I just finished installing an 18 cubic ft GE fridge in my Southwind. I had to modify the fridge space by dropping the floor about 3 inches which was easy since I own a complete woodshop. I plugged the propane line and sealed the 12 volt wires. I also strengthened the flooring even though the GE is lighter than the Norcold. I had to take a window out to slide the fridge in. I put a couple 2x6 boards on the bucket of my front end loader, laid the fridge on it's back with the doors removed, raised it up to the window opening and in it went. I plugged it in, slid it into the cabinet, trimmed it off, and put Velcro strapping across the doors for traveling. I paid less than $600.00 for the GE. And it will freeze ice cream. Thanks for your video. You gave me the encouragement I needed to do the job. Happy Camping.
I removed the 1200 in my Southwind to install the Amish coils. Now it has quit working. But when I took it out of the opening I used a motorcycle jack. I wrapped the steel wheels with tape to protect the floor, removed the refrigerator doors and the frame, and pushed it out onto the jack. Then I moved it out into the kitchen and jacked it up against the ceiling for stability. My 1200 is now heating like a furnace. So I am going to replace it with a residential model. Thanks for the video.
The fridge worked great for about 5 years. Then it started blowing fuses in the control panel. And a couple of the heating tubes burned out. The fridge was working great until June 30, 2017 when it decided to become a warming oven instead of a fridge. So, time to go. I paid over a $1,000.00 for the Amish coils. No sign of them leaking but they must have plugged up inside. I have a full hook up for my motorhome right on my yard and a complete wood working shop. From the mufflers falling off the Fleetwood/Workhorse the day I got it and leaking gasoline all over the ground because of a misplaced clamp, to the front air conditioner burning up because of a sensor not being installed properly, to a gasoline pump, to a warped exhaust manifold, to a slide out motor that cost over $700.00 this has been a handy man's dream, or nightmare. A pot hole in the highway into which I have poured money. Trade it in? Yeah, now that I have worked out every Fleetwood bug built into it. Naw! Time for the crappy Never Cold to go to the dump.
Pretty much the same story I have...but I'm with you now that I have all the bugs worked out why start over... Thanks for watching and check back in when your done and let us know how it went.
I just got a check from Norcold for $147.00. One of 4 that will finally amount to about $550.00. I joined the class action suit back when they started the recall that blew out my original coils.
We are planning to get rid of the no-Cold in our 2007 Kountrystar soon. We don't often boondock, but are concerned our inverter doesn't have the power to kick the Samsung on. How big is your inverter and how many coach batteries are you running? Thanks!
I have a 3000 watt and 4 lithium batteries. BUT, you don't need that much. A 2000 watt inverter will work just fine and when I had no solar and just 4 lead acid batteries I would have to run the generator for 3-4 hours a day if I was boondocking to keep the batteries charged up, Fun fact, with solar and the lithium batteries in a 100+ days of boondocking I had to run the generator only twice for a total of 6 hours.
I installed a replacement cooling unit from a company in Arkansas. It was junk. Lasted just over 2 years...just outside of the warranty. Stick with the amish built replacement units if you want a quality one.
Nothing, except I had to change a drain defroster clip. It was simple and of course I videoed it, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BN8Wb3JLok8.html Keep in mind that often times only people that have trouble with something write reviews. I don't think you'd have anything to worry about if you used it. There is a GE brand that is also popular for this replacement, I am not sure of the model number. Thanks for watching
I have a 2004 freightliner revolution with a 4 door norcold. My door opening is 27” found a 24” deep French door refrigerator, but can’t clear the head cabinets coming in the door and up the stairs. I’m at a total loss for how to get it in here. How’d you get yours in. The captains chair isn’t in the way. The dash components and the head cabinets are. So frustrating.. also. For a 110 fridge am I asking for trouble. I’m currently shore powered but if I’m not?
Two guys and we pretty much carried it horizontally in the door. They don't use much power so you should be good on your existing batteries to travel between hookups.
Ok question. I have a 1200 in my 2005 Dutch star but I have floorplan 4009 with thr fridge in the slide out. I do have a smal cabinet/pantry above and to the left. I have yet to find a residential refrigerator that will fit the opening. I noticed in your video there is little room for margin after the fridge was removed. It pretty much filled the opening correct?
