And it has the MC4's embedded in the roof. 

But there is NO 'Zamp' connector anywhere. I have traced some small black and red wires passing thru the fridge compartment and down to the trailer outside lighting harness that appear to head into the roof but I think those are for the roof spoiler lights. 

They are way too small, maybe 22 gauge, so they are not for the solar.

There is also a pair of white wires with black tracer, I followed that line back to the converter and its for the vent fan and some overhead lights inside.

Again, there is no solar connector anywhere on the sides of the pod.

I have swapped in a Battle Born lithium 100ah battery, and I plan to add a portable 100 watt panel, install my own weatherproof andersons, and add a lithium compatible Renogy controller for that, but I might want to add a small panel on the roof, since the connectors are up there. 

Does anyone know what color and gauge of wire are normally attached to those MC4s up on the roof? I assume, maybe wrongly, that somewhere, I will find two wires for connecting to my controller, but I have looked everywhere and I dont see anything.

I COULD cut all the sealant away from the MC4s on the roof, and look underneath to see what they are connected to, if anything, but then I'd have to reseal it and thats a lot of effort if someone here knows what the factory normally does.

Thanks in advance if anyone has information.

If that fails you can use a multimeter to trace which wire pair originates from the roof connection. You know that the wires are going to be routed to the battery somehow, so you don't need to tear into the roof connector. 

What I would suggest is to first use the voltage setting on your meter to see if there is already 12Vdc to the roof. If there is you know that those to wires are already connected to your battery. Start disconnecting wires until the 12V to the roof goes away. If nothing else is also getting disconnected at the same time then those are your two dedicated solar conductors and you can connect the solar terminals of your charge controller to them.

If you don't have 12Vdc at the roof connection point then you know the roof connection is not yet connected to the battery.  You can short the two connectors together on the roof and then use the ohms setting on your meter to see which pair of wires are coming from that point. Disconnect your battery while you're on ohms setting so you don't accidentally blow its internal fuse.  If you show very low resistance with the roof terminals shorted and infintite resistance with them disconnected then you've probably found the right pair. To confirm, remove the roof jumper, reconnect everything to the battery, and also connect the two wires you just found to the battery. Then, make sure that you get 12V to the roof with those two wires connected, and no voltage when they're disconnected, and that everything else stays connected.

And yes, 22AWG is way too small. I would hope they would use at least 14AWG for that. 

Please do let us know what you find. 

I have pulled out all the 'partitions' in the backs of all the cabinets on that side and there is nothing that appears to be cables to the MC4s. If they are there, they are buried deep.

The "zamp" port on my 2015 is directly connected to the smaller pair of battery connection cables, so i was also expecting that might be the same for yours. These look like they are about 12-14AWG btw, no way they should be 22 gauge. 

I'm also surprised that FR has gone to red and black cables. That is going to be really confusing and result in some blown fuses or worse. RV's are supposed to use the NEC wire color convention, which means that the neutral (negative) is supposed to be white. That's what mine has. 

If the roof terminals aren't connected to anything yet there is probably a place somewhere where you'll see a couple of pairs of unterminated wires where you are supposed to put the charge controller, there might be a label there as well. You might take a look around for that.  

Otherwise, I'd call FR and see what they can tell you.  You can try the dealer but they are often pretty clueless about this kind of thing. 

Good luck. 

When I'm working on a 12V DC circuit, I generally consider red to be positive or hot, and black to be negative or ground.

As usual, YMMV, and don't assume anything. Here is another discussion of what you might see:

https://rv-roadtrips.thefuntimesguide.com/rv_electrical/ - https://rv-roadtrips.thefuntimesguide.com/rv_electrical/  

Yeah my dealer is a decent guy, I've known them for awhile, but probably not the go-to guy for solar questions. And he is about 80 miles from me.

I'm fairly knowledgeable with solar, I've done several installs in the past, but this one 'little' issue has me stumped, and being that the unit is new to me, I'm learning as I go. There is a supicious looking 'boxed in' area in the upper cabinet behind the actual Go Power sticker, where the Furrion radio is, but I cant figure out how to get in there without just forcing the panels apart.

Yep the black and red (about 8 gauge I'm guessing) wires to the battery are red and black, and marked with little tags, 'battery positive' and 'battery negative'...no ambiguity there. Of course the house wiring is a lot of white ground wires to a ground busbar, and misc other colors on the AC side, plus romex style to the AC outlets.

