Freezer/Refrigerator Findings

I bought a small chest freezer for the boat; less than $150 from Walmart.

The Danby 3.2 cu. ft. Chest Freezer is perfect for placement in your garage, rec room or office, and fits neatly in smaller spaces for versatile freezer storage. Use it to freeze popsicles, TV dinners, meat, fish and more. The front-mount mechanical thermostat lets you customize the freezer's internal temperature, and the foam-insulated cabinet and lid keeps your food frozen. This versatile chest freezer also features a manual defrost function, and comes with a defrost drain and vinyl-coated basket.

The intent was to put containers of water in the freezer and freeze them solid while the boat was on the trailer in the back yard. Then while on 2 or 3 day cruises I would unplug the freezer, use it as a cooler and wouldn't have to buy ice. We could also use the thawed water in the containers for drinking.

Danby chest freezer on aft deck makes a nice table.

Under normal regular use, the unplugged freezer would would be a good cooler for 6 days yielding an internal temperature of 34 - 45° as the containers of ice melted. But I like my beer really cold, about 28°.

To lower the freezer/cooler temperature, I substituted the containers of water for a 5 gallon camping jug filled with brine - 5 gallons of water to 24oz of salt. 

The jug would 'brick' in less than 2 days and as the brick melted in the unplugged freezer, the temperature inside would stay at 30° in the lower part and low 40's up on top in the basket. This was perfect. I could keep my beer cold at the bottom of the freezer and my wife could use the upper part for a refrigerator. The problem was, if I needed to re-charge the brick, the freezer thermostat only allows settings from -4.0 up to 0°, so while 're-charging', the freezer would produce 0° in the process and destroy my wife's lettuce in the refrigerator section, not to mention freezing my beer.

The solution was a remote bulb line thermostat with an adjustable setting. Set the thermostat temperature to 28°, put the bulb in the freezer and plug the freezer into the thermostat. When the freezer temp gets down to 28° the line thermostat turns the freezer off. Now we were cookin'. This setup would even make ice with the freezer unplugged.

Just for curiosity, I connected a timer to the system and used the inverter to run the freezer. After 36 hours, the inverter had been asked to run the freezer for a total of 28 minutes. I'm sure this would increase dramatically with freezer/refrigerator use, especially with me putting warm beer inside, but it did offer insight into the possibility of running the freezer with the inverter.

As it turns out, needing to re-charge the frozen brine brick won't be necessary in most cases. The system maintained easily for a week with the freezer unplugged while we were on Lake Powell and it saw plenty of use.

The line thermostat will continue to be used without the brick while the boat is on the trailer...to keep my beer at 28°.

Line thermostat mounted in plastic box. Large toggle is a bypass to use in full freezer mode. Small toggle is for an internal 12 volt circulation fan.

More pics of line thermostat.

Top view of plastic container

Inside view of line thermostat wiring

The 9volt snap is the wires for the for the internal fan switch.

12 volt muffin fan circulation tower to normalize upper and lower temps.

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I quit using the circulation tower. I like the idea of having a 'freezer' in the lower part and a refrigerator in the upper part. We buy frozen stuff for our week aboard and put it low in the freezer. That food eventually thaws but is well preserved even for the last days of a week without power to the freezer.

I've since updated the line thermostat to a simpler, cheaper construction - about an hour and $40 bucks gets the job done.

And now, you don't have to make your own thermostat. You can buy one that's plug and play.

Get one on Amazon

Oh, and I've found the 5 gallon camping jugs can be a problem, so I now use a much sturdier version - a gas can.

3000i

Can you run a portable generator in an enclosed compartment?

You can if it's a Honda 3000i, and probably others as well. My remote start Honda has given me well over a couple hundred hours from inside a box. The box/generator used to be on my camper tongue, now it's on the roof of my boat.

The grill is the front of the generator and also air in. The round cover is for emergency pull start.

The top hatch opens for access to the gas tank.

