Fridge won't run on LP while in transit

[sennister]

Well I have been trying to test this out a bit to see if there is an issue or my imagination. However I am to the point now where I think this is an issue that should be corrected. Before going to the dealer I thought I would ask here if there are any quick fixes to check as we know how fun it is going to the dealer.

Anyhow, yesterday we went to the camp ground which is pretty close to our house. Maybe a 8 mile drive because of construction in the area. I hooked up the camper as normal and this time manually switched the fridge to gas rather than leave it on auto. I also lit the stove and ran that for a minute or so just to make sure I have good gas flow. I had a good light indicating everything was fine. We drove to the campground and go through the process of unhooking things and once it is leveled out I go back in the camper I checked the fridge and it was flashing. I turned it off, waited a minute, turned it back on and it went solid. I have been noticing that it is out when we arrive at our destination. Normally it hasn't been that far and since it isn't getting opened it isn't that big of a deal, I just have to restart it when we get there or make sure it is running on auto so it cuts to electric when we plug in. However this time I went back and checked it after I restarted it. Maybe 5 minutes later and saw it was flashing again. I lit the stove, so we have gas, I restarted it and let it run for 30 minutes or so and it was fine. Not sure why it keeps cutting out. Normally it is fine once we are parked.

I have read where people have had a pinched gas line causing issues. Maybe I am not getting enough of a flame. I opened the back panel but I didn't see anything that was obvious. I did notice a lot of pollen from our pine trees in there so I was blowing (with breath not an air compressor) and I when I was over by the exhaust pipe I could hear the flame kind of struggle to keep going. You know that sound if you blow on a torch. Granted I don't drive around with the access cover off but I was wondering if it is getting blown out going down the road? All the pieces appear to be there. I can't see the flame but I can hear it.

We have to go to the dealer at some point to do the LED light recall. I would rather get a list of issues to have them addressed all at once. Right now this is the only issue I have.

I did notice this the first trip out but I discovered the air compressor was shot on the truck so the load leveling system didn't work. So I was running a bit low in the front so that might have explained it I wanted to get that fixed before calling it an issue. The suspension is working right now and we are running level on the last two trips. Since it is still an issue I am now willing to call it a problem.

[RogerR]

Have you gone out side and taken off the covers and looked into the burner area. Check for wasp nests, leaves or trash blown into the burner. The whole area should be clean since it is new.

Light it with the cover off and watch the flame, should be steady and blue.

Since it is brand new, could be just bad out of the box, pinched pipe like you said or not properly adjusted.

[DebKen]

We always double check our fridge before we leave because it sometimes takes shutting it off and turning it back onto gas for it to work. We keep it plugged in at home so before we leave we switch to gas, light the stove, and then wait. We check again just before we leave and sometimes it is flashing then. Usually turning it off and then back on fixes that.

[sennister]

Originally Posted by RogerR

Have you gone out side and taken off the covers and looked into the burner area. Check for wasp nests, leaves or trash blown into the burner. The whole area should be clean since it is new.

Light it with the cover off and watch the flame, should be steady and blue.

Since it is brand new, could be just bad out of the box, pinched pipe like you said or not properly adjusted.

Yeah, like I mentioned I went outside when we were at the campground lastnight. I pulled the cover and looked around. Nothing appeared out of place. I saw some pollen in there that I was blowing on a bit and I could hear the flame kind of flicker or struggle to stay lit. That is what got me wondering if it was getting blown out. There are not wasp nests, trash or anything other than some pollen in there. The pollen is from this spring (last 2 weeks) and it has been doing this longer than that so I wouldn't say that is the issue. We bought the camper in Feb of this year.

I was looking for the flame because I wanted to see if it was blue and an efficient flame or maybe it is yellow and a sign of not burning right. However I didn't see a flame. I could hear it though. Not sure if I have to open up something else to get to the flame other than the outer plastic cover.

[sennister]

Originally Posted by DebKen

We always double check our fridge before we leave because it sometimes takes shutting it off and turning it back onto gas for it to work. We keep it plugged in at home so before we leave we switch to gas, light the stove, and then wait. We check again just before we leave and sometimes it is flashing then. Usually turning it off and then back on fixes that.

Same here. It was plugged in running on AC for the last couple weeks as we last went out Memorial Weekend.

Like I said I made sure it was running before we left. In fact I did those same steps of lighting the stove. I wanted to give it the best chance to keep running and checked it a couple times before during the hook up phase and pulling out to make sure it was running. I have been noticing this in earlier trips but it was one of those things where I didn't make a conscious effort to make sure, that it was running before setting out. That is why until this trip I wasn't confident in saying this does appear to be an issue.

[sennister]

I switched it back to LP and found the flame. Kind of hard to get a photo but it looks nice and blue. Looked at the lines and the steel or aluminum line looks fine to where it hooks to the rubber line. If pinched/kinked it is somewhere from there to the tanks.

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[Seann45]

When you light it at home has the propane been shut off for a while? If so you probably have some air in the line and once the propane at the end of the line is used the air is there and of course the fridge goes out.. When my propane has been off I have to restart the fridge 3-5 times before it stays lit. Please note that once the fridge is cold it holds its cold for 6-8 hours if no one opens the door

[sennister]

Yeah it hasn't been a huge problem yet because we have been doing short trips. No one can go in the fridge while going down the road. We have some longer trips planned for next year. We just don't have the vacation this year as I was out for surgery for a while in Feb, my wife only gets two weeks a year and we are going on a cruise in October. So just shorter trips this year and get the bugs worked out.

