How to pack food?

[RevKen]

Another newbie question. Just got a 2016 Roo 21SS and this is the first trip I'm packing for without DW. How do I pack perishable foods for a 4-hour drive to the campground? Is there a safe way to pack stuff in the fridge (not going through any tunnels) and use propane tanks, or should I pack in coolers with ice? Seems a shame not to use the fridge but I don't want to have a mess in there when I meet DW at the campground!

[lbrjet]

Very few tunnels have propane restrictions. Cool down the fridge overnight before your trip as it takes hours to cool. We have some bars to put in there to hold things in place.


2010 F250 5.4L 3.73
2011 Flagstaff 831FKBSS
Equal-i-zer 4pt 12K

[larryo]

It is not recommended to travel with your propane turned on, but many people do it, including myself.

[Chief4774]

We freeze a plastic container of water and put it in the refer when we are traveling. Refreeze when we reach destination.

[MacGumbo]

If you cool down the RV fridge for 24 hrs, have your food already cool from your home fridge, place the food in just before you leave and don't open the fridge until you arrive, I'm sure it will keep cold enough for 4 hours. Excluding ice cream or things that melt.

[RevKen]

Thanks for the info. I'll look for some bars and freeze some bags of water!

[Nancyc7]

Saturday I was lamenting not being able to turn on the frig 24 hours ahead of time like it's prescribed, but it's parked an hour away. Then I was shocked, 90 minutes later, the frig was cold enough. Granted, it started at 55 degrees but still, that was fast. My problem is my refrigerator gets too cold. I thought you could travel with this unit on?

[jhoppmann]

Like other I precool the fridge, then use frozen water bottles and fill one of the tray/bins with ice. With those plus the mass of cold food, it should keep cool for quite a while

[Dave Lyon]

Cool your fridge down the day prior to leaving and tow with the fridge on propane (you'll get varying opinions on this practice).

I always tow with the fridge full of food/drink and running on propane. If I get into a big crash - the least of my worries will be the fridge running on propane.

[RevKen]

Good point, Dave.

[PSU Turf]

I always tow with the fridge running on propane. I also don't turn it off when I fuel up. I have a diesel engine. Diesel has much lower volatility than gasoline so there is almost no chance of the fridge burner causing an explosion. (I fuel at the big rig islands where there are no gas pumps.)

[ilovecamping]

We are lucky that we store ours at home and keep it plugged in. We turn on the frig and fill it with condiments and such in the spring and turn it off and clean when finished in late fall. We too tow with ours on propane.

[CNYCamper]

We store our RV in our yard so we can start the fridge 24 hours ahead of time on electric. We'll then start loading the fridge the night before departure. The longest we haul is a little over 4 hours and I do this with the fridge turned off - everything remains very cold in the fridge and no thawing of frozen items. We are in the Northeast so this may not work in the Southern states. One tip: we freeze all meats in FoodSaver bags. Amazing how much more food you can get in the freezer when there's no air in the bags.

[BamaBob]

Originally Posted by Dave Lyon

Cool your fridge down the day prior to leaving and tow with the fridge on propane (you'll get varying opinions on this practice).

I always tow with the fridge full of food/drink and running on propane. If I get into a big crash - the least of my worries will be the fridge running on propane.

X2 We towed both our TT & 5er with the propane on. Some will say we were lucky & maybe so but we were lucky for over 20 years of camping

[Kanga99]

I only tow with propane running for all day drives. For less than 6 hours I 1) pre-cool the fridge for a day, 2) add frozen water bottles (tend to take water anyway) and this is a trick not mentioned yet. 3) Pre-freeze all the meat you will need starting day 2 and put it in the fridge for travel then move it to the freezer when you get hooked up. Then each day take some frozen food from the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost. Works great and and helps the fridge stay colder.

[SuicideSaints]

I pre-cool the fridge a day or two in advance and I tow with the propane on.

My fridge tries to light itself and if it cant light it throws the fault light on and stops the propane. I figure if the pilot/whatever/propane goes out and cant re-light when on the road it'll be fine because it'll stop the flow anyway. I may be wrong about this but I havent had a problem, I never smell propane and my senesor/alarm never goes off.

[hotzfamily]

Like most. Pre-cool 1-2 days before. (2 days if it's really hot out.) Put frozen water bottles in the fridge to help keep the fridge cold enough - even when we're camping. Just rotate them back up to the freezer as they thaw if I need more. 1/2 frozen are great to drink on a hot day, but the time I'm drinking the last of it, it's melted.

Also - have always driven with propane on.

[oldsmasma]

Originally Posted by ilovecamping

We are lucky that we store ours at home and keep it plugged in. We turn on the frig and fill it with condiments and such in the spring and turn it off and clean when finished in late fall. We too tow with ours on propane.

X 2. Load in the spring replenish after every trip and empty it in the fall. Over 30 years towing with the propane on and no problems. I agree in case of a major crash I doubt the fridge will be our biggest issue.

[RitaB]

We always pack a cooler with food for a couple days and all that need cold. I fill a few freezer bags with ice cubes from my ice maker. When we get to the cg we transfer food to fridge with a ice bag or two to help cool the fridge. The rest go into the freezer. That way we have ice cubes for a few days. Coming home we buy a bag of ice to do the same thing.

[twoclaws]

Agree with night before cool down and running fridge on road
Alternative: Wrapping frozen food in newspaper will insulate and keep food frozen longer if your concerned about thawing. Just a thought and 2 cents