How about "Die Hard?"  Rats, that name is already taken!

Jato, you need to give that battery a name soon. At this rate it will be able to apply for its own driver's license!

In our case, we do need power to run medical equipment. I am glad to have a refrigerator that will reliably cool, even if it does mean that I need solar or a generator to keep the battery sufficiently charged to run everything. We don't have an inverter in the Grey Wolf. That is something I am pretty sure we can do without.

Here we are owning the same 177 for over 12 years, in fact the oldest 12v battery turned 12 years old last month, we boondock a lot and both batteries get used a lot as well.  No solar, no generator, no A/C and no microwave/convection.  Simple, functional, we go anywhere/everywhere we wish to go - result is lots of memories made.

Like other things in life, the Rpod served its purpose. It met our needs and then the time came for it and us to move on to new adventures.

But every little thig: where to stand to lift the dog out of the camper? How that new fangled coupler works, how to pull out those damn steps.  lol

My wife really lovesthe ramp patio and larger refrigerator and was really pushing for the new trailer for those features.

We had the pod dialed in and it’s going to take some time to get the Grey Wolf exactly how we want it.

My alternator is 230 amps and the battery make charge.  With the power wire going back to the trailer being so small I wonder how much it could possible draw.  

Would pulling the 30amp fuse on the trailer power lead in the tow vehicle affect anything else besides not supplying power to the battery?

Did you install a DC to DC charger or just drop the battery in place of the LA battery without other modifications?

One at the higher price was fine (I needed batteries so I was going to spend 2-300 anyway so 475 wasn't much more)-- but I was afraid I'd decide to add a second and that would have been too much.

Such an upgrade from my old system: 2 golf cart batteries (heavy!) where I was always pulling to boxes apart to chef the charge level and hauling around my heavy portable solar panel to keep them charged up...not to mention maintenance. 

It's a sweet setup. Thanks again for the advice while I was figuring it out.  :)

I am driving a 2005 tacoma so would guess I don't have a smart alternator.  I had read the newer WFCO s adjust to the LiFePO4 but had seen a post on a different site were someone had a problem, so wanted to reach out before putting one in.   When it comes to electricity i'm almost as green as r poding which consist of two months .  

David

I looked up the WF 8735-AD. Here is what it says:

"WFCO’s proven WF-8735-AD Power Center offers an industry-first, Auto-Detect technology. This new microprocessor-driven technology will recognize lithium-ion and lead-acid battery chemistries and automatically adjust the charging profile to match the battery type."

So, it is a qualified yes. The converter will not have a problem. Solar would not be an issue. The only issue is in charging while driving. "Smart" alternators won't work as they will think the tow vehicle's battery is charged because of the higher voltage of the LiFePO4 battery and cut the charging. That will mean your house battery will be supplying power so you arrive with your battery lower than when you started. You do need to use a DC to DC charger or equivalent to both isolate the house battery from your starting battery and to have the correct charging profile for the LiFePO4 battery if you install one.

The install was simple and everything went as I hoped and it's charging properly with my solar panels.

It's slightly bigger than the group 24 battery I had, so I needed to use a bigger box that doesn't fit as well.  I'm not thrilled with the positioning of it but I'll likely move the battery inside at some point anyway.

Thanks for all the help everyone.