New Owner - Used 176

Thanks for the note, much appreciated.

1. Power panel - good to know approximate location. I'll pop off the cover and check breaker and fuses. Will make sure to connect battery properly.

One question I have in regards to batteries. I topped off with distilled water, currently seeing if they will hold a charge. There are two 12v batteries which were disconnected in the plastic battery boxes. What is the common practice for Rpods with dual batteries, hook them up in parallel so you have more battery reserve and automatic recharging? Or do people treat them independently and switch the connection back and forth to drawdown and recharge?

 2. Stove - will try, good reminder about the duration of the air purge.

3. Furnace - will try, good to know about the direct spark, that was one of my questions as to start up, there are a number of small questions that can be figured out, but as there is no manual, it's guesswork and trial and error otherwise.

Temperature - I'll have to try out the furnace vs. the ceramic cube heater. I do have a 1500W ceramic cube heater already, but it is on the larger size so might be a bit big. The furnace kicking on and off night be enough to keep me awake if I go that direction, so I like the idea of a noise offsetting fan.

Congratulations on your purchase.  Like you, when we purchased our 177 back in March 2011 it was a giant leap forward from basic camping.  Battery maintenance is critical to longevity and you will want to make sure your battery or batteries are up to the task, especially if you boondock, like we usually do.  If you have a voltmeter great, if not you can purchase an inexpensive one at Harbor Freight for $ 3 to $5 depending on whether or not you can get a coupon for it.  A fully charged 12v battery should read 12.72v at rest after being charged.  If you go with 2 6v golf cart batteries divide these numbers by half. When we boondock we run the battery until it reads 12.2v or 60% S.O.C., running below that will shorten the longevity of the battery.  At that point we change it out to the other battery.  Your converter will charge the battery as you travel with it hooked up to your tow vehicle.  Yes, when hooked up to shore power your converter will keep your battery (s) charged as well.  We expect 3 days per battery when camping with temps in the mid 40's or less.  It would probably be less if temps are below 32, don't have figures for that as we don't camp when we have to think about getting stuck in snow when boondocking.  Important to keep battery and posts clean with a solution of baking soda and water then rinse off a few times every year.  Keep an eye on electrolyte levels using distilled water.  When charging, slow is best, we use a 2 amp trickle charger.  Our two batteries are 12v Interstate group size 24 deep cycle that will be 10 years old this coming March.  They are real workhorses and have faithfully served us well.

A cube or ceramic heater will be the way to go if shore power is available, they will not work however if you boondock and only have a battery as a power source.  As StephenH points out the propane furnace will drink up a fair amount of propane and is rather noisy.  Then again, noise and warm pod trumps being cold and quiet IMHO.

Quick note to say hi and to introduce myself.

I just purchased an older used 176. It's in decent shape overall but previously sustained some exterior damage and was priced accordingly. It has had some repair done to it, but needs more work and I like projects as fixing things is a great way to learn.

And after having a quick look around the trailer and this site, I have a fair bit of learning to do.

I would guess that I'm probably following a well trod path. I'm a backpacker/backcountry camper from way back and in the last couple of years have started camping in campgrounds to make it more enjoyable for family reasons. I figured I would ease into world of travel trailers and like the concept of the Rpod.

I did a quick trip to pick up the Rpod and did some overnighting for a few nights to do a first test of it. I had to laugh at myself as the whole idea with backcountry camping is to keep things minimal and leave most things behind. Now I have to deal with batteries, electrical, propane, fridges, stoves, showers, etc. I have some basic knowledge of some of these areas, but certainly not in depth. Good thing I like to learn and figure that learning about these concepts will only be more valuable as a person gets more and more in rv'ing.

So far I've been dry camping and using the Rpod primarily for sleeping which seemed like sheer luxury when compared to snow camping in a tent. It's been fine down to about ~20F in my winter sleeping bag, but I intend on using it for a couple of ski trips this winter so at a minimum want to get a reasonable heating system figured out.

I have been reading the site and looking for commonly asked questions so will post some questions there but initially I am looking to test out some of the systems to see how things work. The lack of an owners manual is a bit of a drawback but initially I've pulled the batteries to attempt a recharge and see if they have any life left in them. 

From there, I am a bit fuzzy on how it all fits together and the order of operation, i.e. how is it set up to draw from shore power when plugged in, do the batteries recharge from the shore power and is there a switch or is is automatic, is there a main breaker panel with fuses, etc.

I have some basic questions on the propane side as well, assume that is somewhat straighforward but want to understand how to test main systems such as furnace and stove.

The rest of the things like water and waste tanks I can pick away at and won't be put in use until spring so not a priority. I this point I'm probably more focused on getting either the batteries charged and the electrical figured out when on shore power so I can run a small cube heater or if the propane furnace is simple and reliable enough, I'd be interested in getting that set up.

Some pretty broad based and general questions but any recommended reading or suggestions definitely appreciated.