Chest Freezer in Tom Cat under foreward seat

thataway

We elected to put a chest type of Norcold freezer/refigerator under the foreward seat, rather than the factory installed front opening refigerator.
We find that we need more freezer space on long trips--and use ice chests for the soft drinks, veggies etc. The chest freezer is about 2 cubic feet and will hold over 100 lbs of fish etc. The chest Freezer/refigerator runs on both 110V AC and 12 volt DC.

We made a frame of 2 x 4 side rails, and a cross piece of 2 x 4 at the outboard end. The cross bars were 2 x 2 (the same height as the sill of the opening under the seat). One in the middle and one in the inboard end. All joints were epoxied. The frame was 1 1/4" wider than the sliding platform. I would rather shim the rails a slight amount than make the slides bind. I obtained two 100 lb capacity ball bearing double drawer slides which have a travel of 24". The 16" wide platform was made of pine boards edge glued. Side rails were 1 x 2" oak. We put rails on both ends, and cleats in front and back of the "feet" of the freezer, and one cleat in front of the feet in the back (these are Oak 1 x 2". These were to keep the platform from sagging in the middle. Again epoxy was used to glue the joints. AFter it was assembled, small depressions 1 1/8" diameter with a Freud bit for the feet to prevent sliding. After assembling and securing to the under laying floor, a hole was drilled straight down thru the foreward rail, to the underlying sill on the door. The frame was screwed to the floor, so it can be removed when we put in the second water tank under neath. The frame floats on the part which will be removed when the second tank is put in place.

When the freezer is pulled out to its fullest extent the lid will open fully or can be removed. This is just one solution for preserving food, and some will prefer the front loading refigerator.

Photos are being put in the Thataway album.

The

dtol · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:43 pm Post subject:

Bob

The other night I thought this was an original idea I had. Just goes to show ya. Good job. How will you keep it from sliding open when only it wants it to.

What size is your freezer, 40 or 60 qt? It looks like the 40. The lid on the 60 opens the other way. Also the 60 is 31 inches long and will stick out of a 30" cabinet. Is the 1.5 cu ft 40 OK for you on your 2, 3, or 5 day trips? Besides cruising, I am looking at the freezer to hold fish for a day or two. Daily limits must be processed before you can catch another daily limit on the next day. This means cleaned and canned, smoked, or frozen. If we have the capability to freeze fish we catch, we can pend the night out and fish again the next day saving us the 4 to 6 hours of running and the fuel.

thataway · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:23 pm Post subject:

In the photo which shows the freezer slid in, there is a SS 1/4" bolt which goes thru the 1x2 Oak railing into the center of the 1 x 2 sill of the door.

This is an older chest model #MRFT 640--so I assume that it is the 60 quart (or slightly larger?)--I am quite sure it was the largest model at the time--and then there was none which had the sideways opening door. We have used it for camping, in a van, on several small boats and as a freezer to bring frozen fish back from Alaska when we had the Cal 46.

Incidently we had a smoker on the Cal 46--just put it on the swim step (modification we did)--and let it smoke as we sailed along--I don't think we will be using it under way on the Tom Cat--!

It will hold main dishes for much more than a few days. The plan arose when I looked at the Tom Cat the first time and measured the opening--shows "Great minds"....

Regards,

Bob

ffheap · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:07 pm Post subject:

Bob,

Just an idea. One of my daughter's father-in-laws purchased the test boat from the old Raytheon Company and made many improvements. He added solar panels to keep the Frig/freezer cold when he did not run the engine. He said that the 12 Volts from the engine would MAKE ice, the solar panels would KEEP the ice. Might work with a C-Dory because of all the cabin roof area we have. His boat is located in Boston Harbor.

Just an idea.

Fred

thataway · Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:28 pm Post subject:

Thanks Fred.
I have looked into both wind and solar when we did our long range cruising (and kept abreast of the technology). I have followed several boats who have used both solar and wind to run refigeration and other items. It takes a lot of cells, which are quite expensive. Also there is the amount of sun factor. If a boat were to attempt to be energy effecient away from a dock and generator, it might make some sense. But the ones I have followed have found that it didn't work all that well, unless you were in the tropics, in the trade winds, and had two wind generators, . For the freezer, I would have about 60% run time in Florida--and that will be close to 3-4 amps an hour. To get solar pannels to give 80 amp hours it would cost about $2000. This would require an area 5' x 5'--I suspose I could put that on top of the Bimini,if it were engineered for it--but then I don't know what I would do when trailering. The top of the cabin house has one Polar Cub air conditioner, one 18" radar dome, one 40 watt hailer, two GPS antennas, two VHF antennas and two Ham radio antennas...plus a space for the dinghy rolled up, if I desire.

