Dometic fridge/freezer

Wow guys, and possibly one lady, thanks for the great feedback! Good call @EatSleepTacos to mount it on the passenger side to balance out the gas tank. I’ve been eyeballing the X2 27f battery for a few weeks now. The specs on that battery and promo right now are insane! I’m leaning towards getting the cfx 50 since we mostly do weekend camping. Seriously TW, you all rock!

 

Pull the trigger! You won't be disappointed. I've heard nothing buy good things about them and the specs are nuts.

 

I freeze blocks in some cereal sized tupperware type containers, so far have had some of the block left at the end of every camping adventure we have been on. when the ice block melts down, Ill dump out some of the water and stuff in some cubes. Yes it takes up some space, but beats the sloshing slimy ice water issue.

 

My only contribution....
Dry ice...

 

BTW for when you're ready, you can purchase through mobtown. You may be able to find cheaper elsewhere but make sure they're an authorized retailer by contacting dometic directly. If they're not, you're SOL if you need warranty work. Reason I say to contact Dometic is because there's been a couple cases where someone will become a dealer, buy a bunch of fridges, then sell below MAP and dometic will find out and pull their dealer status.

http://mobtownoffroad.com/product/dometic-cfx-portable-refrigeratorfreezer/

 

I have a CFX-65DZ with a cover and the Dometic slide. It's mounted on the passenger side for some weight balance. I've run it pretty hard in the Utah desert and it works great. I pre-cool it before I leave so that it doesn't work so hard to cool down. The freezer side is awesome. Nothing like popsicles on the trail! I run it on the power outlet in the bed but an currently making a 12 volt outlet port in the bed storage door. These things are pricey but once you get one and get used to it. You'll be happy you got one.

 

Exactly, I'm never going back to a regular old cooler! I'm so spoiled by this thing. I even sold my RTIC because it hasn't been touched since I got this, and I don't know when I would use it again.

 

That’s good to know. A friend of mine gets perks through her job and currently she can get 30% off any CFX fridge. I’ll have to check with her to see if the company is an authorized dealer.

 

I ordered a X2 27F battery from batteries plus and a 2nd gen oem tray. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while since my stock battery terminals/post get corroded easily and I plan on adding a dometic, ditch lights, and a light bar.

 

Looking good!

 

Awesome set-up!

 

How are you guys locking these up to avoid the smash and grab?

 

I know it is already an older Post and I don't want to insult anyone, but in my opinion when you are about to spend this much money on a dual battery system, then I would go to a smart dual battery system instead of a "simple" relais.
After a lot of research I pulled last year the trigger on this systems

CTEK 40-185 SmartPass 120 A Energy Management Unit

$280 CTEK 40-185 SmartPass 120 A Energy Management Unit

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y2FMF83/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_8Hi-CbREG44A1
Combined with this one
CTEK 40-186 D250SA 5-Step, Automatic DUAL 12 V 20 A Battery Charger

CTEK 40-186 D250SA 5-Step, Automatic DUAL 12 V 20 A Battery Charger

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LBCVL4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zJi-CbHKNDA0X

This system will do the following for you.
1. Integrated solar converter which lets you hook up the panel straight to it
2. DC to DC tripple charging for aux battery
3. Battery monitoring for aux battery and automatic disconnect of consumers when getting too low
4. Back charge from Aux to main battery incase of low voltage for car start

I know it doesn't come with nice brackets but that's something what can be done DYI.

Here is my setup after I build everything myself.

 

If you have the fridge slide, you could use a cable/lock to lock the fridge to the slide.

Me, I just leave it in my garage until I go on a trip. Then I’ll put it in the bed.

 

Regular car batteries are not the way to go, and adding an extra one is a waste of money and space. I have had a 43qt edge star for several years. I run it off of a 110Ah lithium ion battery, or 2 Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries. Either setup will run the fridge for 5 days. Trojans are heavy....

I use a regular cooler for drinks. Doesn't matter if cans/bottles are bobbing in water.

 

I've been running the Ctek SmartPass and DUAL for two years now with no issues. Recently got a 100 watt Renogy solar panel that just plugs in for charging while in camp...I used Off Grid Engineering's second battery tray to mount an Odessey AGM on the passenger side (TRD Offroad). Cost was about $650 plus whatever I spent for the heavy gauge welding wire and lugs.

 

100% agree. This is a much better way to top off that second battery than simply hooking up to the alternator, and also provides the hardware for solar charging in the future. Another option to skin the charging cat is REDARC: https://redarcelectronics.com/products/dual_input_25a_in-vehicle_dc_battery_charger. You still need to add a simple option for low-voltage disconnect though.

In the future, you may consider LiFePO4 (lithium) as an option for the house battery. Pretty much any lithium battery is going to provide MUCH more usable juice, lighter weight, and longer life than a comparable lead acid battery. They're also more expensive initially, but are actually cheaper long-term.

 

I got the Alpicool 40 something liter. Running it off a 1100w inverter. The Alpicool has been working great and is super efficient. I can't see paying 900+ dollars on a fridge. The inverter was 80ish dollars also. Keep it simple and do research. I am also running off one Northstar 27f deep cycle battery. It ran all day and night. I know at 3am I left the fridge open before I passed out drunk and had no problem starting up the truck the next day at noon. Also had people charging cell phones and stuff on it.

 

@tweakit88 how's the inside of that cubby look? Did you drill holes from underneath the bed into the cubby? I have a solar setup and a *portable* dual-battery-in-parallel and need to wire the solar connectors somehow into my camper shell to hook into my charge controller/dual battery box which then powers my fridge.

 

I can snap some pics of it for you when i get off work.