Propex under fridge

[PDXWesty]

The screen numbers come from some charts we use here at work. When you put screens over air inlets or outlets it greatly affects the performance because of the reduction in open area. I don't know how sensitive the Propex is to air pressures on the fan side though. It sounds like it isn't a problem.
_________________
89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[scobax]

[FNGRUVN]

I wouldn't think a screen over the outlet would be needed.
_________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

[One more islander...]

Sorry if this is a really basic question about this installation, but regardless:

I like the idea of this setup. I think I understand that you're using an inverter to convert 110V to 12V for when the van is "plugged in" somewhere, since this fridge just runs on 12V. And for when you're not plugged in, it's just off the battery/ies, as in the original installation, with direct 12V>12V.

What about propane? Are you switching your original fridge propane line to run the Propex, with the fridge just working on electricity? What happens to the outside vent for the original fridge? That was an "outflow," rather than an "inflow," right, for when it ran on propane? And presumably you want all the "outflow" for heat in the van. Do you just shut off the original venting system?

Thanks!

---
Kathy
88 Westy

[madspaniard]

[One more islander...]

Sounds good. Thanks, Madspaniard.

So, looking at the $120 Gowesty kit, the only parts really necessary that can't be fabricated by a reasonable woodworker are the (what looks like) galvanized circular piece to fit inside the hole where the vent is, plus some attaching nuts and bolts.

You don't need the shelf, if you're going to put another fridge in, and presumably you don't need a cosmetically attractive "vinyl-covered rear panel."

Right?

---
Kathy

Edit: Sorry, I missed the "You can do your own."

[AZlab]

Just my experience, but mine is mounted where the void used to be next to the water tank, same as Frank C. up in Canada. The outlet is below the 110v outlet. I replaced the top cover of the Propex with heavy perforated aluminum and drill several large (1") holes thru the partition into where the fridge used to be. Nothing there now but 2 slideout shelves and portapot, so lots of air circulation (I think so anyway). But after using Propex several months I took a close look at the circuit board in the air stream and there was a light layer of dust. It will be worse if you have a dog as I used to (large Lab). So now I occasionally CAREFULLY vacuum the inside of the heater.
Jerry
P.S. Propex works greaat for drying out soaking wet boots!

[pnwkayaker]

Thanks for the pictures Mspaniard!
_________________
87 Syncro Westy EJ25 ("Tardis")

Seattle Meetup at Marymoor (link)
A collection of Simple Useful Mods (SUM) (link)

[ddwbeagles]

Awesome write up & very professional looking installation. Thank you for sharing it with us.
_________________
David W - from Chesterfield, VA / Jefferson SD / Stephens City, VA in that order.

71 Ghia Coupe autostick
78 Westy
86 Vanagon Weekender

[epaddler]

[madspaniard]

Installation of Propex HS2000 under 12v/110v fridge (Truckfridge TF49 or Isotherm CR49)

Inspiration:

1) I believe Samba member Racerrojo was the first one to document installation of a Propex at the bottom of the stock fridge cabinet although he did not install a fridge, he just converted the available space above into a cabinet.

[/quote]

2) Samba member Beetsport installed a Propex HS 2800 under his Truckfridge but on the other side of the cabinet. No documentation of this install on The Samba but he was very helpfull with some questions I had.

So I just needed to combine these two great predecessors for my own project. My Propex was originally installed under the rear bench seat. I now have a 110a/h deep cycle marine aux battery in there. I covered the hole left by the Propex exhaust on the side of the bench seat with the installation of a Propane/CO detector that fits perfect and it is hardwired to the aux battery with an on/off switch. I will post a pic later.

