Thread: Defender Fridge Installation Idea

I just mounted our Evakool on the left strapped down to eyelets on top of the drawers. I can open the lid OK.
Can't justify the cost of a slide or a gullwing window.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

Two questions -
1. Do you really need a fridge that large? You don't need to have all your beer loaded at once - as you remove one, you replace it with a 'warm' one.
2. Have you considered mounting it on the other side, next to the Gull wing shelving. With your design you would need a clear space beside to slide it sideways before coming out through the door. With it mounted on the LHS you would only need to slide it out through the door.

1. I currently take an 86L esky and its packed every trip. Although I guess ice accounts for around 10L. But also that model has both fridge and freezer which will be awesome for frozen bait. My current esky takes up a similar footprint and im fine with it.
2. If I mount it next to the gullwing shelving it will block access to the cargo barrier hole, which I use quite a bit for various long items that I dont want on the roof.

Originally Posted by weeds

As roger says...you will need to either keep the area in the centre clear to allow the fridge to slide into the centre or have to unpack the car to get the fridge out.

I would go a second gull wing for access.....

75 is a big fridge although in saying that I upgraded to a 40L (for five) to a 60L for the two of us access through a gull wing.

With Waeco your stuck with the lid opening from the one spot.......another option is evakool as you can pick where the hinges for the lid are mounted giving you four options which may assist when accessing a large fridge through the rear door.

The only issue I have with a 2nd wing access, as well as it being pretty high to access, is that if its raining id get wet trying to access it whereas if I mount it at the back id be under cover of the foxwing. Sounds a bit soft not wanting to get wet but no one likes rummaging around camp gear in the rain.

Originally Posted by Killer

Can you pivot a standard fridge slide at the front end, so that you swing the back end around to line up with the door, then slide the fridge out?

Cheers,
Mick.

That could work actually, maybe someone like Drifta (mentioned in a previous post) could help me out. I will give them a call and see if its ever been done before.

When I built my Puma 110 for touring ( Nester now owns it) I installed a gullwing window passenger side and just converted my drivers side window to a double slider. The gullwing provided good access to the fridge and I had a shadow board/tool & recovery gear and all my oils and grease etc accessed through the double slider.
The double slider was pretty quick & easy to do with some rubber slide insert from a window manufacturer and a drop bolt to secure one panel, the other still used the factory latch.
I made a latch to secure the gullwing open by about 75mm to vent the fridge and cut some ametlin insulation on the inside of the glass with Velcro dots.
We only took a 50l bushman fridge.
This setup left the centre area for a 60l camec water tank mounted upright behind the seat, behind that 2 nests of 2$ shop plastic drawers housed in a plywood frame. These held food, swimmers, some cooking gear and stuff we needed to access daily for 5 people.
Behind that a 12l water cooler for drinking and a jerry can of utility water for washing and vehicle emergencies. We kept iced water in the cooler where possible and tube ice blocks in the Bushman which saved a fortune not buying drinks & icecreams!
Our day packs hung from hooks above the jerry can on the rhs.
We had a drawer in the centre well which held all my tools, spares, extra recovery gear and heavy kit, keeping the centre of gravity pretty low.
We found it to be a very workable setup and did a lot of camping without the camper trailer. So much so that the camper is up for sale and I've bought a 130 to rig up with some kind of rear storage that will be very similar in layout, albeit with more room.

Have you considered the option of removing the passenger side rear single seat and locating your fridge there? If you dont need the seat, a 40L Engel fits very well there and there's probably room for something larger. Access through side door is excellent. No need for tricky mods. Just a thought.

Here’s my set up with a Waeco CFX-65. The drop down slide above drawer works well.
Table and stove sit above cage and all cooking gear,cutlery,plates and dry food go in drawer below.

When you are loading up your fridge/freezer you have to allow room for ventilation where the fans are so that it can work properly.

I've been looking at various fridge/freezers for a while. Unless you're carrying iceblocks and ice cream why do you need to freeze anything? If you cryovac meat, can't you get by with just a fridge?

Originally Posted by Marty90

I've been looking at various fridge/freezers for a while. Unless you're carrying iceblocks and ice cream why do you need to freeze anything? If you cryovac meat, can't you get by with just a fridge?

Agree...I ran two fridges, one as a fridge and one as a freezer for my Simpson desert trip. First and last time I have run a freezer while traveling. We vacuum seal our own meat, even went back to one fridge for a long period of time.