This is the exit/exhaust side - through the louvers. The round brass thing is an old heat sensing alarm that came with the house, but you can see it's not really necessary - the louvers are not even discolored from excessive heat.

Here's how we fill the generator without using a gas can.

Easy Generator Fill - Update

We run the remote start Honda 3000i generator a lot. It lives and runs in an enclosure on the roof of my Land N Sea trailerable houseboat. I've made filling it safe, convenient and easy. This is an update on how the older system has been upgraded to allow all filling requirements to be done on the roof at the generator instead of having to open the engine compartment retrieve the fill hose and manipulate valves and switches there.

When I had a new belly tank made, I had them put in a second pick-up port. Many tanks already have two to handle twin engines.

The second pick-up port is plumbed to a generic12vdc electric fuel pump. From the pump a hose runs to the generator. The hose is terminated with a bored out tire valve stem. This allows for a tight fitting screw on cap to keep the hose closed tightly when not in use.

The fuel pump is wired to a switch and a wind up timer. There's an indicator light to show when the switch is on, but the pump won't run until the timer is wound up.

Wind up timer next to the main toggle for the fuel pump.

Light to indicate when the main toggle is on.

Fuel line terminated in a screw cap. The PVC cap fits over a standpipe that lets me push the hose below for storage when not in use.

To fill the generator:
Bring the hose to the generator.
Unscrew the cap from the hose.
Remove the generator gas cap and hold the hose in the opening.
Switch on. The indicator light comes on.
Wind up the 5 minute timer - now the pump comes on.

It takes about 3 timer cycles to fill an empty tank but it's a very controlled flow and certainly much safer than pouring gasoline from a jug into a small opening at night on a rocking boat in the cold, wind and rain. It also makes me comfortable knowing that once my generator is started, it won't run forever unattended, in fact we often only partially fill the tank so the generator will run out of gas a few hours after we turn in. We also know about how much gas the generator is using by keeping track of the times the timer is wound up.

Here we see the fill hose in it's home position in the standpipe. The hose is sealed with a cap and the standpipe is sealed to the deck. The standpipe opens below into an overhead locker in the head. The extra fill hose is stored there.

 

Here you can see the fill cap being extracted from the standpipe. It will be pulled out until it can feed the generator gas fill.

Another Duck

I got an eMail from a fellow who had been following my One More Time Around blog. Jerry has a boat, a Bluewater 40.

But it's too big to trailer...he thought he'd like a trailerable Land N Sea like Big Duck so he could visit waters west of the Mississippi. As was the case with me, Jerry found 'his' boat thousands of miles away from his home. But I'll let him tell you about it via the eMail he sent me:

8/22
I just thought you would want to know, it's a done deal. I bought the LNS. I made what I thought was a low offer expecting him to come back with a counter offer, but he accepted that. I PayPaled a deposit, sent him an agreement of sale for his signature, and got it back signed in 10 minutes.

We leave this weekend on our tour of the National Parks so I will inspect the boat and trailer next week sometime. If she is what the seller says she is, I will make the final payment and get title to her and the trailer. Then I am going to pay for an extra month of storage, then remove the tires and put the axles on 10" X 10" X 24" wooden blocks.  While the wheels are off, I will inspect and replace/repack all the bearing as needed, and get all the lights up to par.

When I get back home I will install new LT tires on the rims, register the trailer, then head back out to pick her up.

In the lot where she was advertised For Sale

9/25
We got to see her 3 weeks ago, while on our planed vacation, and paid for her. She is actually in much better condition than I expected. She even has a genset. I am attaching a couple of pictures.
  

I brought the wheels home with me and installed new "F" weight rated tires for the trip. With the weight distributing hitch and dual sway bars from our last trailer boat, 12,000 is not a problem, but good to know. I will be out in California by the weekend, spend a day or two prepping the trailer for the trip, then 2,850 miles later, she will be home in Pennsylvania.

9/29

I arrived here in Sonora about noon today and started to prep her for the trip. I have some bad wiring and lights to replace on the trailer and one brake not working. All the bearings are in good shape, cleaned and repacked them today and got the electric jack on the tongue working. I hope to finish tomorrow and leave for home Monday morning.