This is the Propane/CO detector I used.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/lp-gas/atwood-dual-gas-alarm.htm

My fridge is the Isotherm CR49 unit. I had previously installed this fridge replacing the stock Dometick so I just pulled it out of the kitchen cabinet again. All the electrical wires and aux battery/aux fuse panel/inverter/charger work had been done already. See this thread for more info.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=359831&highlight=fridge

Once you have the cabinet space empty and available for work, first thing is to measure the cabinet space, your fridge and the Propex. It is a tight fit. If yu read the Propex manual, they recommend you leave about one inch of space around your Propex unit. I think with this install the vertical space left between the fridge and the Propex is close to half an inch if you remove the fridge rubber legs but don't remove the fridge surround mounting frame. If you are comfortable with that, move on. I made sure I tried to compensate for that allowing ventilation of the area, I mean, the Propex has plenty of space in there to cool off, it is only that one area on top of it that is less than the recomended inch and this cabinet is ventilated thru the original grates on the side of the cabinet and on the back by the window. I have also thought about adding a fan in that area at the bottom of the cabinet to improve ventilation, if I could only figure out how to wire the fan to the Propex so that when the Propex is on the fan also comes on....plan B is a separate switch for the fan. I have this fan around in the house I could use
http://www.gowesty.com/ec_view_details.php?id=3470&category_id=&category_parent_id=

Moving on.

How to mount the Propex. I am going to take advantage of some pics from Racerrojo, he did all the hard work

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...p;start=20

Be careful with this pic above. Make sure the 8.5" shown above in the pic is changed to a 7.5" for the Propex inlet to clear the outside bottom van's frame rail.

self explanatory pics from Racerrojo, not much to add here but ask if you have questions. Follow the Propex manual for this install. I drilled a pilot hole first to make sure the holes thru the meatl fllor were located in the right place, I was lucky or careful I guess and had them right the first time around.

To partially separate the Propex and the fridge unit spaces I made a shelf out of 5mm luan plywood sittion on top of the aluminum angles that would support the fridge and I covered the bottom side of the shelf with aluminum flashing used for roofing, it comes in very thin sheets, cut to size and glued and taped around the shelf using high temp duct tape. I would have used Reflectix or similar but that would have cut down the available space between the fridge and the propex. I'm not even sure flashing has any heat reflective properties, it is definitely shiny and thin The Propex does not really get very very hot but it is always good to be cautious about it. The area that gets hot is usually centered in the Propex, where the exhaust pipe is located. Another option for me would be to get rid of the shelf and cover the bottom of the fridge with Reflectix. The fridge would just rest on top of the aluminun angles.

About the aluminun angles. It is very hard to be precise with the installation of the aluminun angles so that the fridge is all the way up in the cabinet space so just error a tiny bit on the safe side, I installed my angles just a bit lower. That way you can do final height adjustments on both sides by using thin luan shims, thickness sanded down if needed, or even foam glued to the aluminum angles to get the fridge where you want it to be.

Ok, so by now you have the Propex installed and screwed down to the bottom of the fridge cabinet and your aluminun angles are in place. Now I worked on making sure the fridge was be safely mounted to the cabinet.

See this pic?

I used 1x4 pine wood, 3/4 of an inch in thickness, as extra backing for holding the fridge in place. You can see the sections of pine screwed to the sides of the cabinet in the pic. The original laminate fascia or wood frame around the stock fridge wil be cut to size around the fridge and screwed onto the pine as well. Notice in the pic how, to center the fridge in the middle of the front cabinet space, I used an additional piece of 5mm luan on the left side, between the pine wood and the cabinet wall. The picture above shows the work.

To make things pretty, I re-used the original laminate fascia or frame around the stock fridge, cut it to size on the vertical using a jigsaw with a fine tooth blade and I also taped the area to be cut with blue painter's tape to avoid chipping the laminate. You will need to cut some notches for the screw heads behind the fridge mounting frame. So this fascia screws onto the pine first making sure the screw heads will be covered by the fridge mounting frame and then you install the fridge by screwing the fridge to the fascia and the pine wood behind it using the four screw holes in the mounting frame and using long wood screws.

