by Pierce Stewart 1993 U300/36′
Here is my 1993 U300 fridge enclosure modification:
I went to Home Depot and bought 4 or 5 1/4″ sheets of Hardie Backerboard. Also bought a tube of urethane sealant plus drywall screws, a sharp box cutter type tool to scribe it and then bend it until it breaks along the scribed line. A few wire clamps to organize the wires also comes in handy.
Never use a table saw as the Hardie board is a fiber cement product and will make a ton of nasty dust. Simple scribing along a straight edge and then bending is an excellent way to make the correct sized panels. I covered every possible area with the board leaving only the outside fiberglass deflector original.
The OEM wiring was like a sea of snakes so I neatened it up a bit. I also had a bit of dry rot around the outside door so I installed several new wood supports. The bottom floor was also a bit weak so I reinforced it before installing the backer board. The two wooden strips shown were to center the fridge in the opening. It took me two days to do the whole thing but that included several hours replacing the wood around the outside access door and the floor as well as organizing the wiring.
Sure, an automatic fire extinguisher could have been installed but it could fail to work correctly. The cement board ensures that during a fire of 30 to 60 seconds, any combustible materials are isolated from the heat and flame.
The amount of ammonia in the system is not great but with lint, rodent nests, and the luan wood siding, a fire of more than a few seconds could spread to the thin luan.
There are almost always RVs on eBay that have suffered refrigerator fires. The toxic smoke from the fire is usually the killer here with a direct flame to skin contact the exception.
If anyone thinks this happens to the “other guy”, here are photos of RV reefer fires in many different brands of RVs. Makes a believer out of the viewer: RV Appraisals & Investigations of America