Meanwhile I'm adding bubble levels, hanging pockets and little wire baskets, shelving racks, plastic totes, etc, so I'm getting misc things done. I ordered a few items for the trailer so I will be busy for a while, no real hurry on the solar install yet.

But I agree, I woudn't assume anything, check everything with a voltmeter first. 

I found the beefy 10 ga wires, 4 of them, (no markings at all) behind the Furrion Radio, which I had to remove, and found a rats nest of wires back in that compartment. One pair has battery voltage, (with no protection of the cut ends!) and two of them were...zilch. I clipped a 10 ohm resistor across those two, went up on the roof, and voila, 10 ohms reading on the meter!

Then I set one of my panels, a 50 watt Grape Solar, up on the roof, and attached it to the MC4s.

Presto! 22 volts on those wires in the pod radio cabinet!

I made progress...it was just not being able to find those wires that had me bum-fuzzled.

Thanks guys!

By the way I have had good luck with a Renogy Adventurer in my camper truck, with AGMs, but the new version of that controller has LI settings...which basically eliminate 'equalization' and 'float' modes.

It also provides adjustable boost voltage, in .2v steps. Should work out well for the Battle Born LiFePo4.

That is the one I have ordered.

BTW while I was in there, I discovered why the Furrion radio has no AM receive. They run the antenna for the radio thru the TV antenna pre-amp with a splitter, and of course, AM signals dont like that tiny rubber whip antenna on the roof, nor the higher range 88mhz to probably 400 mhz amplifier for the FM radio and the TV signals. Hooked up a shorth length of wire to the Furrion antenna jack and it pulled in local AM stations with no problem.

I'm a fan of AM radio when I can listen to talk shows etc, so I will be adding a seperate antenna for AM, and probably eliminating the connection to the TV pre-amp. I might end up getting an A-B switch just in case I need a boosted FM signal...unlikely since the Furrion radio can sync with my smartphone for all the music I want! 

Yeah I know, AM radio!

I'm old school...

I'm sure the Relogy controller is fine, but I didn't think the Li batteries need any boost charging at all. Just don't allow overvoltage and don't charge if its too cold. And, do you really need temp comp wires for Li batteries? Most controllers I've seen have that turned off for Li. 

With 10AWG wires and what, around 10-11 peak amps solar, your voltage drop should only be 2-3 tenths of a volt, right? Not sure you really need voltage sense wires either. Li batteries are really pretty easy to maintain compared to PbA, the biggest issue is cell balancing which Battleborn takes care of. 

But also, I don't foresee ever fully depleting this thing...my typical use of batteries and DC power is fairly conservative. No trolling motors or microwaves running on inverters. Mainly, just charging the phone and laptop, a wifi hotspot, running a radio or two, some LED lights, etc. 

We've had some cold weather here, but hopefully it will stay warm for awhile now, so the dayime freezing temps below 25 degrees or so should be over with for the season.

I'd be more concerned with bricking a Li battery under freezing conditions, if its cold and discharged and you can't charge it, you'll have a real problem. When I convert to Li I'm planning to put my batteries inside the trailer in the heated space. They don't out gas like PbA batteries do so that should be fine. 

I looked at the "boost" settings for the Renogy Adventurer and it looks like for Li batteries then boost time is indefinite, so its not really a "boost" setting, just a fixed max charge voltage setting. Also, on solar the battery charge rate will be controlled by how much solar irradiance you're getting, not by the battery charge voltage setting. IOW, you can set the charge voltage on the controller where you want it and leave it alone. 

The Battle Born literature calls for a single max charge setting in the range of 14.2-14.6V, no boost, float, or equalizaion required.  LiFePo4 cells have a max recommended voltage of 3.6 V per cell, or 14.4V, which is also Battle Born's recommendation. I'd personally stay a little below that, say at around 3.55 Vpc or 14.2, because overcharging Li batteries can result in thermal runaway, and also because Li battery lifetime is increased if you keep the charge voltage lower than max. The only downside is a very slightly lower available capacity, not a big deal. 

And I'm looking at moving the lithium battery box inside the camper.... that falls under the other options I mentioned. That would solve the temperature and temp sensor issue, and make a bit of space on the tongue frame to put a storage box for chains, jacks, etc. The 171 has limited outside storage space.

The BattleBorn is a lot lighter, so I'm not worried about the weight of it on the inside floor of the trailer, bouncing down the road, and I can mount it on a piece of plywood to spread the load, of course the battery will be in a battery box as it is on the tongue, and inside the forward cabinet under the dinette, near the converter/charger.