For the bottom section of the cabinet, I measured the available space, cut some plywood to size and used the gray laminate sold by GoWesty. Then, I cut holes for the Propex inlet and outlet following Propex instructions. This section is also screwed onto some pine wood.

I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out so ask away if you need
_________________
1991 Westy auto w/ Peloquin TBD

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad” - Salvador Dali

[vela123321]

Great thread... thanks. It's going to take me a year to get motivated, but I've bookmarked it.
_________________
________________________

1987 Westfalia Vanagon 2.1 automatic
2014 VW TDi Jetta Sportwagen (Dieselgate)
2016 BMW 328i

1967 Bug... given to a friend
others not VW... Toyota, Audi, Volvo, Datsun, International Harvester

[singler3360]

[singler3360]

Racerrojo/MadSpaniard,
How did you establish the blue flame rail line in your pic? Is it possible to provide a measurement of this line from the front edge of the cabinet floor? It seems that establishing the location of this line is critical to the rest of the operation. Thanks.

[One more islander...]

[singler3360]

[quote="One more islander..."]

[singler3360]

I got the Propex 2000 installed under the TruckFridge 49 finally today. Feels good. Couldn't have done it without the posts in the thread. Here are some additional pics to give more specific information where I had questions along the way.

1. The template in place prior to drilling the pilot holes for the fresh air intake and exhaust outlet. The goal was to get the hot air outlet (on the left) to nestle inside the vent cover, eliminating the need for the ducting. The black Sharpie line in the photo is 1 1/2" from the front edge of the hot air outlet and represents how deep into the vent cover the outlet will go. The vent cover for this side has a reducer ring on the back which needed to be removed. From the edge of the cabinet floor, it was 8 1/8" to the middle of the exhaust outlet hole. I should have measured 8 3/16" for a little more wiggle room. This was the only part of the template alignment that wasn't clear to me in MadSpaniard and Racerrojo's pics.

2. Cabinet front is on the right, outside panel of van on the left. The exhaust outlet hole is on the right, fresh air intake on the left. Drilled a 3/8" pilot for the fresh air inlet first, then went underneath to check the alignment. MadSpaniard's caution about the outside frame rail was critical here. Got lucky, dead-on, phew! Drilled a 1 3/4" hole, stopping just short of the metal to allow clearance for the clamps. Finally, a 1 1/16" hole through the metal bottom of the van to the outside for the tubes.

3. Two holes from underneath.

4. Fresh air intake (left) and exhaust (right) in place.

5. Tapping into stock fridge propane line. Can't remember exact fitting sizes at the moment, but I think the stock female flare required a 5/8" NPT male to male adapter screwed into a 5/8" female/1/4" compression fitting to take the 1/4" copper pipe down to the 1/4" British pipe whatever-whatever fitting included with the Propex. My local pipe fitter did not have these fittings so I settled on the Home Depot, despite caution that their fittings are lighter weight. Pipe thread paste used on all connections.

6. Test fitting the new faceplate to make sure the front edge of the hot air outlet on the Propex nestles into the vent cover properly. Again, setting the unit back about 1/16-1/8" would have made this fit a little easier. You can see the magnetic clasp on the left to hold the faceplate in place.

7. View of the hot air outlet through the vent cover. Anyone see a problem with this idea?

8. Faceplate done.

9. TruckFridge reinstalled, but not before taping Reflectix to the bottom to act as a heat shield. Hope this works. Package suggest a heat tolerance of 250F, is this enough? Rest of Reflectix roll was used to create poptop insulation panels.

[climberjohn]

Singler,

Superbo!

Once Corvallis surfaces from the biblical floods, I will be dropping my van off in your driveway to get the same treatment.

Great thread folks, keep em coming.

-CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[Racerrojo]

Nice! I dig the the matching trim board, way nicer than what I came up with, when I did in my friend's Westy.
this is one mod that I would do on mine, if I could afford the Propex
_________________
Tight is tight... too tight is expensive!!!!


Too many vans and mostly all projects

[singler3360]