" Hey , when we hit the road what are we going to do about freezing/freezer space ? "
I couldnt answer her . I mean , we have done all the thinking about our setup including solar v generator , self containment (grey/black water etc ) and so on and so on .
But I had to be honest , I hadnt thought about long term continuous freezing .
What does everyone else do ? I'm guessing a lot of forward planning goes into it .
even in our small single door under bench fridge I could fit 14 bundles of frozen meat in the freezer section plus a few days meat in the fridge section. Given that we did not always eat a meat meal daily it would last at least 3 weeks. So it all depends how remote you are going. We used fresh, dried and tinned veg and tinned fish and never went hungry. Biggest issue was bread but we often just had dry biscuits for lunch which stretched the bread rations. Always re-wrap your meet for freezing as the packaging it comes in is too bulky and takes up too much space in the freezer. We also learnt to like UHT and powdered milk.
-- Edited by villatranquilla on Friday 18th of November 2016 11:58:51 AM
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
its not not that we are going remote , its more that it will be full time , so what i'm at a loss for , is how to keep a freezer frozen continuously .
Obviously if we are in Van parks etc there will be 240 v power but I foresee a lot of our time will be off the grid , so how do folk provide the kind of power that a freezer requires ?
I mean , I get the whole solar panels / lithium batteries etc for lighting , even perhaps a fridge but I'm guessing a freezer , say something the size of an 80 lt Engel for instance , would have a larger power requirement and more importantly a continuous supply .
Many years ago, after carrying heaps of food when heading bush, I realised that almost every town has a supermarket, often a butcher, often a baker. So why on earth was I carrying so much food?
I guess I am a bit old-fashioned, and out of step with most others, but I don't carry more than a week's 'fresh/perishable' food.
I simply keep enough 'fresh/perishable' items (fridge and/or freezer) to cover about 7 to 10 days. I then just replenish when next in, or going through, a town.
It's good for me and certainly helps all those little (and some big) towns I wander through or to.
I do keep about a month's canned/packet food and plenty of UHT milk 'just in case' of a breakdown, flood, earthquake, illness or a need/want to stay in one place a bit longer.
I cannot see the justification for the cost of purchasing a big freezer, battery and solar panel to charge it, and taking up lots of space in the vehicle.
However, I don't fish so I don't need to keep the three dozen fish I caught at my last stop fresh until I get home.
Just me ... but I find it simpler - and cost effective.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
We have a 185l Waeco compressor fridge and it will run a 3-4 days on our battery/solar power. If yours is a 3 way, it should run until the gas runs out and keep your freezer cold. Ours charges via an anderson plug when traveling and we are thinking of some portable solar for long stays.
However, I don't fish so I don't need to keep the three dozen fish I caught at my last stop fresh until I get home.
Cheers - John
I have to admit , I do fish and this is a part of my thought process . Not that I have plans to harvest large amounts but its not totally out of the question for 1 large fish to require some longer term storage .
On my first lap I received this tip from more than one seasoned traveller, and I will gladly pass it on
Work out how many days you will be away from a food shop. (This includes shops in small towns, as well as supermarkets in larger towns)
Buy enough fresh food for those days
As frozen food is usually brought by the packet, you will always have something in the freezer
Keep some canned food in case you have gone over your estimated days
If you like milk in your cuppa, then always keep one long life milk tucked away somewhere
The above seems to work for me when I travel solo
When the wife is with me, the fridge (small under bench 90 odd litres), is full of whatever, as I never look in there
As villatranquilla has already said, you will be surprised how much frozen food you can put in the small freezer compartment, if you individually wrap the frozen food in glad wrap, in meal size portions
Hi and WELCOME..
Another one on the old farts list hey.
We've ben doing it a while now. And found the easiest. (for two. for us.)
3 plus months a yr. every yr for decades.
was use the small caravan fridge for daily items.(90/110ltr) three way will do the job.
but 12/240 Waeco, etc does better.
Then we have a 80 ltr (50 or 60Ltr fine) Waeco in rear of Patrol
Now the D.max. but it's a tiny bit too bulky in there (chuckle)
Solar on roof of van and 2 battery's IN van. Another one in car. (under bonnet or in rear/tray etc)
Unless you ACTUALLY going real BUSH for months.
NOBODY NEEDS a huge supply of frozen/chilled food.
Hence the huge fridges these people put in their vans.
A weeks supply is more than sufficient fridge space for 99%.
Freezer.
Where can you drive in Aust for a week. without finding a shop?.