Supposedly the LiFePo4 chemistry is less prone to thermal runaway, and during the extreme heat of the summer, or the deep cold during winter, I would think the lithium chemistry would be 'happier' in a stable indoor temperature. 

I know that my lithium-ion drone flight batteries and my lithium e-bike batteries are 'picky' about low temps. The drone simply will not launch if the battery temps are too low. The e-bike has reduced range when it's really cold. Which is fine, since I dont ride it long distances in the frigid temps anyway!

Renogy sent an email advising my controller is on the way, so we are getting close to 'crunch time'!

A couple of LED lights, the radio, and the vent fan, with occasional operation of other lights and USB ports. They have all been running continuously for about a day and still seeing 13.2v on the Battle Born. Of course the 'battery monitor' lights still show Full. 

Back in early February, out in SW Arizona, I used this Battle Born in my other trailer, with some heavier loading, and only saw it drop to 13.1 a couple of times, and it would return to 13.2 when the loads were removed. 

Running a small generator the next morning for a half hour to an hour or so, into a 15 amp charger, the battery recovered quickly up to above 14 volts. Then the solar panels kept it topped it off the rest of the day. 

That's one of the advantages to the LiFePo4: Quick recharge times. So far, I like it.

Please do be sure that your charger is also limited to 14.4V max. 

Do you happen to know if the WFCO unit is internally adjustable? I dont see anything in the manual about that.

It's a 'smart' charger (3 stage with storage mode) and presumably much better than the converter in my old Class A that I had many years ago. That thing could dry up a set of GC batteries in short order. 

The voltages stated in the WFCO manual appear to be within specs of the BattleBorn battery, other than float mode not being needed for the lithiums.

Battle Born states that a 13.2v float (or storage) mode is acceptable. But, I installed a battery cut-off so that during periods of long term storage or park usage, with power applied, the battery can be switched out of the circuit. 

http://battlebornbatteries.com/charging-parameters-chargers-recommend/ - https://battlebornbatteries.com/charging-parameters-chargers-recommend/

The max voltage from the WFCO is supposed to be 14.4V in bulk charge mode, but I've rarely seen mine ever enter that mode. So, it should be safe in terms of not overcharging for the Battle Born I think. 

When I bought this unit, both me and the dealer decided that with about 2 more weeks of possible sub-freezing nitetime weather ahead, it would be a good idea to keep it dry and add water later. So in effect, I'm doing some of the PDI, which I dont mind, I know its done right.

I took my first EVER shower in a 'wet-bath'....yeah it was kinda tight but not too bad really...showers (of any kind) with warm water are a LUXURY when boondocking in the desert or the forest or the lake, when you have no hookups.

Yep....when un-hooked, I use a combination of solar and brief genset use to keep the electrons flowing.

And so far, the BattleBorn is working well during these tests.

http://www.campervan-hq.com/products/battle-born-lithium-deep-cycle-rv-battery-100ah-12v - https://www.campervan-hq.com/products/battle-born-lithium-deep-cycle-rv-battery-100ah-12v

I'm not actually drinking the Battle Born Koolaid just yet, but so far, I'm liking the way its working.

BTW, yes they are spendy, but I bought mine for $800, no tax, no shipping, brand new in a sealed box, at an event in Arizona. 

When you figure the projected lifespan, and the weight savings, and the difference in price between this and say, 2 golf cart batteries, of about the same usable ah, I was willing to take a chance. 

So far, so good. 

Seriously, as long as you keep your pod for long enough to recoup the investment I think you've made a wise selection. Two GC2's will give you more useable capacity than a 100Ah Li battery but it doesn't sound like you need more anyway. Yes I know Battle Born says you can do 100% cycles without negative effect but I don't believe that. I'd stay away from both 100% and 0% SOC  and use no more than about 80% capacity. Read this:

https://www.solacity.com/how-to-keep-lifepo4-lithium-ion-batteries-happy/ - https://www.solacity.com/how-to-keep-lifepo4-lithium-ion-batteries-happy/

I'm not sure how much tongue weight you have in your 171 but I'm really looking forward to the weight savings and getting the weight off the tongue in my 179. The GC2's add 100 lbs to the tongue. Using the Tesla pack I'll get double the useable capacity of my dual GC2s at less than half the weight, a 4x savings, and I can put the weight wherever I want in the trailer. 

You can expect retail costs to continue to come down considerably over time for the current Li technologies though. As a benchmark, the EV manufacturers are paying around $100-$150 per kwh now for Li batteries. So with full battery management systems, packaging and retail delvery we might get down to $250-$300 per kwh in the not too distant future, about 1/2 to 1/3 of current pricing and only about double PbA pricing. When we see that it will almost certainly say made in China on it, maybe Korean . 

