2003 Bounder Diesel 38N Samsung RF18 install

[ManBearBrett]

Hey guys,

Over the summer our Nevercold fridge started giving us problems in the RV. My wife and I are full timers who also work full time, and we were quickly falling out of love with our fridge as many meals were left to be ruined during the day while we were at work. Around the same time the fridge started its downward spiral, the battery charging side of our Freedom 458 Inverter went bad.

I was able to bandaid the inverter/charger problem with a 30amp battery charger but i knew we had to make some fixes quick. I am a pilot and fly for a living and i felt awful leaving my wife at home with a limping RV system.

I had been researching how i wanted to upgrade the RV for sometime so we quickly pulled the trigger and decided to do two fun upgrades. We installed Xantrex's Freedom SW 3012 3000W Pure Sine wave inverter and Xantrex SCP control panel which has already shown noticeable improvement with the way our electronics interact with our AC outlets. The second upgrade was convincing my Pops who is a builder to come down and help me install a Samsung RF18 which we got on sale from Lowes for about $1000 dollars.

It took us 2 days to install everything. We got very lucky getting the fridge into the slide as the fridge was roughly 67 1/2 inches tall and there is about 68 1/2 inches from the bottom aluminum frame of the slide to the top (i thought we had more room than that before starting!

I wanted to share this just incase any other Bounder DP 38N owners were wanting to do the residential fridge install like we did!

Of course as soon as we finished we tried to warm up some coffee in the Convection oven and it appears that the outlet its plugged into went dead so im spending today trying to figure out why that outlet lost power without a popped breaker...its always something right?!

Anyways here are some pictures we snapped along the way!

[Turbodoc]

You did a very nice job!

[38Chevy454]

Good job, you will definitely appreciate the new frig. I know my own RF18 conversion is one of the best things I have done on my motorhome.

[trx430ex]

Nice install, let us know the energy requirements, if you could put a “Kilowatt” meter on the plug for a week. Be nice to see.
Have 3 Fantastic fans running all night on low, 1.3 amps each. 2 Interstates don’t seem to mind when i wake up next morning. Then Honda EU3000 for coffee and recharge,

[saddlesore]

OK!!
Now to keep the bottom freezer shut when traveling, Get some commercial velcro with adhesive on the back side and go from the main frame work to the door (both left and right corners)
And either fab up a carpeted horseshoe to place between the upper door handles and long enough to go thru the freezer handle to keep doors shut or as a "get by" I use a rubber stir spoon .. see pics.

[ManBearBrett]

Thanks for all the love everyone, we're definitely looking into how to keep the doors shut, potentially a temporary fix for a next move and looking into some of the more clever community designed solutions.

i will work on getting a kilowatt meter, we ran just our four interstate batteries with it and watching tv for about 6 hours the other night before the lights started to dim haha (accidentally let the battery charger turn off)

[ron930cab]

Nice install. For our Samsung 197, went with these stainless latches from Amazon: Sugatsune, Lamp HC-85/S Catches and Latches, 304 Stainless Steel, Brass, Satin. One across the top for both French doors and one sort of on the side for the freezer. Held on with Gorilla double back tape, some screws on the wood for the freezer. They use these same lathes on several new coaches.

[ManBearBrett]

Originally Posted by ron930cab

Nice install. For our Samsung 197, went with these stainless latches from Amazon: Sugatsune, Lamp HC-85/S Catches and Latches, 304 Stainless Steel, Brass, Satin. One across the top for both French doors and one sort of on the side for the freezer. Held on with Gorilla double back tape, some screws on the wood for the freezer. They use these same lathes on several new coaches.

those look perfect! thankyou!

[crusty]

very good just bought the rf18 it goes in this weekend 2003 expedition I HOPE it goes thru the door???

[ManBearBrett]

Originally Posted by crusty

very good just bought the rf18 it goes in this weekend 2003 expedition I HOPE it goes thru the door???

You're going to love it! Favorite upgrade i've done. i believe we should have basically identical floor plans. we had to take off the frame around our door (the frame with like 25 screws) in order to get it to fit and then we had to pull off and push down the bit of plastic trim next to the door that contained the vents. This was easily done by twisting off the AC vents. We didn't remove that plastic bit entirely as it was one piece all the way over to the driver side but we just pulled it off and pushed it down while the fridge came in.

[trx430ex]

Was looking at that today, take the door frame out, or the dinette window, hmmm.

[bobmac]

I took the passenger seat out. Much simpler and faster than tackling the dash.

[Dennis4809]

Originally Posted by ManBearBrett

Thanks for all the love everyone, we're definitely looking into how to keep the doors shut, potentially a temporary fix for a next move and looking into some of the more clever community designed solutions.

i will work on getting a kilowatt meter, we ran just our four interstate batteries with it and watching tv for about 6 hours the other night before the lights started to dim haha (accidentally let the battery charger turn off)

I just installed an RF18 in our Gulf Stream. Used a Kill a Watt to look at the load. Start up on a warm refer shows 286 Watts. After cold, 10 Watts is more normal. As for the doors, I found a 8” or so Velcro cinch strap. Wrapped tightly around the door handles and they don’t move. Ours sits in a hall way so I took a couple pieces of 2” insulation foam. Glued them together to make a 3X4 board. Cut it to the length need to block the freezer by the opposite wall. Wrapped the whole thing in an piece of denim. Functional, looks good and weighs a couple ounces.

Since our coach has a modified sign wave inverter which doesn’t power to outlet for the refer, I bought a new 1,200 watt pure sign wave inverter with an auto transfer switch. A cable from the refer outlet to the inverter and then an other back to the Samsung and the refer doesn’t know whether we’re on shore power, driving down the highway or dry camping.

[Cyanne]

Originally Posted by ManBearBrett

Hey guys,

Over the summer our Nevercold fridge started giving us problems in the RV. My wife and I are full timers who also work full time, and we were quickly falling out of love with our fridge as many meals were left to be ruined during the day while we were at work. Around the same time the fridge started its downward spiral, the battery charging side of our Freedom 458 Inverter went bad.

I was able to bandaid the inverter/charger problem with a 30amp battery charger but i knew we had to make some fixes quick. I am a pilot and fly for a living and i felt awful leaving my wife at home with a limping RV system.

I had been researching how i wanted to upgrade the RV for sometime so we quickly pulled the trigger and decided to do two fun upgrades. We installed Xantrex's Freedom SW 3012 3000W Pure Sine wave inverter and Xantrex SCP control panel which has already shown noticeable improvement with the way our electronics interact with our AC outlets. The second upgrade was convincing my Pops who is a builder to come down and help me install a Samsung RF18 which we got on sale from Lowes for about $1000 dollars.

It took us 2 days to install everything. We got very lucky getting the fridge into the slide as the fridge was roughly 67 1/2 inches tall and there is about 68 1/2 inches from the bottom aluminum frame of the slide to the top (i thought we had more room than that before starting!

I wanted to share this just incase any other Bounder DP 38N owners were wanting to do the residential fridge install like we did!

Of course as soon as we finished we tried to warm up some coffee in the Convection oven and it appears that the outlet its plugged into went dead so im spending today trying to figure out why that outlet lost power without a popped breaker...its always something right?!

Anyways here are some pictures we snapped along the way!

Awesome job!!!