Fridge stuck in the door. . NOW what do we do?

[Christyhicks]

Well, today was the day to tackle some upgrading on TempBus, and one of those was to put in a new fridge that we had.  It was originally for our motorhome, but since we bought TempBus and it had an old unit, I got the bright idea to put the new one in TempBus and put the existing fridge in the motorhome before we sell it.  You all have to agree that it makes sense, as the Motorhome is nice, but it's an older unit and not likely to sell for a lot anyway.  Please, call Larry and assure him that it WAS a good idea and he should NOT rethink his reasons for marrying me! 

I DID measure, re-measure, and measure again, and the units would interchange in the cabinet, with one being about an inch taller than the other, and both being the same width.  Here's the rub though. . . after removing the old fridge, no easy task, and getting it to the door, we found that the frame around the dash and the frame around the door and the rail around the co-pilot position, well, they really weren't planned that well for removing fridges.  It is true that both fridges measure the same width and height, but the new fridge is 1 3/4" shallower, front to back than the old fridge.  It will go in, but the old one isn't wanting to come out!

Larry's looking at the windshield and cussing.  I measure all the windows. . .no go.  He's still cussing. . . I'm figuring, measuring, figuring. . . . THERE'S GOTTA BE A WAY!   We remove the rail around the co-pilot chair, no easy task, and we remove all the hardware and the vinyl strip that keeps the door from opening very far, only to find that it opens just a tad bit more than before.  Crap!

Measure some more .. . "Honey.  .I just KNOW if we can get this old one out that the new one will just fly through that door!   Honey?!?!  Don't LOOK at me that way ."

"Ok, lets rotate the unit up here. . . with me laying on the drivers chair and 1/2 inside the fridge we can just, ummmph, turn it over enough to clear that cabinet. . . OK, got it!    Oh crap!   Didn't notice that little piece there that sticks out so far. . . we're going to have to turn it back the way we had it. . . honey?!?!  HONEY!  DON'T LOOK AT me that way! "

"Ok, let's just try it and see. . . you be on the bottom and I'll be on the top shoving. . . here we go. . .
. . . . hmm, seems stuck. ..
. . .  um, honey. . . it doesn't seem to be moving. . . .honey?  HONEY!?!  DON'T LOOK AT ME THAT WAY!"

Well, he's outside and I'm inside and there's a big butt fridge stuck in the doorway so he can't get in here at me anyway. . . . hmmmm, gonna have to think this one through.   . .  .  Christy Hicks

[Ncbob]

Christy!  Just use your powers of pursuasion and tell the refrigerator to lose some weight over night and try again tomorrow!

Now, I have a doorway stretcher that I would be more than happy to lend you and Larry, but unfortunately you're too far away.

Other than that I can't think of anything I could do to help...except...that Women just DON'T know how to read a measuring stick!
Ask any man.....I believe you know the rest of the story.

I believe I'm going to watch this scenario unfold over the next day or so...simply because there HAS to be a couple of "Gotcha's" in there somewhere!

I'm waiting, anxiously, for Dallas' post......hahahahaha!

Bob

[Dallas]

Christy!  Just use your powers of pursuasion and tell the refrigerator to lose some weight over night and try again tomorrow!

Now, I have a doorway stretcher that I would be more than happy to lend you and Larry, but unfortunately you're too far away.

Other than that I can't think of anything I could do to help...except...that Women just DON'T know how to read a measuring stick!
Ask any man.....I believe you know the rest of the story.

I believe I'm going to watch this scenario unfold over the next day or so...simply because there HAS to be a couple of "Gotcha's" in there somewhere!

I'm waiting, anxiously, for Dallas' post......hahahahaha!

Bob

Gee, Thanks Bob!

All I was gonna suggest is, since Larry is outside and you are inside, and Larry is in "retribution" mode, to leave him outside while you turn on the A/C's and drink those cool beverages that came out of the old fridge before they get ruined by being too warm.