Interesting read, most of that info I had already seen, but more info is good.

The WFCO is only bringing the Battle Born battery up to about 13.6 or so, which is of course, fine for lead acid.  I hope and assume that will be enough for my use, for now, but we will see once I get the solar controller and panels installed. 

I say '13.6 or so', because FOUR digital meters read slightly differently, varying from 13.60 to 13.78...its like having four watches that all read different times. The only Fluke I have does not display tenths. Bummer.   

I think there is still ample reason to believe that lithium batteries can get below $100/KWH. Current projections are that will happen in 2020. With so many manufacturers getting into it, we could get well below that in 2023. We will see.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/06/09/100-kwh-tesla-battery-cells-this-year-100-kwh-tesla-battery-packs-in-2020/ - Here is one such discussion .

Use the flooded Interstate as the main RV house battery, as God and rPOD intended, and compatible with the other items like the charger/converter, the monitor panel, and so forth. Leave all the factory wiring as-is. Use the 50w roof panel to float that battery when boondocking. Install a PWM controller in the location provided. Very easy.

Then, install my BB LFP battery in the converter compartment, bolt it down, install my 700 watt inverter in the same area, hook THAT to the BB battery, re-arrange a couple of AC wires from the converter box that power the TV outlet, and provide some DC ports for my radios from that BB battery. That BB battery will be charged with the new Renogy controller and portable solar panel on the ground. 

Also, very easy. 

This option will keep the factory wiring almost untouched, and leave me with two power sources, splitting the loads between them.

I'm liking this idea! 

Thoughts?

You won't need to worry about the Li battery temp if you have it inside the trailer. Just disconnect any loads and charge sources from it while you're in cold storage. One nice thing about Li is that you can leave it at just about any SOC while in storage. Do that with PbA and its a boat anchor. When you want to use it just heat up the trailer a bit before charging the battery. 

Re watching out for SOC, the upper end will take care of itself if you have your controller set around 14.2 or 14.4. Not sure you need to change from the WFCO controller. The only time it might be a problem is if you were relying on the generator rather than solar for charging while boondocking.  In that rare event you could also charge it from your tow vehicle which would give you 14.4V max. 

You probably would want to have your controller keep an eye on the low side SOC so you don't have to fret about that. It looks like the Relogy controller has an LV alarm function but its set at 11.1 for PbA, too low for your Li battery. Not sure if you can adjust that. 

I agree that Tesla and probably all the big auto manufacturers are probably already down around $100/kwh for Li battery cells now in high volume OEM purchasing without packaging, electrical connections, or a BMS.

But for us, small scale packaging, BMS electronics, and retail sales and distribution is going to double to triple that on our little 1 khw batteries vs the 50-80 kwh EV packs. But $250/kwh is way less than $900 and less than some high end PbA batteries cost now. At that point going to Li is a no brainer really. 

Making the cost differential, more or less the same percentage. Or so it seems to me.

But, my crystal ball is on the fritz...so who knows.

I went back out there and put the 'analog' Interstate battery back in the box on the tongue, and test fit the 'digital' BattleBorn battery and battery box inside the converter compartment. After moving one bundle of wires, it all fits very nicely.

There is an LED light at the end of the worm-hole tunnel!

But most PbA batteries are SLI type for regular ICE cars and trucks and there's not much reason to change those over to Li. The big consumers for Li will be EV manufacturers with an increasing amount for grid tied energy storage to balance out renewable power generation.  That's not really displacing any PbA batteries. Our RV house use is small potatoes in comparison. 

Looks like you have a winning location there where you won't have any problem running your battery load cables.  I guess you can still use the roof pv wires you found and just connect them to the exisitng battery cables at the tongue to run back to the new battery location. Can you fit your controller in the converter compartment too? 

I simply dropped in a deep-cycle group 24 into the new battery box in the converter compartment, and ran parallel wires to the factory circuit breaker. 

45 pounds vs about 30 for the BattleBorn. Yeah I know, fumes etc...I can install a vent or move the battery back to the tongue later. But it's only temporary and gives me two batteries, one rated at 101 ah and the other rated at 84 ah. 

This will greatly simplify the solar controller and inverter situation.

The main thing is that I located the wires coming from the roof MC4s...which was the original topic...

BTW, I heard from Forest River via email. 

They will provide no information since I am not, according to them, the 'registered owner' of the VIN on the trailer.

