Removing the old fridge

Friday 27 September 2013

On Sunday afternoon I finally had some spare time – we had spent Saturday helping to move one of our daughters and her family into their first Australian home, all the family came to assist which is the way we do it and by sundown the move was complete, but the sort out has just begun, I’m happy to report that at the time of writing this they are 90% sorted out and feel sure that all will be sorted in the next few days.

Back to Sunday afternoon, I decided to have a go at removing the fridge from the caravan in preparation for the new Waeco, little did I know that this would not be a five minuet exercise. After removing the six screws from the mounting frame, I could hardly move it, actually only the bottom moved a few mm. After looking at it from every which way I decided that it was time to consult the instructions, yes I actually went home and sat and read through them- imagine that! Believe it or not I had done all necessary and it should have just slid out.

Ready for the new fridge

Back at the caravan I decided that perhaps some mod had been made by the manufacturer and so decided to remove the outside air vents and see if anything could be seen, finding out how to remove them was a mission but I finally did and low and behold there was a metal shield at the top affixed to the top of the fridge about 15 cm from the rear at about 30° and fixed to the side of the caravan in some way preventing it had been being removed. It looked as if silicon sealant had been used so out with my trusty ‘mac gyver’ (Swiss army knife) a present my eldest had given to me in 1990 (purchased with her first pay cheque) and was able to just reach and cut through the silicon. Once this was done the fridge slid out easy as, the caravan manufacturer had installed the fridge while building the van and thought it a good idea to insert the metal shield to help deflect the heat from the fridge heat ex-changer out the vent, a good idea but not easy to remove. It was now late afternoon by this and so after a clean-up I decided to leave the installation of the Waeco for next weekend.

As for the planning of our trip I have actually made a start, I have decided to use a spread sheet (example below) and then add, where to stay, cost and things to see and do each day, using Google, Trip Advisor, etc.

	Km	Total K	Days	2014
Home
Horsham	284
Tailem Bend	292	576	1	1-Aug	$27.00	Rivers Edge Caravan Park,
						Visit old Tailem town

Until next time..........keep smiling