Proud Owner of New 177 and First Mods

We just finished our first camping trip. What a blast! Everything in the Pod worked perfectly, and we had a great time. We went to the Coeur d'Alene National Forest and camped in the Kit Price campground right next to the north fork of the Coeur d'Alene river. The water was cold but made for an invigorating swim (for me; my wife wimped out).

This trip did teach me something. I will DEFINITELY be modding the Yamaha 2400iSHC to take an external fuel tank. The generator would run our air conditioner, with a slight pause (1.5 seconds) when the compressor kicked on, for about 4-5 hours. That's fine for an afternoon but not if you need AC to sleep at night, which we usually do at home. I know, we're spoiled, but that's why we got the generator in the first place! If not for the AC, my Renogy 100 watt solar panel would keep us charged up with no problem at all.

Speaking of which, with the Battery Tender plugs I picked up at Camping World for $8, I was able to connect my solar charge controller to the Zamp solar port. I'll be mounting the charge controller at the rear-left of the exterior storage and posting some pics shortly.

It is disappointing Yamaha didn't do a better job on the fuel capacity- I mean they kinda market that unit as able to start most RV aircons- but then it won't run one long enough to get a good nights sleep. 
I mentioned above it appears they could have squeezed more capacity in with better design.    Of course FR would have been fine with an 11K AC on the rpods too instead of the 13.5K, maybe even a 9k...thereby needing less fuel.

I think FR buys the 13.5k units in such bulk they get a very low price on them-  just stick 'em on everything and never mind what would be a better engineered match.

Originally posted by WillThrill Speaking of which, with the Battery Tender plugs I picked up at Camping World for $8, I was able to connect my solar charge controller to the Zamp solar port. I'll be mounting the charge controller at the rear-left of the exterior storage and posting some pics shortly.

I new hear as well and was looking into the solar options.I just purchased the same Renogy solar kit as you did except I went with the 50 watt model.

I plan to utilize the factory Zamp port as well,but I would be careful using a Battery Tender plug at that port.The Battery tender Plugs are only 16ga wire and could very easily overheat since the 100 watt system could easily pull close to 6 amps if the batteries were really low.

The Pod itself runs 10ga from the port all the way to the front battery mount area,so it's already quite a distance from the controller which will be at the rear.

I think Zamp rates the POD to 100 watts max anyway in it's current configuration regardless of Solar kit manufacture.

I went with the 50 watt unit as a safety margin and recommended for a group 24 battery.I belive a group 27 and larger can handle more.In any case I would get the 10ga quick disconnect Zamp port plug so the weak link would be eliminated.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057ZQJ12/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am defiantly no expert ,but spotted that in your post and thought I would share my thoughts on the subject.