all day every day occurrence, but could hit >28 degrees C, like the pacific northwest.
How did your batteries last.
Setting it to eco/overland mode did it keep everything cool/frozen?
We will have 560Ah of Lithium and a total of 565w solar added in the spring.

But at the moment we have 165w solar and 70Ah Lithium (interim battery)

I am more interested in the batteries and drain from the fridge.

Thanks

Those are tough questions, SASurvival (Sandra and Andy). The only true answer to how long the one 70aH lithium will last is "it depends".

Does your 260RD have an actual battery monitor (that shows the voltage) or does it have the four lights (representing a percentage level, sometimes called "idiot lights")?

Given you'll do a lot of offgrid camping and tracking power levels will be critical, what I'd suggest (that will also be useful for the proposed setup later) is a Victron BMV-712 or Victron SmartShunt battery monitor. Either, once setup, will do a great job of giving you a very close approximation of the percent of power left in the battery (or batteries).

I'm a fan of AMSolar's videos on these types of topics, so if you'd like more info check out Garret's video (linked below).

If you type in "battery monitor" into YouTube's search engine there's many videos on the topic from reliable sources like Will Prowse, All About RVs, and others.

Howard

[Country Campers]

SASurvival

Here is a thread that I started for the change over from led acid to lithium Replacing Lead Acid Battery with Lithium - Grand Design Owners Forums (gdrvowners.com), Post 9 has a report on the batteries while camping. There is also a link to another thread where I changed to the Furrion 12 v dc fridge. I think with the 70 ah battery and solar you might not make it unless it is really sunny to keep that battery up to full charge. With the new battery and system you should have no problem lasting a week if you monitor your usage.

Brian

[SASurvival]

Thanks Howard for the info, yes we have the idot lights and the voltage on the connect app. I did forget to add, yes i added the Victron Smart shunt, so i will monitor that through the app.
Brian thanks for your info as well.
The 70amp Lithium is temp as i upgraded the charge/converter to Lithium and did not want to damage the lead acid battery, so i added my spare lithium battery.

I am worried about the 12v fridge as in BC we camp on provincial sites with no power just a pad, sometimes for 2 weeks, especially like the last couple of years, just to get some R&R so defiantly concerned on current draw, even with the larger system going in later.

Andy

[howson]

Thanks Howard for the info, yes we have the idot lights and the voltage on the connect app. I did forget to add, yes i added the Victron Smart shunt, so i will monitor that through the app.
Brian thanks for your info as well.
The 70amp Lithium is temp as i upgraded the charge/converter to Lithium and did not want to damage the lead acid battery, so i added my spare lithium battery.

I am worried about the 12v fridge as in BC we camp on provincial sites with no power just a pad, sometimes for 2 weeks, especially like the last couple of years, just to get some R&R so defiantly concerned on current draw, even with the larger system going in later.

Andy

When I experiment it's usually in my backyard so if things so sideways I can always go in the house.

Please follow up with your experience and post it -- I'm sure the numbers will help someone else in the future.

Howard

[The Randles]

We also bought a grand design 260rd in April of 2022. We made 4 small camping trips in may and june to try everything out. Love the unit ! However the rv has an “electric only” furrion fridge which draws a ton of power. We stay hooked up to the tow vehicle while leveling/awning. And still we could only last 3 days on the batteries. We had the extra cost of in-line golf batteries and converter system at purchase, after explaining to the dealer that most of our camping is provincial and state parks with no hookups. We were assured we could get 5-7 days by them. Well, we bought a generator after 2 trips as we were setting low power alarm bells off after 2/ 1/2 days. 165w solar panel not helping much. Long story short, an RV place i know said its becoming common to have issues. Suggestion-lithium batteries and 400w panels. Being installed in September

[Country Campers]

We also bought a grand design 260rd in April of 2022. We made 4 small camping trips in may and june to try everything out. Love the unit ! However the rv has an “electric only” furrion fridge which draws a ton of power. We stay hooked up to the tow vehicle while leveling/awning. And still we could only last 3 days on the batteries. We had the extra cost of in-line golf batteries and converter system at purchase, after explaining to the dealer that most of our camping is provincial and state parks with no hookups. We were assured we could get 5-7 days by them. Well, we bought a generator after 2 trips as we were setting low power alarm bells off after 2/ 1/2 days. 165w solar panel not helping much. Long story short, an RV place i know said its becoming common to have issues. Suggestion-lithium batteries and 400w panels. Being installed in September

I do think the Lithium is the way to go. Much better and longer lasting than a deep cycle battery.

What batteries and panels are you going with?

It is also important to note that the solar panels will only work well when in direct sunlight. Camping in parks usually means some trees around so the generator may still be needed. Changing the stock converter to a lithium compatible is a must as well, unless the stock converter is an Auto Detect or Lithium compatible model which it may be.

Brian

[JLMorris]

I have a GD Reflection 150 with the 10cu ft 12V Furion fridge. I've been dry camping on a West Virginia unshaded mountain top now for 5days. Four of the five days have been intermittent rain and mostly cloudy. I have 600ah of Lithium batteries and four 320watt solar panels with the Victron MPPT controller, battery monitor, and Multiplus2 invertor. The SOC of the batteries has not dropped below 89%. Have also used the microwave once and blow dryer to remove that awful plastic "protective" cover on the Thomas Payne theater seats.

Today SOC was 93% when waking up. It's been overcast all morning and now at noon the SOC is 100%.

All this is very relative but just wanted to pass on an actual scenario

Joe.

[ThePowells]

The Randles Welcome to the family and the forum!