2008 American Eagle residential refridgerator conversion

Hey folks, we are new here and thought we would pass along a residential refridgerator conversion we recently did in our 2008 American Eagle coach.

Now, we were told for a couple of years it would between $5k and 6k to do this so it stopped us from doing it. After further investigation, we learned that counter width fridges fit through the door way as long as they are NO wider than 24" WITHOUT taking the coach doors off OR WINDSHIELD OUT! Woohoo.

We currently had a Dometic NDA1402 that we hated. Freezer never got lower than 11 degrees. So we bought a Frgidaire Model FPHC2399PF7A. This fridge with the doors off is just 23 7/8" deep and 35 7/8" wide and will easily fit through the door with the drivers chair moved back and back of chair against the wall. Passenger chair can be normal but moved back.

Once inside, put the doors back on. Now, the old fridge will need the cooling system pulled out of the back of the cabinet. Sooo, get your wire cutters and a crow bar and start cutting all the wires that hold it in and take out ice maker and cooling vents inside and start prying. Once out, it easily can be taken out in 2 pieces and THROWN AWAY.

Now, what you will find is the sub floor. Take that up and then remove the cross support studs. What you will see now is some hoses and tubes. Push them back to the wall so they will be behind the new fridge. Leave the power outlet there, it will not be in the way. Now take your fridge case neasurements and trim tip and side if the cabinet for a snug fit. Remove the bottom trim bar, the fridge will sit on the floor.

Hook up the water and plug it in! Bam, you have a residential fridge. NO NEED for another inverter either, 2000watt pure sine us more than enough for overnights.

Best news, it was installed by a professuonal for a total cost of, wait for it

$2200!!!!!

Refridgerator $1600 delivered to our sit
Installer $600

Pic with old fridge gone

Pic of new fridge in

Pic of new cut out cabinet. See hose and wires on the floor. Not in the way. Cabinet is actually deeper than new fridge

Another angle. Fridge slide right in

I hope it's anchored somehow. I would hate to take a sharp corner and end up with all it's contents and the fridge on the floor. Are you able to latch the doors somehow?

Lol, yes of course its anchored. Both to the floor and ceiling. We use a VERY strong rectandle magnet to put over both the doors and they do not come open while driving. I am sure there are other ways as well. Also, refrain from turning corners to fast and sharp in your 50,0000lb rv...lol

Thanks

Here is our coach

Btw, its a 42F

Thanks for the report, mikedogedog. Should encourage others to go this route.

Good looking install. We just finished our Samsung RF18 install.
SWMBO very happy.

Interesting, the Samsung mentioned above would have not fit through our door and is 6 cubic feet smaller. Thats why we went with a double door fridge, they are much larger than the french door style but the profile is smaller.

Ours is 23 cuft counter width

We installed a 17.5 cu.ft. Samsung French Door.  It came through the front door with a little coaxing.
I put in 1/2 inch faced foil to fill in the holes behind the fridge.  The new residential does not need the
venting that a Dometic/Norcold gas-electric would.  I did leave a hole behind in order to access the service
panel on our fridge.  I did my best to seal the outside wall to keep out weather. 

We're setting in Palo Duro Canyon and it's blown rain all week.  I will check the panels when I get back
on concrete in a few days. 

It's a tough process and requires some demolition and 'creativity' to install properly. I am a DIY guy and
I had some GOOD help who knew what he was doing also.  We did it easily in one day.

Thanks for the info big larry. Please lef people know the model number of your  new fridge so people have options to explore

Thanks

MODEL RF 197 ACBP.  We opted for black to match the other appliances.
Our model does not have ice/water in the door.  Ice maker is in the pull out
drawer and makes ice quickly.  We are very satisfied with the fridge.  It is
ample for 2 persons.  Bottom drawer freezer is very convenient.

Those are some nice looking installations you guys - very clean. I'm curious, do you do much boondocking? If so, are you planning to increase the size of your battery-bank to offset the increase in power consumption or are you usually hooked up to shore-power?

Kev

Great looking installs.

I think when my absorption frig starts going on the fritz I may be looking residential and adding a couple more batteries.  My battery compartment is large enough, I would just have to fabricate a tray and add a standalone inverter for the refrigerator.

Mike.

We replaced our battery bank with best AGM batteries available at Quartzite.  We have boon docked
for over a week.  We watch our batteries closely.  The fridge doesn't have a big draw.  We have also
replaced many of our lights with LED's.  We run the Gen a few hours in morning and then in evening
when we watch tv etc.  All works fine. 

You probably don't need either the extra batteries or a dedicated inverter for a residential fridge unless you do a fair amount of boondocking. You probably have around 400 AH of battery capacity and that's plenty for traveling or overnight boondocking. You may even have a pure sine inverter already in that Dynasty. If not, you could replace it or add a second modest size PDW inverter only (no charger) using the same battery bank.

Gary RV Roamer said:

You probably don't need either the extra batteries or a dedicated inverter for a residential fridge unless you do a fair amount of boondocking. You probably have around 400 AH of battery capacity and that's plenty for traveling or overnight boondocking. You may even have a pure sine inverter already in that Dynasty. If not, you could replace it or add a second modest size PDW inverter only (no charger) using the same battery bank.

Click to expand...

Thanks Gary.  I was waffling on the extra batteries.  My thought was to try it with my 450AH battery bank first and then if needs be I would add a couple more with another inverter.  We don't boondock a ton since getting out of racing, but we still do a fair bit while traveling.  I probably won't do anything at the time but I want to have a game plan so upon the first sign of any issues with my refrigerator I already have a game plan.

Mike.

Mike.