If it is an issue I want it addressed when we go in for the recall on the lights. But if there was something easy to check, I would do that. We never had an issue with the old camper with it going out as we go down the road.

As far as the gas, we have left it on.

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[Isaacs]

Originally Posted by sennister

Like I said I made sure it was running before we left. In fact I did those same steps of lighting the stove. I wanted to give it the best chance to keep running and checked it a couple times before during the hook up phase and pulling out to make sure it was running. I have been noticing this in earlier trips but it was one of those things where I didn't make a conscious effort to make sure, that it was running before setting out. That is why until this trip I wasn't confident in saying this does appear to be an issue.

I don't mean to beat this to death as it looks like you're doing all the right things. But when you say you're sure it's running when you hit the road do you actually go outside and listen/look for a flame or are you relying on the display in the camper to confirm. My display takes quite a while to show a "fail" and I don't really trust it.

[sennister]

I was looking at the light but this trip listening to the sound outside.

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[Rustysocket]

If you blow out the flame will it relight?

[jasum]

If I remember correctly there is a shield so driving down the road the flame won't blow out. Is it there?
Might also be flame needs proper adjustment??


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[sennister]

Originally Posted by Rustysocket

If you blow out the flame will it relight?

I huffed and I puffed, couldn't blow it out.

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[sennister]

Originally Posted by jasum

If I remember correctly there is a shield so driving down the road the flame won't blow out. Is it there?
Might also be flame needs proper adjustment??


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If you look at the photo earlier there are shields there that make it even hard to find the flame.

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[SloPoke]

We used to have this same problem on our previous motorhome... It would stay on propane for days and days when stopped. When we drove, there was a good chance that it would go out - I could only conclude that it was blowing out at Interstate speeds.

We were lucky that it was an older 3-way, and we could switch it to 12 while on the road. The downside of 12v fridges is that they will drain your coach battery if you forget to switch it back when you shut down the chassis engine that provides charging to your batteries (Iffy on a TT) Our fridge was manual selection of Gas/12v/AC and we forgot to switch back too many times.

We ultimately succumbed to purchasing Dry-Ice for travelling long distances in hot weather. We would put 3-5 Lbs in the Freezer and that would keep our fridge at temperature for a good 6-hours when the flame blows out. (not opening the door)

[sennister]

I may have found the issue.

We pulled out today. The campsite was pretty level. More so than our driveway. We have the Blue Ox WD hitch and it is supposed to be setup so that the ball is the same height or 1" higher than the coupler. Normally we are jacking up the trailer before backing up to it since we know it needs to go up. This time I left it level and the ball was a good 2" higher than the ball. The truck has an automatic air load leveling system so once the bars are on and the truck levels out the load I am thinking the tongue is high.

I drove from the campsite to the dump site. Before pulling out I listened and the fridge was running. I should have checked how level the camper was but didn't since it was running. I drove at the 10mph campground speed limit and the fridge was out by the time I got there. While some strong storms blew through early this morning there was next to no wind when I left. So it didn't blow out.

I was the only one at the dump station so I was going to check if the camper was level but then 4 campers showed up. So I wrapped up and pulled forward but now I was on ground which was a down grade a bit check to see if it was level knowing the ground wasn't. Sure enough the camper thought it was pretty close to being level and it shouldn't have been.

I got home, backed down the driveway. I got out to check my position and walked by the fridge. Wasn't running. So I unhooked everything and leveled the camper. Walk back by the fridge and I can hear it running. So it fired up on its own one leveled. I should mention we camped pretty close to home. Less than 10 mile trip.

So I am thinking the dealer set up the hitch wrong. I think I mentioned that we discovered that the compressor for the air suspension failed after we picked up the camper and we recently replaced it. That likely messed up thier setup process so I won't blame them to hard. I think I just need to head out to a nice flat parking lot and double check the hitch settings and level out the camper. I know the fridge is sensitive to being level when running on gas. If we are high in the front I will imagine it will improve the ride as well fixing that. It isn't bad now but I also know a lot of people like to be level or a bit low in the front and we are the other way.

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[jasum]

It will definitely tow better a little high in the nose......
I doubt you are out of level enough to make flame go out when traveling.



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[Rustysocket]

Level is not the issue. Something else is going on. Get a can of compressed air and blow everything out in the burner chimney. Check the position of the thermocouple and it's connection to the circuit board. Blow the flame out with the air and see if it will relight (you should at least hear it sparking trying to relight) if you can't blow it out, then turn off the gas, when the flame goes out you should then see/hear it sparking trying to relight.

The sensitivity to level with an ammonia fridge is the position of the distillation coils, not the propane. The fridge operates on the same principle whether on electric or propane. It is simply a heat source to boil the ammonia.

If the chimney/burner head is clean, and it's trying to relight but unable, start looking at the gas supply valve solenoid and the thermocouple. If it doesn't try to relight/ start troubleshooting the control board itself.

Just throwing some things out there to try

My guess is that you have a bad connection at the gas solenoid that vibrates during towing and causes it to shut cutting off the gas supply or bad control board. But that's just my uneducated guess and not being able to see it myself.

[TCNashville]

Had the same problem. Lit fine but went out down the road. Sounds like a partially clogged burner tube. Remove, clean and replace.