Club 80-90 Forums

Hi Peeps. I am in the unenviable position of owning an '89 Westfalia California with a dying RM184 fridge. Its been out, upside downed and firebox checked, I even added the rear fins cooling mod which works through the original thermo switch and it doesn't want to play anymore. Just gets a hot rear and doesn't get cool inside! It may be the last season we own it, so don't want to pay a fortune for a replacement, have already passed the milestone indicating that we have spent more on maintenance than we paid for the van, so found this when checking out an infamous online auction site. The Carvin 43 litre 3 way absorption fridge unit which looks like it will fit in a lefty Westfalia. Has anyone bitten the bullet and bought one/seen one? The splurge states that its been updated, always a suspicious statement, and now comes with a din power plug and bulldog battery clips for the 12 volt connection for £240 incl postage! That concerns me a little, bearing in mind what is already on the forum re fridges. Failing that, anyone got a working Westflalia fridge, I want to keep the van as original as possible? cheers guys, and sorry if I got the wrong forum.

The Waeco CR50 is the usual retro-fit for westy-type vans. Jed has them in stock (Campervanculture), but they're available from a lot of different places. Expect to pay £440-£480.

That's the expensive 'compressor' type often talked about.
TBH I've never seen a replacement that was 'totally acceptable' to the 'purist' Westy owner, ALL have to ditch the westy trim front, the best I've seen is an acceptable grey front replacement which just doesn't look original.

I've spent 9 years looking for the 'holy grail' of upgrades and the only thing I've heard about that comes even close is the 'Addon' compressor kit, that upgrades the existing absorption setup to modern compressor workings. These cycle at around 3.5 amps (less than half of the original) but obviously the motor is working in bursts so not consuming power all the time.
This set-up is 12 volts so best used in conjunction with a big battery bank and better still, solar panels. Unfortunately NOT CHEAP!.

Martin