I had to lower the shelf in mine to fit the fridge. I think it was about 1-1/2 inch. I don't recall exactly, but I was right at the minimum clearance for above the furnace. The width was perfect. I have about 1/2 inch on each side for airflow. That said I know there are some subtle variations in the Dutch Stars because a friend of mine put the same fridge as mine in his and had to do some finagling to get his to fit. He was having trouble with the height too.
Okay got the fridge inside 😂😂 now I followed all your videos 4 screws top and bottom and found two randoms in the back service bay into the floor.. got them all out. My fridge won’t budge. Any thoughts?
Hi TR! I’m replacing my Nevercold this weekend with an RF18. So excited! Your videos have been invaluable since we have the same 2004 Dutch Star with the 4010 floor-plan. I don’t even have to think! I used it as a training video for my friend who is helping me so we are both on the same page. Once I got the fridge out I saw the same burn in the ceiling that you have. Scary! The roof vent is just totally in the wrong place. I haven’t used the thing since I saw your video on RV fires. I turned it off and bought a small dorm fridge until I could get and install the Samsung.
Thanks for the update. Agree on the roof vent and when I replaced the roof on my coach I could not see any reason why the vent could not have been moved so that it aligns better with the exhaust on the fridge. Love to see pictures of the finished product.
Did you have to take off your coach door? Or remove front seats?? I have an essex my fridge went out in. I've been doing some measuring and it is tight to get the old fridge out and the new one in.
I did not have to remove the coach door. It was just wide enough to get the fridge in. I did remove the doors from the fridge and I removed the front passenger seat and there is a hand rail on the door frame that I removed just to make it easier to work... On the Essex I would think you have the same door opening... I had two inches to spare on the door opening... Good luck
I filled it with foam. See in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G67qov1g-YQ.html also you can see what I did with the vent in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fXKRPeeFAM8.html Those links take your directly to the point in the video that shows the vent. Take care and thanks for watching!
@@trbowlin Sorry I was not very clear. I meant “did you have to disconnect from the roof at all?”. In my case, I had to open the roof vent and unscrew so mental brackets that were fastening my fridge to the motorhome frame.
I am not sure if you still see these comments, but I thought I'd take a chance and ask a question. Also, I will try to catch your next live ask anything.. First, Thank you for helping me figure out how to get my Nevercold 1200 out. I have a 2002 Holiday Rambler Endeavor Diesel Pusher. I heard you mention your gas line. How did you cap off your gas line? I have 0 (zero) experience in this type of thing and cannot afford to have an RV person come out. I tried that with some other stuff and gave them all the money I am willing to give them. Thank you again!
Go to home depot and ask for a 1/2" flare nut cap. That is exactly what you need. Thanks for watching. Yes, I see and respond to all comments so if you have any other questions, just let me know!
Sir, how did you get the Samsung refriderator into the rv? Did you have to remove the windshield or was the rv door big enough to get it in? I'm thinking of getting rid of never cold and get one like you have. Thanks for the video sir.
TR Bowlin , thank you for the reply. I'll be getting Haier 16.4-cu ft 4-Door Counter-Depth French Door Refrigerator from Lowe's $699. Had a excellent reviews. And I made sure it will thru rv door.
Hi Robert! Yes, I did. I put some of that purple foam board in the hole in the wall and I taped the vents in the outside cover from the inside. It looks great and you don't see the tape at all. How's it going on the swap?
@@trbowlin First of all I had to lower my furnace, they had installed it on top of some 2x4's to clear the ac drain lines.I re routed the ac lines and mounted the furnace directly to the floor. this meant I had to drill a hole through the side of the coach to accommodate the exhaust. no problem, I made a nice stainless plate to cover the original hole. now I have the room to make a new deck over the furnace giving me the 70" of clearance I need.I will leave a 1" gap between the deck and the furnace, I even bought a 24'X24" 16 ga piece of stainless that I will attach to the deck so anything coming from the furnace will not have direct contact with the plywood. now we are shopping for a new fridge, wife wants a 2 door with ice and water in the door. I stubbed a water line with a ice maker fitting up to the back wall. where can I send you some pictures?
