Hey Gang,
I'm finally starting to build out the interior of my quigley E350 van and looking forward to putting in finished body panels, bed platform, shelves, the roof fan, and cabinets. Obviously a big project that will probably take me to the end of the year at the rate I've been going. Right now I have a passenger bench seat installed and that's about it - so pretty empty and open rig.
Anyway, I have a question about installing my mini fridge: I have a 2.1cf standup whynter fridge which I already bought but haven't installed yet. I went with the standup version (as opposed to top opening chest style) mostly due to price difference, I know they're less efficient but that's where i'm at right now. I just can't justify dropping $800+ on a fridge at this point in the build. I just took the van out for a weekend trip and had some fun a several miles of easy off roading with bumps and ledges and a few streams. As I was driving over all of these fun road features it occurred to me that my passengers in the bench seat were bouncing all over the place.
My fridge contents will also bounce all over the place and probably rattle like a mother F@#$r when I'm doing this. Not to mention the fridge compressor and components rattling and bouncing.
Do you guys have any advice on the best way to install a standup fridge to minimize rattle? I've looked at Jage's page and a few others here on the 4m about dynamat, etc insulation and what not, seems like the noise can be a real problem. Should I try bolting the fridge to a frame that is connected to the body of the van? If the noise and insulation is an issue I was thinking I could make a wooden box that the fridge sits in (picture 1 inch gap between fridge and wooden frame box) and then insulate that 1" gap with foam thus providing some thermal, sound, and mechanical damping to hold the fridge in place. Then use this box as the mounting point for attaching it inside the vehicle. Is that a good idea, bad idea? thoughts?
For the contents of the fridge - I feel like an upright fridge will have way more contents moving around and making noise compared to a chest fridge. Is this the case, how do you guys deal with it, is it super annoying or not that big of a deal? I saw
Jage did a good job with bungie cord that seems like a good start that I might try to adopt.
Since the fridge is not installed yet, I'm also still open to returning it and spending more cash for a chest style (maybe black friday sales etc) but is it really worth it for those who have used chest style fridges vs standup fridges?
Thanks in advance for advice!