Jeeze.

Not sure I undertand. Are you paralleling the Li and PbA batts?  That wouldn't work out because the voltage vs soc curves are very different. 

The two lead acid group 24s are now in parallel, until I change things...which I will.

Just got tired of messing with it today.

I had this other brandy new group 24 sitting around....looked like a good fit. For now...

The other thing about these lithiums in a towable RV...charge line voltage from the vehicle. Most tow vehicles cant do a decent job of maintaining, let alone charge, a lithium battery in the trailer thru the charge line in the 7way trailer cord. Thats another reason for me to seperate the 12v systems.

And if the fridge is on DC while underway, fo-get-about-it. (small compressor fridges, yeah, absorption fridge nope)

If the battery-to-battery chargers weren't so dang expensive I'd just drop one of those in there.

I think you'd be Ok getting a reasonable charge from the TV even with the fridge on 12V, that takes about 11  and you ought to get 20+ from your alt depending on what gauge wire is running to the trailer. My GC2's seem to always end up fully charged when I get to the campsite and I always run my fridge on 12V while towing. Not because I'm afraid of the propane but because I usually have to go over one of the Norfolk area bridges and they make everyone turn off their propane.  

If by battery to battery you mean dc-dc converters Victron makes some interesting ones but they're all either buck or boost (step down or up) except one which is buck-boost and is really spendy. I plan to get a 24 to 12 buck one to run the trailer 12V circuits from the 22v Tesla battery and a couple of 12 to 24V boost ones to charge the Tesla battery from my TV. 

Yep battery-to-battery or B2B systems aint cheap. Of course I could use a battery isolator but then we get into the voltage drops in those.

 

its a typical early spring day on the OBX, 60 degrees (nice) but wind at 21 kts gusting to 30 kts (not so nice). 

For now, what I did was install the two group 24 boxes, side by side, or, end-to-end if you prefer, but anyway, they are next to each other on the tongue rack. The two group 24 batteries just fit. Wired in parallel and working great. They are both virtually brand new and very close in ah ratings. 

Resting voltage on each was about 12.74 and 12.68 after a night of stand-by use, low current draw, about a half amp total. Combined max amp-hour rating of the two batteries is about 185 ah...and we all know the rule of thumb, about 50% usable. I can live with that. 

I will be moving the battery cut-off switch into the trailer, instead of outside on the other large box, this will allow the batteries to be disconnected from the pod but still connected to the solar controller. 

Plus I got some work done on the 50 watt panel mount for the roof. Aluminum brackets fabricated and installed on the panel, but not yet mounted to the pod. I will add a waterproof anderson connector to the outside for the 100 watt portable panel. The 50 watt panel is mainly for keeping the house batteries 'topped-up' when in storage. 

I will be installing self-drilling screws into the upper most edge of the sides, near the roof seam, where the aluminum frame is, and probably one fastener into the roof near the AC unit, into the aluminum roof spars. I will be adding VHB tape for extra security and sealing everything goot-n-tight. The 50 watt panel JUST fits between the A/C unit and the roof edge, and aft of the top-most curve of the roof.

My truck has 200 watts of solar on the bed cap and two 55 ah AGMs, inside the shell, along with a 700 watt inverter and 2 generators. I will not be needing shore power when boondocking!

When the Renogy controller arrives, I will finish all the wiring to the controller and panel, and cut a big nasty square hole for it in the upper cabinet. 

This project is coming along now, after some plans were made and changed, but it's all on the right track now. 

Turns out that for simple battery charging a small, quiet inverter generator is a nice thing to have. But inverter generators pollute the RF spectrum with noise in the near field. Ham radio reception on the HF bands suffers. Regular open frame jobsite gensets are noisy to the ears, but a lot quieter in the RF spectrum. 

Depending on what I'm doing at the time, I will choose which one to fire up. 

Of course, running the A/C or a microwave, I will run the big 4000 watt unit. But if replenishing the house batteries and NOT using the radio, I can run the little 1000 watt inverter generator. 

It's a trade-off, and besides all that, with the crappy ethanol gas we have to buy now when traveling, it's nice to have options when one of the generators refuses to run when the carb jets get plugged up.

What a pain that can be!

So yeah, one big one, one smaller one. Kinda like hammers or screwdrivers. Pick the right tool for the job at hand. 

I'm looking forward to swapping the Prius for a Bolt or Hyundai EV soon, then I'll be down to only 2 ICE's! Unfortunately, EV's aren't up to towing an rPod just yet.