@@mbzmech1 This victron amzn.to/3nFKt7V is the best one on the market right now. The really cool thing is that it boosts power. Say your on a 30 amp service and need 40 or 50, it will automagically boost your power to what is needed...no more breaker trips. I helped a friend install one in his coach a couple of months ago. Here is the video on that ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yPghusuxOp8.html
That’s perfect !! I have a 2005 Phateon Tiffin that I am fixing to pull out , during the heat of the day it will only cool to 55 degrees , freezer works fine
If I wanted to do this in my 5th wheel but I never boondock and it's at a RV park 24/7 on shore power, how would I go about wiring it up? Could it just be run to an extra breaker that isn't currently being used as long as it's big enough like a 20amp? Or wait, those use 110-125v standard wall outlet, oh that's right. So then I would just plug it up to an outlet then right? I don't have an inverter yet, or solar, or lithium batteries. That's all planned but not for a year or so.
Yes, you can use the extra breaker. I think you will find that the current fridge may have 110 power already in place and you can use it. 20 amps is more than enough. Thanks for watching
tr.......could you tell me why you moved the wires from the ac fuse box to the inverter.........I am installing a fridge like yours and I would like it to work on electric and inverter....just no gas......how do I need to wire it to do so. thanks butch
Hi Butch... The reason I had to move the circuit is because the outlet I moved and reused was not on the inverter. The reason it was not was because the old electric pencil heaters plugged into the existing outlet (the one I moved and reused) were not on the inverter because they pulled about 450 watts and they would have draw the batteries down pretty fast. Really the original fridge was intended to run on propane when you were not plugged in and only run on electric when you were plugged in. AS you know I needed to run the fridge on electric full time so I moved that outlet to the inverter to accomplish that. I will comment that I boondocked a fair amount this summer and I had to run the generator about 3 hours a day to keep the batteries charged up and running the fridge. The take home message is that the solar I have is not enough to keep the batteries charged and run the fridge. I'll be fixing that this winter when I replace my existing old solar panels with new (and more) solar. Watch for that project later this winter. As far as your specific situation I am happy to help... If you want to email me at flyfishidaho@gmail.com I will work with you to figure out what you need to do in your specific situation. Thanks for your comments!
Hi TR - I’m removing our Norcold 1200 as well - I have a 2005 Kountry Star 3909 - I only have 26” through the door frame - I was wondering if you know the width of the door opening on yours. I can’t see how I’ll get a new fridge in with the coach door still on. Thank you
TR Bowlin - thank you for the reply - I have the passenger seat out and I know I’ll have to take the doors off the fridge ( I have them off the Norcold) but you didn’t have to take the coach screen door or outside door off? Thank you
@@mikehoyle7164 no I didn't have to take the door nor the screen off. But what I did do on my particular door there is a positive lock when it opens and there is a bar at the top of the door which limits the opening size. I just popped that off and held the door open while we moved the fridge in just give us a little bit more space. Otherwise it went right in. I don't know what fridge you're installing but on the Samsung that I installed with the doors off the fridge cabinet depth was only 24 in
TR Bowlin ok that’s great to know - I have removed the hinge but it doesn’t give me much more opening- I’m looking at that Samsung or a fridgedaire 13.9 cu ft . There are a lot of terrible reviews on the Samsung and they are notorious for their terrible customer service but I’ve seen the fix but people are still saying with the new evaporator drain clip it’s still freezing on them.
Hi Jerry, thanks for subscribing. I have three answers for you... When starting it draws about 3.5 amps, normal running is about 1.5 amps and when speed cooling or making ice between 2 and 3 amps. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching!
Good question. It would have made it a little lighter to handle but the fridge had not been running for a couple of days and was pretty stinky so I just left them on just to minimize the smell while I was working on the removal. Thanks for watching!
Yeah I figured the entry door would swing out-of-the-way enough once the arm was taken off the top. I was sure hoping I didn't have to take out the passengers captain seat.