After you have a chance to cool off and to think this through, all will come together and the old fridge will slide right on out.

Or, Larry will get hotter and eventually get the smoke wrench and cut the old fridge out in order to get at you!

Either way, the fridge will exit the coach.

Albeit, maybe not in the expected fashion.

By the way, tell him, if he doesn't already know, ammonia really stinks when you cut the tubes.

Just trying to help!

Dallas

[Hartley]

Is the door On or Off?

I got one stuck, figured out that you have to take the door off the fridge including the hinges to get through the door.

Now that I think about it, I had to do the same thing on the apartment size fridge that I tried to put in the Scenicruiser
and later when I took it out. It just wouldn't bend in the middle around the door operator. In fact many motorhome doors
are barely sized bigger than appliances and stuff must be removed to make room.

HTH....

The big boys pull windshields, It's all part of the process.

[Ncbob]

OOOOOh, Dr. Dave (reloaded)..you really know how to hurt an old bus.  Some of us haven't had our windshields removed in years!

But in all seriousness...sometimes that's the only way to go.

Bob

[HighTechRedneck]

Might want to be careful mentioning windshield removal.  With the frustration mode it sounds like Larry is getting into, the windshield might end up coming out the hard way (or easy way, depending on how  you look at it).   

[larryh]

Hello Christy, and I feel for you Larry but regardless ROFLMAO

Larry H

[mikeH8H-649]

Christy we put our 14 cf refer on the bus last weekend after I measuered and was sure it would fit if I took off the refer doors  NOT  so after a little trying and not wantint to mess up the refer I took the bus door off(took about 10 mins) and it fit with no problems with the door off you gain the room of the door hinge,worked for us anyway   Mike

[Christyhicks]

OK, guess I'll take everyone out of their misery. . . THE FRIDGE IS OUT AND THE FRIDGE IS IN!  Ha ha, after a short break, I gave that sucker a big hard shove while Larry was on the bottom end and she popped on out.  I gotta tell you guys, that was one heavy fridge!   Larry made the comment that that one will probably run longer than the new Norcold we put back in! .  It is a Sibir, and it has more metal in it than any new Dometic or Norcold.  . WOW was it heavy .

Anyway, lucky for us (me), the Norcold was about 1 3/4 inches shallower, so we took it right in (practically just threw it through the door, ha ha ) and slapped it into the hole.  Whoever built those cabinets must have built them just for me, because I was able to remove on thin strip of wood at the top of the hole and the Norcold fit in there like a glove.

Larry didn't tell me, until later, that he examined the windshield carefully during the fridge ordeal, and decided that he sure hated to mess up that nice gasket  , but was preparing just in case I was so determined to get that fridge changed that I'd ask ANYTHING! .  I laughed and said that I would have given up and had him reinstall the fridge if I didn't think he'd be mad I made him do all that work for nothing!   

On and off, during all of this fiasco, I was also removing the tile from the shower.  Anyone who questions whether tile sticks well in a bus conversion should put their worries to rest!   I mistakenly assumed because there seemed to be one loose spot, the rest of the tile would probably come off just as easily. . . WRONG!  I spent the rest of the day with a hammer and large screwdriver popping tiles off. . .one at a time. . . small tiles. . . .a lot of them. .. . a REAL lot of them! 

Anyway, the tile is off, and as we expected (hoped) the stainless steel shower pan wrapped up the wall about 3 inches on all sides, so other than some sanding to remove the loose adheasive, the shower is ready for new tile.  We're still debating whether we want to wait for some tile guys we know to find room in their schedule or if we'll just tile it ourselves.  One of the guys looked at it, but since he is about 6'4" and about 240 lbs, he doesn't think he can fit in there to tile, so we are waiting for his brother who is only 6'1" and 200 lbs  . 

