1st Trip Rpod 171 to Golden State Star Party

But as for items of interest to this forum, I'll share my observations about the trip as to the Rpod 171, towed with my 2009 Toyota RAV4, AWD. This vehicle has a V6 (269 HP) with tow package (transmission cooler, larger radiator and alternator), using a Husky Centerline TS weight-distributing hitch. Here is a photo showing the trailer and tow vehicle after returning home.

The weights of the Rpod 171 and the RAV4 were 3000 and 4250 lbs. respectively as weighed at a public roadside truck scale. These were around 90% of the permitted gross vehicle weights. So the two were carrying a fair amount of weight. The trip started near sea level and encountered 5 major passes and many smaller ones. One of the longest pulls was over the Siskiyou Mountains from Oregon into California. Four of the passes were over 4000 feet, with the highest being 4600 feet. So there were lots of tests of the tow vehicle's power.

I kept the speed to a maximum of 55 mph, which is the speed limit when towing a trailer, but also to save gas. Initially I kept the transmission out of overdrive (5th gear), using 4th for most of the time except when climbing hills. For hills I let the transmission choose the gear, except when it kept hunting between gears. In that situation I manually shifted to the lower gear. There were some grades of up to 6.7% slope. For the steep grades I held the speed at 50 mph, keeping the RPMs at just over 3000. Sometimes the grade was such that the transmission shifted to 2nd gear (5000 rpm) trying to maintain 50 mph. In that case I slowed down to 45 mph. 

If going downhill, I would shift to 5th gear to save gas. In most cases the air resistance of the Rpod would hold the speed down. If necessary I shifted to 4th which kept the speeds within limits. On the return trip I used overdrive, letting the transmission choose when to shift to 4th. On flat ground it selected 4th, only shifting to 5th when there was a noticeable down-grade. It seemed to do a better job of selecting the gear than I could. When an uphill grade was encountered, the transmission seemed to select the appropriate gear for the circumstances. This kept the engine within its maximum torque range of 2200 to 3200 rpm.

Also on the return trip I made extensive use of cruise control. I know that many advise against that. But I found the cruise control and transmission worked great together to keep the speed at 55 mph and the rpms in the appropriate high-torque range. This also allowed me to pay more attention to keeping in the center of my travel lane rather than shifting gears and watching the speedometer. Of course if I noted the need to take control away from cruise, I did so to keep speeds and rpms down on steep grades.

While it was a bit of stress towing a trailer for the first time in many years, I found the combination of Rpod 171 and RAV4 tow vehicle to work quite well. The trailer weight (3000 lbs.) and tongue weight (320 lbs.) were both within limits for the RAV4 (3500 & 350 lbs.). Never did I  notice any increase in coolant temperature. Also the Husky Centerline TS hitch performed very well, with no sway noted during the trip.

The overall gas mileage was 13.2 miles per gallon, which shows the benefit of keeping the speed down to 55 mph. The range of fuel consumption was from 12.5 to 13.6 mpg between fill-ups. For the entire trip air conditioning was in use. Air temperatures were in the high 80's and low 90's.  I am considering making or buying a fairing to ride on top of the RAV4 to make the RAV4/Rpod combo more aerodynamic.

For the next trips I hope my wife will be able to come along. That should make it easier to make lane changes, since she can look behind better than I can using mirrors, especially on the right. I found that the clip-on extension mirrors had a lot of vibration. The standard vehicle mirrors allowed a much clearer view. By moving my head over near the driver's side window I could get a pretty good view of the road behind. In curves both standard mirrors allowed for good views behind. But the clip-ons were used when necessary and were essential for safe driving.

At the star party site, temperature reached a maximum of 96 degrees F. In that environment, the refrigerator on gas would get up to about 41 degrees F. I read somewhere that the Dometic refer. can cool down to as much as 55 degrees below ambient temps. So that is in line with what was observed.

I brought along my my 185 watt solar panel for off-grid camping. This proved to be much more than necessary for the loads. Even running the both the ceiling fan and Fantastic Endless Breeze portable box fan on high during the heat of the day the batteries were kept up to full charge early in the day. This was even with using one of the batteries to power my telescope at night.

So that's about all I can think of at the moment.