Member - Jack replied:

Hi yendor.

You may like to have a look at Post 39883. I thought that post best summed up which fridge for which conditions.

We went through the Kimberleys earlier this year and had no problems with supplies, but we did not stay long in one place. One thing we did was got Supermarket prices right out of our heads. Up that way, due to the difficulties of supply, things are a lot dearer.

And a final tip ... learn how to make bread (as opposed to damper). It is dead easy, especially if you have a camp oven. You can buy packaged bread mix that will make one loaf at a time. Most of the bread we bought from roadhouses up that way was frozen, and while it was quite edible, it was not as good as the stuff we pulled out of the camp oven when the opportunity presented itself. It also drives the rest of the camp ground crazy with the smell. :)

Lovely area, I hope you can enjoy it as much as we did.

Jack

Ozrover replied:

Hi Yendor.

We will be in the same area next year & have thought hard & long about keeping the food cold.

What we plan on doing is to use the Engel fridge in the back of the car as a freezer, with the meat etc.. being kept frozen until needed (2 on board deep cycle batteries, 180ah total + 300w inverter).

The Dometic three way fridge in the camper will be used for all non-frozen foods/drinks, 12volt on board battery (75ah deep cycle) when travelling, gas or 240volt when parked over night or longer.

We will probably also take a EU20 Honda Genny as backup and to power things like Laptops, rechargeable power tools etc..

May seem like overkill but I've been caught with a dead fridge due to not enough power before. 8 )>

See you on the road.
Jeff.

Darian (SA) replied:

We were up in the Kimberley last July - most roadhouses carry a quite limited range of supermarket lines - quite a struggle to get what you are looking for though. especially re tucker - a lot of compromising required and the prices are way up there too (as mentioned above). Best to stock up at a regional town, prior. Re fridges - the 3 way will probably struggle - you will get into the mid 30's easily down the western end of the Gibb - a little lower east probably, but not much - we traded our 3 way for a Waeco 60L just for this top end type travel - with an aux battery to supply the fridge when static, it turned out a winner. Maybe run the 3 way anyway, and have a 40L fridge as back up ? If you don't want a fixed aux battery, maybe a portable (eg, Waeco sell them)..... its only money :-0)

Member - Norm C (QLD) replied:

Even in winter, it gets pretty warm up there, and in some places it is difficult to find a place to park or camp that's in the shade. The 3 way will probably struggle as your primary fridge.

I wouldn't consider an esky unless you have your own freezer for ice. We had a 70 litre fridge freezer. We used most of the freezer capacity to make ice in 2 litre milk bottles and Techni Ice (great stuff) to feed the esky for drinks.

Depends in part how far off the beaten track you will get. We spent up to 2 weeks without contact with any 'civilization', so carried a lot of cryovaced meat and other fresh stuff.

The advice on bread making is good. We were away 16 weeks and I would have baked bread in the camp oven at least 20 times. Apart from being the only way to get fresh bread in a lot of areas, it is fantastic bread once you master the art.

Perhaps a 40 litre fridge in the vehicle (which you can use as a freezer at times), to supplement the 3 way might be an idea. If you are going to stay in one place for 2 or 3 or 4 days without access to power, (which you should as there as some beautiful camp spots), you will need a gennie or solar power. Plenty of sun for solar if that is how you go.

We carried a small gennie, but as we also carried 3 deep cycle batteries (1 @ 105 and 2 @ 120AH), it was only used a few times. But we could not have done without it.

Another factor though is for the 'off the beaten track', will the Jayco be up to it. But that's another issue entitely and I don't want to start any arguments on that one. Not suggesting it can't do the GRR though.

time waster replied:

Hi Rod we have just returned from doing the GRR Cape Leveque and Tamani travelling for 9 weeks also towing an eagle o/b. We were late in the season Sep. and it was very hot the camper fridge did ok for temps of 40 and turning off 12v during travelling as we covered the vents for dust.The freezer stayed frozen while the fridge went to about 12 deg I would recommend a car fridge we had an engel that we used for drinks and food that needed to be kept lower than 4deg.We also had meat cryovacked that we froze and then put in the engel lasting us 6 weeks. you can buy supplies all along the way.