I made the election (since I already had the Honda EU2000i gen set) to use it with adequate battery chargers (two 20 amp circuits),plus 88 amps from the outboard alternators when running. We generally will run the airconditioning enough to keep the batteries topped off when we are not running (usually the AC will be in the evening for a few hours). So lets say we run the engines for 3 hours =200 amp hours, plus the generator for four hours: 2 x 20 amps on the battery charger or another 160 amps for the power to be conservative. If we were at anchor, for several days, we might have to run the genset slightly more--but it is a price we will have to pay.

Regards,

ffheap · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:51 am Post subject:

Good answer. I will try and et more info from the family member and pass it on.

Fred

thataway · Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:46 pm Post subject:

Just being up North may make all of the difference. When we cruised the PNW and Alaska, we found that our refigeration/freezer run time (holding plates with compressor on the main engine or on 110 volt/genset) was half as much as in the tropics. PNW-one hour twice a day. Panama or Florida: 2 to 2.5 hours twice a day! Water is warmer as well as the air.

Regards,

Discovery · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:37 am Post subject:

Thataway,

Nice installation on the fridge/freezer. Not sure who the manufacturer is though. Is it an Engel Fridge/Freezer? I have been looking at the Engel 45qt Fridge/Freezer, to put in the rear port side cabinet. I had the factory make it with a 15" wide door, thinking I would put the Engel in there. We have 60 watts (4X15 watts) of solar panels on the roof of Discovery. Have room to add two more if necessary. The solar is routed to the port side battery bank (2, Exide Orbital Gel type batteries) which is reserved only for the Norcold Ref. and port motor starting. I have a Link 20 battery monitor, and it has never shown the batteries to be more than 25% discharged, even when at anchor all day, without running the motors. We used the Norcold continuously for about 60days this summer on our British Columbia trip. Never had a problem with the system. If I add the Engel Fridge/Freezer it will also be hooked to the port battery bank. I will then add two more solar panels (2X15 watts) for a total of 90 watts of solar.

We carried a Honda EU 2000 on the BC trip, and never even started it once. I guess it was insurance though, in case we did let the batteries run down.

thataway · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject:

This is an older Norcold--and has the swing motor, so it is less effecient than the new Norcold. (I notice that the Engle still use the swing motor, rather than the Danfoss compressor). But at this point I'm not going to chuck another $1000 for another freezer, while this one is still working well...

The unit I have is 26" long, 18" high (not including legs) and 14" wide. This is just slightly less than the Engle 45 (and the the Engle may include the legs; if so, then it is the same as the Engle 45.

So far we have run this both in Florida--(where we are runing about 60% of the time) and the PNW where we ran less than 30% of the time. I suspect that you were generating a considerable amount of your power from the engines's alternators. We will have to run the generator a fair amount of the time at anchor, when inside to do the airconditioning, so that is a given. I am going to hook up an extra line from the truck's alternator (120 amps) to the freezer battery on the boat--to keep it charged when on the road.

Regards,

dtol · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:30 pm Post subject:

Does anyone have any experience with the Coolmatic Fridge/Freezer sold by Westmarine. It has some size and wt advantages over the Norcold. The 53 qt is only 24in long but higher and the shipping wt is only 44 lbs. That could also mean less effecient.

thataway · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:13 pm Post subject:

I have not used them (By WAECO), but I might replace the Norcold with one, since they use the Danfoss compressor, and that has proven to be quite reliable (Nova Kool, Tundra, and now I believe that Norcold has changed). The same company is now the parent company of Adler Barbour refigeration.

The 19" height may be a bit of a problem in the Tom Cat--but this may include the feet--if so, mine is 19" and this leaves about 1/2" clearance at the top of the door. The other dimensions are good--and one could use a shorter slide track.