We were exhausted after the fridge rodeo, so we got cleaned up and went to eat, then browsed tile at Lowes for some ideas of patterns and looks.  We will actually have the tile guys purchase our tile for us, whether we lay it or they do, but it's nice to get ideas anyway.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm EXHAUSTED! LOL  Christy Hicks

[rwc]

So was the frig door on or off when all this was happening. Glad that you got it out and in! Hope the new one works well.

[Christyhicks]

was the frig door on or off when all this was happening.

Oh, of course the fridge door was off.  It is a 3-way RV fridge, and believe me, everything possible was removed.  Also, it would have done no good to remove our door on the bus, as it is a 4107 and the hinges are far enough back. . . it was the wood trim on the dash and below the co-pilot window that stuck out too far.  As it was, we followed the angle of the trim as far as we could and although the door wouldn't open quite far enough to stay with that angle, we were able to tilt the top up and the bottom down and just sort of squeeeeeeeeezed it through.  There was no room for a shoehorn. . .believe me,  I checked!

Larry commented this morning that the new fridge sure looks nice inside the bus!  tee hee hee, so I guess the marriage is still on!

We did a little more work today. .  . I removed the tile on the floor, so other than some scraping, we'll be ready for new tile.  I also labeled the breakers in the main box and determined that the coach is indeed wired for 50 amp service, although the genny is wired with just one leg of power over to the main.  This, and the fact that the first day we plugged in, he found a 30 amp cord and used it, he assumed that it was wired for 30 amp.  It does have a 50 amp plug, so I pulled the cover and did some checking and sure enough, that box only controls 1/2 the circuits in the coach, and the remaining ones run off the converter up front. 

Kind of wondering why the genny is wired for 110v instead of 240.  We may switch that around one of these days, although one leg is adequate to power the coach, it surely isn't balanced that way. . . don't know that much about generator output, so maybe it doesn't matter.  Guess I'll have to research that.

Guess I'll keep swinging at getting some stuff done. . .talk to you guys soon.  Christy

P.S.  And, thanks for all the, um, well, support. . .not sure I'd call it support. . . had too much glee in it if you ask me .   

[Clarke Echols]

I was going to make a suggestion, but now it's not needed.

It was, "Don't force it, get a bigger hammer." 

CE

[DrivingMissLazy]

Christy, You do not have to re-wire the genset to get the full output. The transfer switch should connect the output of the genset to both poles of the breaker box.
Richard

was the frig door on or off when all this was happening.

Oh, of course the fridge door was off.  It is a 3-way RV fridge, and believe me, everything possible was removed.  Also, it would have done no good to remove our door on the bus, as it is a 4107 and the hinges are far enough back. . . it was the wood trim on the dash and below the co-pilot window that stuck out too far.  As it was, we followed the angle of the trim as far as we could and although the door wouldn't open quite far enough to stay with that angle, we were able to tilt the top up and the bottom down and just sort of squeeeeeeeeezed it through.  There was no room for a shoehorn. . .believe me,  I checked!

Larry commented this morning that the new fridge sure looks nice inside the bus!  tee hee hee, so I guess the marriage is still on!

We did a little more work today. .  . I removed the tile on the floor, so other than some scraping, we'll be ready for new tile.  I also labeled the breakers in the main box and determined that the coach is indeed wired for 50 amp service, although the genny is wired with just one leg of power over to the main.  This, and the fact that the first day we plugged in, he found a 30 amp cord and used it, he assumed that it was wired for 30 amp.  It does have a 50 amp plug, so I pulled the cover and did some checking and sure enough, that box only controls 1/2 the circuits in the coach, and the remaining ones run off the converter up front. 

Kind of wondering why the genny is wired for 110v instead of 240.  We may switch that around one of these days, although one leg is adequate to power the coach, it surely isn't balanced that way. . . don't know that much about generator output, so maybe it doesn't matter.  Guess I'll have to research that.

Guess I'll keep swinging at getting some stuff done. . .talk to you guys soon.  Christy

P.S.  And, thanks for all the, um, well, support. . .not sure I'd call it support. . . had too much glee in it if you ask me .