Our Bushman DC85-X Review

The Bushman DC85-X has been one of the most reliable pieces of gear we've fitted to our touring setup.

Our main DC85-X lives permanently in the back of the Y62 Patrol and, at the time of writing, it hasn't been turned off in around two years. It has essentially just become part of the vehicle — running every day, whether we're travelling, camping or the Patrol is parked up.

And it's still going strong.

That sort of long-term reliability matters a lot more to us than a list of specifications. When you're travelling full-time and relying on a fridge to keep food and drinks cold, particularly when you're a long way from anywhere, you want something you can turn on and stop thinking about. That's pretty much been our experience with the Bushman.

Why we went with an upright fridge

For the back of a touring 4WD, we've found the 85L upright layout incredibly practical.

There's no fridge slide to pull out and no digging through layers of food to find something buried at the bottom of a chest fridge. Open the door and everything is right there. The shelves make it easy to organise food and drinks, the door storage takes bottles, and the small freezer gives us somewhere for things we want to keep properly frozen.

For an 85L fridge, the usable space is excellent. Bushman lists 79L of refrigerator space plus a 6L freezer, and the door will accommodate upright 2L milk bottles.

It's a good balance for our Patrol because it's big enough to be genuinely useful for a family travelling Australia without taking over the entire rear setup.

Living permanently in the Y62

Ours doesn't have an easy life.

It lives in the back of a 4WD that's used for touring, towing and off-road travel. It's dealt with highway kilometres, corrugations, dirt roads, tracks and plenty of hot Australian days while continuing to operate in the background.

That's where the heavy-duty shelves and simple upright design have worked well for us. Bushman has designed the DC85-X specifically with canopy and off-road installations in mind, including heavy-duty wire shelving and multiple mounting options.

After around two years of continuous operation, ours is still doing exactly what we bought it to do.

There isn't really a more meaningful reliability test we can give it than that.

Power consumption

Power consumption is important for us because the fridge is running 24/7 from the Patrol's auxiliary electrical system.

Bushman quotes average consumption of around 1.3Ah per hour at 25°C ambient with the fridge at 4°C, although actual consumption obviously varies with conditions, installation, temperature settings and how often the fridge is opened.

In our setup, we've never felt the need to turn it off to conserve power. It stays running and is simply treated as part of the Patrol's electrical load.

That makes life much easier when travelling. We don't have to cool the fridge down every time we're heading somewhere or transfer everything back and forth. It's already cold and ready to go.

We bought another one

Probably the biggest endorsement we can give the DC85-X is that we bought a second one.

Our RG Colorado has a lift-off touring canopy, and when we put together the electrical and storage system for that setup, we chose another Bushman DC85-X.

There are plenty of fridges we could have tried the second time around, but after the experience we've had with the one in the Y62, there wasn't much reason for us to change.

The Colorado fridge gives us the same upright 85L layout in the canopy, running from its own dual-battery system. Having the same fridge across two different touring builds also means we know exactly what we're getting.

What we like

The biggest thing is reliability. Two years of continuous operation from the Y62 fridge without giving us a reason to replace it says more to us than anything else.

We also really like the upright format. It's easy to access, easy to organise and makes much better use of the available space for the way we travel. The 85L capacity hits a good middle ground too — plenty of usable storage without needing to dedicate an enormous section of the vehicle to refrigeration.

The small freezer is handy, the shelves have handled life in a 4WD well, and overall it's simply a fridge that we've been able to rely on.

Our verdict

The Bushman DC85-X isn't something we think about very often — and that's probably the best compliment we can give it.

Our Y62 fridge has been running continuously for around two years and is still going strong.

It's travelled with us, dealt with day-to-day use and spent its entire life installed in the back of a 4WD. We've been happy enough with it that when we built the canopy setup for our RG Colorado, we bought exactly the same fridge again.

For our touring setups, the 85L capacity, upright design, relatively low power consumption and proven reliability make it a great fit.

After living with one running 24/7 for two years — and now owning two of them — we'd happily choose the DC85-X again.