Powering my R-pod

We have a group 27 battery in our pod and dry camp in the mountains here in Idaho. Running the heater about 30 minutes a day, water pump and charging dumb phones, battery can go 6 days or so. One can just hook up the tow vehicle to the pod to charge up battery. Single propane bottle lasts about 12 days camping in the mountains. Check out Stanley Idaho some time. IMO it is more beautiful and no crowds and lots of free dry camping.

Here's my opinion:

1. Normal use of a battery depends on what you are planning to use that draws power from it. Since you know you are going to be going up to 3 nights with no power, you could do two things. The first, and more expensive option is to use solar panels to recharge the battery during the day. The second, and less expensive option is to do like I did and substitute two-6V GC2 deep cycle batteries (wired in series to give you 12V) in place of the single 12V battery. This will give you a lot more ampere-hours, and should cover your needs.

2. If you want your battery/batteries (even dual-6V) to last longer than 4 or 5 hours, you should run the refrigerator on propane, even while towing. I know this from personal experience. I only made that mistake once. Most vehicles do not supply enough power to both run the refrigerator and charge the battery/batteries.

3. Days? Think weeks. The refrigerator uses very little propane. Even using the stove occasionally and perhaps the furnace, you are still looking at weeks. We were in our R-Pod this past winter in single-digit temperatures. We went through a lot of propane and even then, the tank lasted a few days.

4. If you are not on shore power (and thus, not using the television), make sure the antenna booster is off. That will eliminate one power waster. Run the Fantastic Fan on low if you need to use it. Better yet, get a stand-alone fan such as the RoadPro or O2 Cool fan which can run on 8-D cell batteries or on 12V power. These use very little power and can help provide some ventilation if needed without using the R-Pod's battery. We have had the RoadPro. It looks like it has been updated to a 5-blade fan which should work better than the 3-blade fan that ours has.

Why an inverter? What are you wanting to run that would require 120V power? Consider whether you need it or if there is a 12V option that would work for you. I run a CPAP machine on 12V power. I could have gotten an inverter, but that would be converting 12V to 120V only to convert it back to 12V with all the inefficiency involved. It is better to run it directly off 12V if possible. If the R-Pod does not already have them installed, consider installing 12V and USB outlets. That would eliminate the need for an inverter to charge cell phones.

Yellowstone is a trip my wife and I would like to make. We are planning that for summer 2018 as this year's travel time is already committed. I hope we can get our daughters to be able to meet us there with their families also. I think that would be great.

Never run your fridge off the battery unless your hooked to a running vehicle, you should be able to run on propane for weeks. The things that will drain Your battery faster would be your fantastic fan and your heater fan.your water heater won't use much electricity either.