Since I hit snow/ice in Wyoming on the way out, I will be returning via the southern route. From here I will go south to Bakersfield, then east over Tehachapi Pass to Barstow. From there I-40, I-81, I-66, and I-95.

I volunteered to help Jerry in any way I could...and suggested a meeting at his convenience on his route home. 

9/30

Thank you for that generous offer, I hope it is not needed, but I entered your number in my cell, just in case.

I usually stop at Flying J or Pilot travel centers for the night because they have separate RV parking and discounted fuel. Maybe we can connect at one in Knoxville. I will keep you informed of my progress.

  

10/1

Well, you can plan, but something always jumps up and bites you. Got everything done today, installed the new tires and lowered the jacks. Oops, the fenders hit the tires. Further inspection show that the springs are sagging with age, I will have to find a spring shop in the morning. Looks like another day in Sonora.

And from later that day... 

And the adventure continues. Found a shop to do the spring work about 10 miles from the boat. Jack up the boat, put 4X4 blocks between the axle and the frame to hold it up. Got it almost to the shop with no problems. While sitting at a red light in the middle of historic Sonora, this awful noise came from under the hood of the truck, sounded like the engine exploded, but it continued to idle fine. Pulled to the side when the light changed, opened the hood. Disaster, the fan clutch exploded, took out the radiator, a real mess. As I stood there contemplating my options, I notice a big sign a half block away. It said "IS YOUR CAR RUNNING HOT, STOP NOW, THE RADIATOR DOCTOR".

 

 I walked down, told them what happened and they jumped to my rescue. They towed the truck to their shop (half block), went back and got the boat and towed it to the shop that is going to fix the springs, took me back to their shop. NO CHARGE! By that time they had an estimate for new radiator, new fan clutch, new thermostat and flushing the system. Work will be done by noon tomorrow. Then they drove me to my motel and promised to pick me up tomorrow.

 Meanwhile, the spring shop had to order the springs, UPS overnight. They expect to have the trailer ready sometime Wednesday or Thursday. Not bad considering I am way, way, way off the beaten path. The closest big town is 60 miles away, and it ain't very big by my standards.

10/2

I just got a call from the spring shop, the parts did not come but they have all the old shackles cut off and are ready to install the new stuff as soon as it come. The girl in the office checked the tracking number and it says delivery scheduled for Thursday. She called the supplier and was told, overnight was not available to their area.

    

The shop says they will double team it as soon as the parts arrive and should be able to finish it up by end of day Thursday. My fingers are crossed. In any event, I will not be able to leave here until Friday.

10/4
Given the three digit temperatures since I arrived here, not a lot of daytime activity. Yesterday was the first day that the temp fell below 100, all the way down to 97. I'm spending time relaxing by the pool, with a cold drink and a good book. I hope the parts will be here this morning so I can get on my way. The shop says it will only take an hour or two to install the new springs, so I may be on my way this afternoon..

I got a call from Jerry that he was finally on the road. And so, then there were two. And the new 'Duck' began her journey home.

My Big Duck on her 2,000 mile journey home.

Jerry's new Ugly Duck(ling) on her 2,000+ mile journey home.

We did meet, at the junction of I40 and I81. Jerry predicted his arrival there to within 5 minutes.

Jerry coming off the ramp on I81 - right on schedule.

We had a nice meeting at the truck stop. I was excited to see his new acquisition and happy to hear that his trip had been routine once he finally got on the road.


10/9

I arrived home safely just before dark, glad that trip is over.  I have logged 14,300 miles in the last 5 weeks so I plan to relax for the next day or two. Then the fun begins.

But the excitement wasn't yet over. It was a good thing Jerry didn't try to get his 'new' boat up the driveway. The house was in the way on one side, and the neighbor's fence on the other. Jerry says the overhang will have to go.

I sure am looking forward to watching his progress on getting her water ready. When she is, we'll plan an outing together.