Looking for advice on refrigerator on rear wall.

[BC1972]

I recently purchased a 2024 Grand Design 417KB all options except full paint. We are about 4500 miles into our trip and our refrigerator has been destroyed twice literally. All shelves broken even in the ones in the doors We also had the freezer drawer break loose and shatter.
We are not doing anything out of the ordinary, driving down the road with typical groceries in the refrigerator 65 or lower, stock truck, stock pin box.
Is here something we are doing wrong? This will be our second refrigerator replacement in two months and Lippert will not give us the third one for free. At $2700 it’s going to be a pinch.
We tried taking the groceries out and emptying the refrigerator and at the end of our drive we opened up the door to find shattered glass and shards of plastic that used to be our drawers.

 

[Calbar]

I recently purchased a 2024 Grand Design 417KB all options except full paint. We are about 4500 miles into our trip and our refrigerator has been destroyed twice literally. All shelves broken even in the ones in the doors We also had the freezer drawer break loose and shatter.
We are not doing anything out of the ordinary, driving down the road with typical groceries in the refrigerator 65 or lower, stock truck, stock pin box.
Is here something we are doing wrong? This will be our second refrigerator replacement in two months and Lippert will not give us the third one for free. At $2700 it’s going to be a pinch.
We tried taking the groceries out and emptying the refrigerator and at the end of our drive we opened up the door to find shattered glass and shards of plastic that used to be our drawers.

This is a rear kitchen unit from what I see and the rear of the trailer will move up and down/bounce much more than any other part of the trailer. We broke 2 bike racks on the back of our 378MBS. I would ask GD and Lippert who put the fridge at the back of the trailer how to prevent this. They should be able to provide an answer. Maybe someone else on the forum will have suggestions for you as well. Sorry I don't have any but I wish I did.

Rob

 

[Riverbug]

Sure seems to me that GD should have to do something about it based on their design. If it breaks when empty, what is the owner supposed to do with it. A suspension improvement or something should be in order I would think. If you haven't weighed the rig, that might be a good idea in case there's any question about how it's loaded that might affect ride or something. Good luck, that's not a great start for a new rig.

 

[WhittleBurner]

I thought I read here that in the fridge manual it says to not tow with a loaded fridge. If this is true than it is inadequate to be in any RV and even the manufacture is aware of it's shortcoming .

 

[BC1972]

That’s the first thing I checked when our first door shelf broke off. It was mentioned in earlier duel fuel refrigerators. These new 12v furrions make no mention about removing food and actually spend pages explaining how to properly buy frozen food and meat. I even had Chat GPT process the manual and asked various versions of that question and I am convinced it’s omitted in my manual. Lippert support also didn’t go that direction when deciding to replace the whole unit the first time.

 

[orbsah]

We use a section of a pool noodle to secure the glass plate inside of our microwave. Maybe something like this would help?

Otherwise, sorry to say, it’s pretty much the nature of the beast with the rear kitchen. You’ll need to take extra precautions to secure everything for travel.

 

[trailrydr]

If it were mine and I wanted a rear kitchen layout, I would remove the shelves/bins from the fridge that keep breaking and get a cooler for any food while traveling on the road.

Otherwise, (maybe) swap out the fridge with one that has replacement parts readily available and more road worthy.

 

[JCR GD]

Maybe some fancy suspension would help but your refrigerator is at the business end of a diving board! Nice layout when sitting still but not so much while traveling. Hope you find a solution.

 

[CedarCreekWoody]

You guys now have me worried that my 22RK could have that same issue as it has a rear kitchen. We don't take delivery until next week so time will tell.

 

[Hoopy Frood]

Rear kitchens have been around for quite a while, but I think part of the emerging problem is the companies going to residential, or 12V compressor refrigerators. I don't think they're built as solidly as the older propane/electric refrigerators, and don't stand up well to the battering of a rear mounting, especially the residential refrigerators. I've read of people having shelving break, even on mid-trailer mounted refrigerators.

 

[poohbear]

I've been on rv forums for many many years and the subject of troubles with rear kitchens has come up often. I would think shocks would help , not completely stop , from my experience with standard layouts. We had a rear bath TT 30 yrs ago and that even slung everything back there around the room.

 

[ajg617]

Hope not residential anyway - we have the Samsung mid-trailer with a very stiff suspension. The reviews on that model (RF-18A5) are not very good. We keep it pretty full when traveling and everything in bins (open space in the bins filled with water bottles) on the shelves. I've had the bins slide around a bit but so far everything is intact. I was shocked to find the heavy steel grate from the stove top on the floor at one destination so I'm guessing that the fridge takes a beating no matter where they are.