Ironic....yesterday I watched youtube videos of guys pulling a camper with a Tesla. I left a comment that they should install a Tesla battery pack in the camper floor and double the range!

http://youtu.be/LaZhXXHRmGg - https://youtu.be/LaZhXXHRmGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB2E-nQE7iY - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB2E-nQE7iY

As far as the RF noise....yeah distance helps, and so does grounding, the use of toroids, ferrites, and other noise suppression items, but it turns out the long extension cords act like a very effective 'antenna'...propogating the noise even farther at HF frequencies. And that cord is often within a few yards of the primary antenna.

At one event, our 160 meter antenna was located 600 FEET from our camp and our generator. Six hundred feet of high quality RF feedline. That was a pain to roll out and set up, but it cured the problem. The genset was close to camp, but, no junky RF noise from the gensets at all!

So, we're not there quite yet...

Besides, if we could build and tow a trailer like that with an EV I'd like to have a 400Vdc inverter so I could use energy from the trailer battery to run the trailer when boondocking. You could even run your a/c boondocking without a genny then, probably for 3-4 days straight. 

Or, how about adding a traction motor to the rPod controlled by a strain sensor on the tongue so it went from drive to regen braking based on the force the trailer is pulling or pushing on the tow vehicle?That would basically make the trailer invisible to the tow vehicle, literally you wouldn't know it was even there. 

Two group 24 lead acid batteries (about 180ah) on the tongue. These power the house systems, lights, fan, fridge, water pump, etc. They are charged with the factory WFCO converter/charger and a 50 watt PV panel on the roof and small lead-acid compatible solar charge controller which will be off-setting light use, fridge electronics, etc.

One BattleBorn LFP Battery (100ah) installed in the under-seat cabinet, along with a seperate 10 amp LFP charger for on-grid charging and a 100 watt portable panel feeding into a Renogy LFP compatible solar charge controller. This LFP battery will power the ham radios and one 300 watt inverter. 

Yes all circuits are protected by fuses or breakers. I made extensive use of Powerwerkz connectors, fuses, cables, and meters.

I removed the TV which was in always in the way....I never watch TV, especially when camping...and I am getting rid of that 45 pound boat anchor of a dinette table. Well, some of it anyway, I hate that thing, its heavy, and always in the way...so I ordered a pair of RV style pedestal poles that will be a lot lighter. I will be mounting the existing table top on those two pedestal bases.

I have also mounted the two rear stabilizer jacks on save-a-jacks, and added the jack-e-up unit up front. I also ordered and received a PahaQue r-pod visor, which is gonna be nice on those sunny days.

It has been a lot of work and money involved in getting this all installed and working, but hey, I want and NEED the pod to be able to be used without hookups like my other trailer.

With the 200 watt PV system and two 55ah AGMs on the tow vehicle, I should be good to go!

This BattleBorn battery is electrically isolated (except for a common ground) from the other trailer systems. it has its own charging system, separate from the 'house' systems.

Then you don't have to use any gas to heat the water.  I've used one on a sail boat and if it's warm outside they give you a comfortable warm shower.  

I found that I was initally wasting a lot of water getting the temp adjusted, so I put in an adjustable thermostat and set it at about 106 degrees (a little lower in summer and warmer in winter). After that I only use the hot water valve, no mixing required, so no waste and the flow rate is also reduced. I don't even use 2 gal in the 1.5 minutes. 

I already own a little privy tent, and the 2 gallon garden sprayer with a long hose and a kitchen sink spray head works well....but I'm trying to get away from all the hassle of setting that up along with everything else at a campsite, especially when in transit and boondocking overnight at a walmart parking lot or a rest area. 

If the difference in water use is only 2 gallons (and not carrying all the other stuff) I can live with that, but if I can find a lo-flo showerhead, maybe it will help.

I saw a neat feature in the Rockwood Geo Pro that recirculated the cold water until the desired shower temp was reached. 

I'm planning on changing the thermostats on the water heater to a lower temp 'snap switch'...they are commonly available. On my old motorhome, the water heater had an adjustable thermostat, but the pod doesn't have that. What I do now is just 'cook' the water for 15-20 minutes or so, and then shut off the switch and shower in the warm water with the 'hot' knob on and the 'cold' knob off.

Changing the snap switch thermostats and the shower head should ease up on propane and water consumption.

Like I said, it NEVER ends. 

 

http://photos.app.goo.gl/B1kDh44KjY7vt9N5A - https://photos.app.goo.gl/B1kDh44KjY7vt9N5A