R Pod Model RP-179 Departure Checklist

We were only able to use our new RP-179 twice before having to prepare for winter.  I never owned or operated a travel trailer before, so I thought it might be wise to develop checklists for departure and arrival.  So far, I only have the departure checklist completed.  I am posting the departure checklist here in the hope that you more experienced RVers might take a look and tell me if I missed any items.  Feel free to copy my ideas and adapt them to your own R Pod if you desire.  Here is the checklist:

The list looks pretty complete. On Item 27, the lights will depend on the particular controller. On my Hopkins InSIGHT Flex Mount controller, a red dot is present when the pigtail (item 23) is plugged in. Numbers representing the amount of brake force applied appear when the brake pedal is pressed.

For item 16 (refrigerator), I recommend putting the refrigerator on propane while towing. It draws so much power on battery that you risk arriving to your destination with a battery insufficiently charged. The cause is that the wire supplying power from the vehicle to the trailer is usually too small to carry sufficient current to both charge the battery and run the refrigerator. You can search the forum for other post threads discussing this issue.

Welcome to the forum and to R-Pod 179 ownership. We are really enjoying ours since purchasing it last year. We have had long and short trips with it. We have another long trip coming up soon, which will be the first time traveling dry (no water in the fresh water tank). That should be interesting. I've also made a number of modifications to our 179 which have been very useful. Some of them may be of use to you also.

The refrigerator does not consume much propane. The furnace, stove, and water heater are the biggest users of propane. You could run the refrigerator for weeks on a tank of propane if none of the above items were being used. If you take the outside cover off and look, you can see how little the flame is when it is operating.

Great idea!  I will add an "area clear" step to my checklist.

Good point, Bum! While towing, we had a kitchen drainer rack tumble from the counter into that very cavity once. When I began to extend the 179's slide, the kitchen drainer started pushing apart the panel mounted below the fridge. Took me a few more seconds to figure out the heck what was going on. Some damage occured.