theoilchanger

I did go ahead and add a loop to form an air trap for the drain. @RayIN @jleamont confirmed that the installation is according to the manual: 28" from top of top side vent to bottom of bottom side vent. Also confirmed that the top bulkhead is curved as shown in the manual and that the vent assemblies are also Dometic. Final step will be to install one or 2 4" thermostatically-controlled 12v fans as shown in the manual. That is to say, above the absorber and below the condenser, blowing upwards.

@manholt funny you should mention that...we bought this one sight-unseen from Hesperia, CA. Used U-Ship to get a bid on getting it up here and the fellow down there sent me a 20 minute video of every square inch of the Nomad. The world is our oyster! Here is the picture of the flashing going into place. Confirmed by reviewing video that only the lap sealant is between the aluminum and the galvanized. Will address.

I can tell you that when I buy my next rig I will tear off the trim on top aft to make the same mod I did here. Because the two pieces of tin butt-jointed up top the mastic was the only water barrier. There was just this tiny little pinprick of a leak that led to all that work. I'm at a loss why they just couldn't roll a top aluminum sheet an extra inch long to have a lap joint on top. If you want it done right......do it yourself?!?!?

Thank you, sir. I will check on that. Interestingly today is the same hot day and the system is cooling better on AC than on gas. The temperature of the top of the boiler seems consistent regardless of gas or electric operation and the temperature of the back of the compartment is also similar. Ran a fan yesterday at the bottom pushing air upwards and still got the relatively high reading. Let me continue to log and I will review the installation tolerances.

oooh yes indeed...good call. Like when you need a dielectric union in plumbing. Fortunately I loaded up the seam with a whole bunch of RV sealant and made sure it was squeezing out when I zipped up the top screws. I want to think that that barrier will do the trick. Will now keep an eye for any signs of corrosion up there. Suppose could always slip a piece of wood furring strip in there. Thank you! Keep 'em coming.

Hi All--you may be interested in the extensive repair I undertook last January (2019) to overcome an issue that stemmed from a manufacturing defect of our 2012 Skyline Nomad 21' bunkhouse travel trailer. In short, it was clear after we purchased it that water was getting into the wall in the aft starboard section of the rig, which happens to be the dry bath. Turns out the lap-jointed aluminum was not fully sealed and water ended up getting into the walls. Spoiler: added a piece of galvanized roofing flashing on the top/rear joint to ensure water can never leak into the walls even if the sealant comes up. I hope you enjoy! Blog here: https://saffrenbloom.com Please let me know what you think.

Happy to report that the tests have check out at the Dometic 2351 is fully functional. Lesson learned here is there is always a variable that you didn't check until you did.... In this case, all the information I found on the web talked about replacing the regulator but no one mentioned that RV regulators can be variable regulators and may very well be adjusted downwards from the standard 11" of water column. The good news is that I am now an expert (in my own mind) on RV fridges. I took the thing completely apart to verify integrity and, along the way, uncovered the mystery of the absorption fridge. It is an amazing piece of engineering. For my final tests I kept the thermistor disconnected to put the fridge into "Flying Dutchman" mode where she just keeps on cranking regardless of internal temp. The first photo below shows what it looks like when the LP burner runs all night; the second shows what it looks like the next morning with the thermistor re-installed. The last image is a graph of the data I collected monitoring the remote thermometer that was placed outside to measure ambient temperature in the fridge box. I will now switch to AC to see if the numbers are any different. Big take-away is that these don't work at high outside temperature so we'll purchase a portable 12V compressor fridge if we end up camping in warmer climates. The best news of this all is that this drove me to become part of this great community. I look forward to participating and and learning from all of you...and I bet there will be a few laughs along the way. ============ After overnight run in Flying Dutchman mode: After overnight run with thermistor connected to lower control board Temperature over time on a particularly hot day for the SF Bay Area

Hey Manholt--it's 21 feet from the pin to the rear bumper and I went ahead and made my own pressure tester. Sure enough, the pressure was well below the 10-11 inches of water column! Turns out the regulator is adjustable. After unscrewing the cap I was able to turn a disc which, wouldn't you know it, pushed the pressure right on back up there. Going to give it a run and see how it goes now for the next 24 hours. Certainly read in many places to check the regulator. Never suspected that the regulator was adjustable. That means I've been running at below pressure for years since I put in the replacement reg. I bet our coffee will be ready faster in the morning now. Too funny. I'll report back here with cooling results against the electric benchmark.

Hey, thanks, all! Great to hear from you. This is a 2011 Skyline Nomad with no slide-outs. The fridge is mounted on the starboard side of the rig in the rear quarter and has properly spaced and sized top and bottom panels. Factory installation. There are no fans installed. The fridge works fine on AC power without fans but I could see how the LP exhaust could heat the whole bay more than the more compact AC element. I'll put a small fan in the bay tomorrow and start her up on gas to see if there's any effect. Meanwhile.... I did go back again yesterday and measure the temperature all over the tubes and I found that there is actually a significant temp differential in many areas. Seems the overall circuit is running cooler on LP (where it ought to be hotter). So now I have two theories: The gas pressure is below 11 inches of water column There is a crack between the boiler and flue that's affecting heat transfer For #1 I'm going to make my own u-tube manometer and test the pressure tomorrow. If the pressure is good then I'm going to shove some tin foil between the flue and boiler to increase the contact surface area between both. I'll yet y'all know. This is keeping me up!!! LOL

Hello! My Dometic 2351 cools nicely on AC but not so well on LP gas. I have read the very excellent thread at https://community.fmca.com/topic/12815-dometic-fridge-50-deg-on-propane/ but continue to be completely baffled (no pun intended). I have checked everything: flame quality, the baffle is there and in good shape, the burn tube cap is on, cleaned the burn tube, checked and cleaned the gas jet, you name it, we checked it! The top of the burn tube is much hotter running on LP than on AC which probably makes sense since the AC heating element is attached directly to the boiler and shouldn't send off as much extra heat as the LP flame. OK here's the thing that is driving me crazy: the temperature at various points of all the refrigerator tubes show about the same temperature when running on either AC or LP! For example, at the same point on the top of the evaporator stack we register about the same temperature--226F and 233F when running on AC and LP, respectively--so we know the proper amount of heat is being sent into the system. The only thing I can think of is that the flame is creating so much heat outside that it's heating the refrigerator back up. Can anyone think of what on earth can be wrong here? Thank you!!