I take the Freezer "partly " full of fish. frozen vegies and steaks/mince
to last my trip. (80l is a huge amount, very rarely fill it)
Vegies frozen. as they the most economical way to buy, Dressed and snap frozen. NO waste.
Fish we live on coast in QLD. Free.
Steaks etc. I prefer my Brahman meat
And make/doctor has them on the hoof (350 head), GOODLY pricing again.
When finished trip, We normally take some left overs home or give away, depending.
Have enough solar. that your battery's in van NEVER drop below around 12.4volts by morning
with YOUR usage (everybody varies). and you'll get 6 plus yrs out of even your wet cells.
With enough PANELS on roof to have them floating by around 11'30 to 12, the next day.
That'll cover the days the sun isn't such a good friend.
ALWAYS have a genny. You need it for more than charging battery's. tools. etc.
Regardless of what the whingers say. It's a GOOD friend when you need it.
Add an extra water tank UNDER van for drinking water only.
separate supply through filter/tap on sink.
Some places you go. the water not so nice.
and a 40/60 ltr under sink or floor in kitchen for "grey water" with t piece and tap.
so you can store or drain through depending.
Again. Some places don't like you leaving it there.
Some of us use several lengths of 6in dia sewer piping with caps. strapped to chassis,
or shorter ones under sink inside. with drain through floor, outlets to suit.
Length of shade cloth for along length of roll out,
with some stretchy and pegs for privacy and shade.
with a shorter one cut to fit either end for same.
If you going in hot climes. A sail track riveted along other side of van is good.
then get a length of awning material, or 95% shade cloth with bolt rope to suit.
and 4/5 extendable galv legs and guy ropes/pegs.
It does as a carport. extra shade for a party, covers side of van for cooling fridge etc.
And when grandkids come along. they love tents under there for fun privacy.
A plus plus.
We live in QLD. and found that a coating of "heat proof paint" over roof
and down over the ends to seam of van
REALLY cools the interior down. One of the better $200's I ever spent on a van.
And IF you keeping van long term and it not fibreglass. (They fall apart)
Every coupla yrs. go round the windows and roof. wall seams. dig them out. and reapply
sikaflex or 3 m.
That way you won't end up with ugly water stained inside walls and frame rot.
Go to a caravan repairers or check on net.
You'll see what I mean.
There You Go.
That'll keep you busy for a coupla days.
and you'll enjoy it for yrs. I've been doing it since '63.
and still look forward to my shorter trips nowadays (fishing)
IF you like TV (rubish nowadays, I don't bother) set up Satellite.
Box. Dish. locator, and long length of cable
It's the ONLY thing that'll give you the rubbish ALL over Aust.
Don't let people try to con you into the "BEST" TV arial.
It don't exist....(I've tried over thirty of them.
Still have 1\2 doz in shed)
Jaycar speaker stands make good stable stand for dish.
Me. I take a zillion movies. TV SHows, music.
and 1\2 doz packs of cards.
Buy the items separate NOT as a kit.
It'll save you hundreds..
and plenty on net to guide you into tuning such.
OH. And unless you have large fuel tanks.
ALWAYS carry a 20ltr diesel in tray/boot. when going off beaten track.
Spare belts.hoses. fluids, eng oil self amalg, and duct tape.
I always have spare front.rear wheel bearings for car, and one set for van.
AND a Trolley jack.
MUCH easier to lift and change car and van wheels. plus level van easily
for o'night stops.
Make sure van sits level when loaded. Car sits level when it loaded.
Both within own weight limits. and lower than combined.
PLUS. Hopefully. you have enough sense to have the tug.
at least a coupla three 100 kg's heavier than van.
The bigger the rig . The more the difference.
so tug controls tow. when things go wrong..
Could go forever. But a quick starter kit of words off top of head
while eating brekky. OK.
Enjoy.
PS Cindy....
OK for a starter?.
I keep all my memories in my head.
We are free campers and travel lots of kms. We have a 2002 Engle fridge / freezer inside an Engle transit bag, in the back of our cruiser. Before this it sat in our Parado for ten years. Both cars windows are fitted with Confute to both reflect the sun and insulate the interior of our vehicles. (I always by white tugs.) I do the same to the Cargo barrier, securing with cable ties to the frame.
We run the Engle on full all day weather we are driving or stopped for a few hours here or there.
The BIG secret to using less power, is filling the unused space in the freezer proper with Styrene blocks of different sizes to fill the vacant air space within.
Cold air warms up, Styrene does not. That's why they build all fridges in a sandwich of the stuff.
Less air to chill = less power. Same as your vans Fridge fill all cavities with Styrene and see the difference in power used. When we are parked up for days at a time we will run our genie for 3-4 hours 4-8pm and charge the lot. The house / solar and batteries do the rest.