 

[Riverbug]

You guys now have me worried that my 22RK could have that same issue as it has a rear kitchen. We don't take delivery until next week so time will tell.

Well, I have to say our current camper and previous model both had rear kitchens. We've had zero issues with excessive bouncing even before I replaced the equalizers and added shock absorbers. Before leaving for AK this spring I also replaced the 3,500# leaf springs to 5,000#, and no issues. We were running at 15% tongue weight on the 22MLE and 17% on the current 23LDE. So, just because it is rear kitchen doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have issue. But clearly the OP does with their model.

 

[jmadren]

These new 12v furrions...

If it's the same as the one on our Solitude 390RK, you need to wedge something into the rear corners of each shelf to keep the shelf stationary. There's a "dip" at the back of the shelf track that the shelf back rail drops into. That's all that's keeping the shelves stationary. A very poor design for any RV, but especially if the fridge is at the very rear. So you need something to ensure the shelf doesn't come out of that dip.

Then as others mentioned, use bins on the shelves to hold items together, then tension rods across the front to keep the bins in place. I had to fashion longer tension rods by removing the inner rod from one set, the rubber cap from the inner rod of another set, then put them together. As a bonus, I trimmed down the removed rubber caps to wedge into the shelf corners. All "empty" space on shelves or door bins needs to be filled, either with empty bins or pool noodle sections or whatever. Nothing has broken in ours since.

 

[RoscoeTX]

You may have thought of this, but make sure the tires are balanced because they are not when the RV leaves the factory. We also have Sumo springs on our 337RLS. Unbalanced tires will shake everything.

 

[geotex1]

The Furrion refrigerators are not built that well. If it were mine, I would be leveraging GD to replace it with another brand or cut a check for the Furrion's retail value. If JC Refrigeration's DutchAir refrigerators are back in stock, probably a good avenue. They actually stand behind their products. FYI - Lippert only replaces complete refrigerators because they have few if any parts available. The units are made in Asia and come over by the container full. Friends bough a Furrion 12V to replace their Dometic AC/LP since they're solar powered. This was a retail purchase. Worked ok for about a month and a half, and then the unit could no longer maintain temperatures. Troubleshooting steps identified the control board (no surprise). No boards available. They were left hanging with a retail purchased unit with warranty that was unusable and Lippert could care less. They had to resort to coolers and ice. After more than 2 dozen calls, Lippert said they'd exchange the fridge AFTER they freighted the faulty one back!!! That's absolutely ridiculous.

 

[RVingwithJessandChris]

I watched a few videos of the 417. It's a really cool layout. However having all the storage up front in the pass through with none in the rear like the 390rk creates a very lightweight rear end more prone to bounce. Don't get me wrong we have had plenty of problems with the 390rk but the refrigerator isn't one of them. It sits in the same location. However ours is the samsung residential model so the shelves are different. That said we pack it well for travel. We use tension rods to keep the items from shifting forward. We haven't had much of an issue with things bouncing on the shelves but we cook a lot so our fridge stays well stocked most of the time. The other thing I would recommend for all forward facing refrigerators is a lock of some sort for the doors. Our samsung has handles and we use a child cabinet lock to hook the door handles to keep them from opening. On our fridge the lock that came on it should have been flipped. To lock it you slide the lock up so much of any vibration movement will cause the lock to fall into the unlocked position. A clear oversight. The newer 12v models like the 417 and 390 have can use a bathroom grip handle with the suction cups on each end. Placed across the door openings will keep them shut during travel.

Now all of this said there is no way in the world I would even offer to pay for a refrigerator in a new rig that GD designed and built that is falling apart. I know there have been lots of issues with the new 12v refrigerator shelves breaking, sliding out, etc. There was also a period that may still be ongoing that many of the control boards failed and multiple units were replaced. Faulty electronics suck. LCI's whoring out of quality to streamline profits as well as their monopoly of the rv component industry is frightening. I would absolutely expect GD to cover this repair until its completion.

Next thing I will add is all full profile Solitudes of this length need to be on triple axle 8k morryde independent suspension with disc brakes standard. There should not be any option built less than this. All other manufacturers do this already such as Luxe, DRV, New Horizons, etc. Yes those units are heavier off the line and New Horizons cost more. A fully loaded Solitude with full body paint msrp is right there with drv and luxe price wise.

 

[pppitiful]

You guys now have me worried that my 22RK could have that same issue as it has a rear kitchen. We don't take delivery until next week so time will tell.

Our new 22RK has had no issues with the rear kitchen in the 3,000+ miles we have towed it since April '24.

 

[CedarCreekWoody]

Our new 22RK has had no issues with the rear kitchen in the 3,000+ miles we have towed it since April '24.

That's encouraging to hear. Hopefully no issues for us.