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Friends,
Thanks to advice and information received from list members, I took the '84 Airstream 31' with warm refrigerator down to my shop this morning and tackled removal of the refrigerator. In summary, it was simple and easy to remove. Opening the outside compartment door, I found two lower frame rails from front to rear on each side of the refrigerator resting against the compartment floor. I removed two large phillips head screws from the frame rails at the rear (outside edge) of the refrigerator, removed the gas line (after securing propane valves at the tank, disconnected two wires providing 12 volt dc (for lighting?), and unplugged the ac power cord. Inside the trailer, I removed the freezer and bottom compartment doors by removing the phillips head screws holding the door supports to the body of the refrig. Then, with a small straight blade screwdriver I pried out six plastic decorative plugs spaced evenly, three to a side, on the face of the refrig outer shell. Behind those plugs were six phillips head sheet metal screws holding the refrig to the aluminum frame surrounding the opening. When the six screws were removed, the refrig was free. Thanks to the excellent design and layout of Airstream trailers, it was a simple matter to wrestle the refrig out of the opening, turn it to face forward, and move it forward to line up with the trailer exit door. I was alone so I used a pneumatic-tired moving dolly to slip under the refrig and slide it out of the exit door and roll it inside my shop. Following the advice of some, and with my fingers crossed for good luck, I turned the refrig upside down and left it resting. After 24 hours I plan to return, right it, plug it back in, temporarily reinstall the two doors, and let it sit for another 24 hours to see if it will cool. Prior to removal, it would not cool below about 12 degrees in the freezer and 40+ in the box. Some have told me that occasionally, if the owner is lucky, the refrigerator will "burp" itself when turned upside down for 24 hours. The explanation is that minor restrictions in the lines may sometimes be cleared by gravity flow and the coolant mixture will flow through the entire coil and be redistributed and the unit will resume cooling. What do I have to lose? Maybe I'll be lucky. For those who may be contemplating a similar exercise, Camping World offers a new Dometic RM-2820 in their July sale catalog for $987.50 plus $25 for shipping during July. CW also offers installation for only $75. Now that I know how easy it is to remove and replace the unit, I think I'll drive over to Denton, TX, the closest CW outlet in my part of the world, later this week or early next week and pick up the refrigerator and also a Dometic RM 2510.2 for my vintage 22' Safari which needs a new one also. That model is also sale priced. I can spend a few hours visiting my 91 year old uncle and aunt while there. Anyway, it provides an excuse to check out my new Dodge-Cummins with a trailer in tow. Hope the refrigerator removal steps will help someone else. Regards, Harvey Barlow Lubbock, TX WBCCI # 1171, VAC, WDCU |