PS: You never want to ride with us, as the inside of our tug is like a fridge, when its in the high 30's out side.
We get our Styrene for free from the leftovers, when they lay new slabs for housing. Just by asking the builder at the end of a concrete pour, in Sydney. they send it to land fill other wise.
The BIG secret to using less power, is filling the unused space in the freezer proper with Styrene blocks of different sizes to fill the vacant air space within.
Cold air warms up, Styrene does not. That's why they build all fridges in a sandwich of the stuff.
We carried plenty of baked beans etc plus the odd tin of Spam . 180 ltr 3way with 60l compressor Esky . We could have got away with just the Esky .. We had 3 or 4 light meals a day . So cooking wasn't a chore !! Half the time we re-heated previous meals ..
With our latest 110ltr Dometic fridge the freezer section can be removed from inside the fridge so we get stacks more fridge space where the freezer was which is very handy when we need it.
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Home is where we hang our hats - Home now in Yamba NSW
Hi Swoffer
My wife and I are lucky to have a motorhome with a 170 L fridge/freezer in it but I found that
1. the freezer was too small for bigger than a fish finger and
2. when up north or out west the freezer just barely did the job
We spent some money and bought a 60L Engel fridge/freezer that we use purely as a freezer.
It's on all the time and we have 180 Ah batteries and 260 Solar on the roof and put any fish that I catch in it as well as vegies etc. I love it . We've been camped for days at a time and the freezer hardly uses any power at all if it's reasonably full. We came home once and forgot to turn it of. As the home was parked under cover it was only flattening the batteries. Went into the garage about a week later and it was beeping to let me know it was going to shut down because of low batteries. I can highly recommend them to you
Dave
We travelled and lived full time in our van, for three years, much of it spent in the tropics. We had a small, underbench Vitrifrigo compressor fridge with small freezebox. It was very efficient and kept things frozen - even in prolonged periods of very high temps. As some have said above, if you repackage meat carefully, you can get a surprising amount in a small freezebox. I did not carry frozen vegies - used tins and dried ones. Did not have icecream in freezer - except maybe a couple of things like magnums. It is rare to be travelling without access to shops of some kind, for any period of time, these days.
We had 280w in solar panels on the roof and 2 AGM batteries. We did NOT have a whole heap of unnecessary electrical gear - just fridge, lights, and an inverter for charging batteries and running laptops.
I suggest that a key to an enjoyable travelling lifestyle is to - firstly - accept that it is going to be a different lifestyle. Surely that is the point? If you are trying to replicate home in your travelling rig - with perfect TV, your own washing machine, even dishwasher etc - why bother to travel at all? Your mind set may be such that you will not enjoy it anyway.
we have a 180 lt 3way Dometic fridge/freezer and it does the job just fine - we always have the freezer full, but buy as we travel - food it not that more expensive in most rural areas.
The trick we do is to take anything out of a box and keep it in the plastic bag - you can mould it better into the freezer. Large lots of meat - chops or roast, we cut fresh into a one meal size portion - once gain to fit better and also convenience of thawing and storage.
We also carry a 60lt Waeco. If we think we will need to freeze stuff - turn the temp down, otherwise its an overload fridge for the drinks etc
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Cheers Bruce
The amazing things you see when nomading Australia
our fridge was a 3 way (240v, 12v and gas) We lived in our van full time for 5 yrs and did a lot of free camping. The gas option kept everything frozen without problems.
We also have a 40lt engel (ran as a freezer only) that runs off a dedicated 120ah battery in the ute with its own solar panel on the roof rack. Used mainly for fish, bait etc. Remember the bigger the portable fridge the more power needed to run it and do you really need 80lts. What size fridge freezer is in the van?
-- Edited by villatranquilla on Saturday 19th of November 2016 10:56:23 AM
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
Our van has a very basic Dometic 90lt fridge. the freezer section holds around 7 meals for the 2 of us. On our travels we buy fresh from the local butcher & also get some meat meals for 2 vacuum sealed. We leave the frozen meat in the freezer section for emergencies or when we're in remote areas for a fairly long period of time. We also carry tinned Mackerel to make fish cakes & always have a few Fray Bentos tinned steak & kidney pies on board.
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Cheers Keith & Judy
Don't take life too seriously, it never ends well.
Trip Reports posted on feathersandphotos.com.au Go to Forums then Trip Reports.
I have to admit , I do fish and this is a part of my thought process . Not that I have plans to harvest large amounts but its not totally out of the question for 1 large fish to require some longer term storage .
