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Topic Closedsetting up with shore power only

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esprrssoguy View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: setting up with shore power only
    Posted: 08 Jul 2017 at 8:46pm
Hi everyone. I am going out for my second trip and I could really use some help. I am camping using shore power so i need the steps after i fill my water tank and level and stabslize pod. For example.
1. plug in surge protector and power cord to pod.
Now i want to heat water electricity, use electricity for fridge, and propane for stove. Please tell me in which order? Thsnkyou so much for the help.
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Tars Tarkas View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Jul 2017 at 10:25pm
Well, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking, but one thing: make sure the water heater is full of water before you turn on the heat, especially the electric heat or you'll burn out the element really quickly.  As for the rest, there's no order to it.  I guess the first thing you ought to do is flip the fridge over to electricity if it's on battery.  I think most people travel with the fridge on propane.  If it is on 12v you will run the battery down fast.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Jul 2017 at 10:32pm
Step 1 is good. Turn on your water pump. BEFORE you turn on your toggle switch to heat water in your hwt. Open a hot water Fawcett and wait for the air to be pushed out of the line. Once water is flowing smoothly out of the Fawcett(usually at the sink), shut off the Fawcett and go and turn on your toggle switch to start heating water in the tank. It will take a bit but by the time your finished setting up you will have hot water.   For the fridge, just push the mode button until you have the electric plug symbol on, then push the temp button for coldness.. 1 is less cold 5 is most cold. For the stove, just make sure you open the propane tank and start the stove. I would do the fridge first, then the hot water, then the stove. Good luck
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esprrssoguy View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 12:44am
Thanks Ron. This is what i needed.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 5:50am
If your tv is wired correctly, you can run your fridge on battery while your driving. We do all the time. The only thing you have to watch for is if you stop and shut off your tv, that will drain your battery fairly quickly. We drive with the fridge on battery all the time, most stops are no more than say a 15-20 minute stop, if longer I'd shut off the fridge then restart on battery mode when ready to travel, takes only seconds to do. Good Luck.
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esprrssoguy View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 5:58am
Thank you for your helo.
P
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 12:01pm
My dealer told me not to use the refrigerator on 12 volts. He said the refrigerator is much more efficient on propane, and the burner is small and doesn't use much propane. He also said the 12 volt heater uses a lot of power, and will make your charging system work hard and lower your gas mileage. Not sure how true this is, but I run propane on the road, and switch to 120 volts when we plug in to shore power.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 12:21pm
Running the fridge on 12v is okay if you are sure you have the wiring and amps to handle it, but it will suck down a battery pretty quickly, the one on the Pod and/or the one in your TV, if your alternator isn't big enough or you forget and leave the fridge on 12v overnight.  The fridge uses so little propane there is really no downside to running on propane when you don't have shore power.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 1:18pm
+ 1 on propane vs battery while traveling. From my experience using the battery will maintain what you set the fridge at only for a short time and then you are mostly just wasting power. It will drain the pod battery fairly quickly and if you leave it attached, while drain your car battery too.
We will usually plug the pod in while prepping for a trip a couple days early to cool it off and then use propane. 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2017 at 1:28pm
Originally posted by Leo B

+ 1 on propane vs battery while traveling. From my experience using the battery will maintain what you set the fridge at only for a short time and then you are mostly just wasting power. It will drain the pod battery fairly quickly and if you leave it attached, while drain your car battery too.
We will usually plug the pod in while prepping for a trip a couple days early to cool it off and then use propane.
To each his own, as they say. However, our TV has a 200 amp alternator (previously posted as 110 amp; I was wrong), and automatically disconnects the power after ignition off. I would never be comfortable running the propane while traveling, even though a lot of people say otherwise. In fact, we keep the propane valve closed while on the road. We have both seen a few "propane incidents", and it's just something we are aware of. Perhaps the probability of an incident are low, but the issue of running down an R-pod battery seems less risky to us.
bp
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