New 183 g What should we do first ?

Welcome to the Pod world!
you will find a lot of good people here with a huge amount of knowledge and experience.  Read the forum and go back through all of the different sections for ideas.

the first things we did was to make our Pod personalized. We did things that made it easier for us to use our Pod and stay in it.  We did battery upgrades, a bike rack, counter top extensions, changed the bed, added lights and receptacles and many more.  Each mod was designed to make our use of the Pod easier and more efficient.  check out the mods we did in our mod page listed inour signature.

specifically about the refrigerator--we added a small battery operated fan inside the refrigerator to circulate the air which helped the cooling tremendously. We always turn the refrigerator on at least 24 hours prior to using it as it takes that long to cool down to the right temperature. Always put cold food into the unit-never room temp foods.  We also use a high quality(Engel) cooler for our drinks and things that don't need a lot of refrigeration.

As to dry camping, the main thing is to make sure that you minimize the use of the electrical system, be conservative with water and toilet usage.  We use solar rechargeable lights, carry an extra 6 gallons of water, freeze gallon jugs of potable water for ice that can be used for drinking and cooking, installed a small inverter to charge our electronics, installed 2 6v golf cart batteries and use the campground bathrooms as much as possible.  There are lots of good suggestions on this and other forums about boon docking .

You will love your Pod. It is a great way to travel and have fun.

Vann

Glad you upgraded your mattress, that was the first thing we did when we purchased our 177 back in 2011 after our third trip.  We are now starting our 6th year with our 2 12v. deep cycle marine batteries.  We can normally get 3-5 days out of them depending on how much we use the furnace.  If we hit the furnace button a lot . . . 3 days.  If summertime and no furnace . . .5 days, per battery.  A lot of info here about the 6v. golf cart batteries, something we may consider when our current batteries bite the bullet.

Welcome to the group and congratulations!

If you camp a lot without hook-ups then, I would upgrade the battery situation first. Without electricity, nothing works. Since you only dry camp, you may want to look into golf cart batteries (assuming you stay a few days at each place).

Thank you

hi all,