Introduce Yourself: RPOD 202 2022

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RPOD 202 2022 - Omaha Introduction

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Forum Name: Introduce Yourself
Forum Discription: New Members - tell us about yourself and your r-pod
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=14919
Printed Date: 26 Aug 2025 at 11:58am
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Topic: RPOD 202 2022 - Omaha Introduction

Posted By: nebraskadad
Subject: RPOD 202 2022 - Omaha Introduction
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2021 at 11:10am

My wife and I are new to the RV world. We had been planning on doing so for a long time.

I am within 2 years of retiring. several issues came up this year that made the decision to purchase a little easier.

By trade i am a linux/windows server engineer.. i see this website without an SSL certificate and I cringe i spend my days dealing with certificates and security and want the admin to know I can help fix it.

Our RPOD is a 2022 Model 202. it has the base Solar trickle charge so Forest River could say
"it has solar". I do want to upgrade a lot of that system at some point.

they ( Forest River) put in a $80 12V battery with maybe 10AH is usuable power,. a 10Amp PWM charge controller and a 500W inverter that couldn't power a coffee pot.

I hope to find info from others who do a lot of boondocking or offgrid camping. I want to offgrid. I have a generator and a quiet one, but I personally want quiet . Which is why i intend an solar upgrade as soon as the budget allows.

anyone with Solar background with the RPOD I want details!!

hope to meet some of you as we venture out. I will watch for other RPODs

Replies:

Posted By: jato
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2021 at 11:35am

I cannot help with solar but experience of almost 11 years with our 177. We usually boondock and are judicious with our battery usage. No solar, no generator. Batteries were built 12/2010 and 4/2011 and still perform well. They are both 12v Interstate group size 24 deep cycle. Maintenance is key. I keep an eye on electrolyte levels and fill with distilled water when low. 1x/year batteries get washed with a baking soda solution and rinsed. They are not drawn below 60% S.O.C. or 12.2 volts when we boondock. When one battery gets to that point we switch it out to the other.

For winterization each battery will get a 2 amp trickle charge for 24-36 hours then disconnected and placed directly on the concrete floor in our unheated garage. This happens in early November. The following mid-/April the above process is repeated and the batteries are re-installed for another season of use.

That being said we expect to get 6 days out of both batteries (3days/battery) when night temps are in the upper 30's to upper 40's at night and the furnace gets a pretty good workout. We don't stay in one place more than that and while traveling we can charge the low battery en route to our next destination.

In northern Michigan it would be 'iffy' for solar to work anyway, more clouds than sun where we reside.

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God's pod
'11 model 177
'17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost
Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake
"...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free."

Posted By: offgrid
Date Posted: 08 Sep 2021 at 11:56am

I'm a professional solar engineer (retired) and have been doing off grid solar design for 40 years. So if you have questions fire away.

First step though is always to develop a realistic load energy budget in amp hours.

Get a multimeter with a Hall Effect (DC) clamp on current meter if you dont already have one. You will find it very useful.

Clamp it on one of the battery cables and start turning on each of your 12V load devices one at a time. Record the current each device uses. Then create a little spreadsheet with columns for name of device, current, and time in hours or fractions of an hour you expect to run it each day. Next column is the multiple of the two (amp hours). Add that column up and you have your daily amp hours.

If you want to run some small AC devices from the inverter you can treat that the same way, measure current to the inverter with each load on.

Don't expect to run big AC loads (anything with a heating element in it, your air conditioner andicrowave) as they use more energy than you will reasonably be able to store in a sensible battery system.

Try to forego your coffee pot for example and just use single cup drip coffee filters or a French press.

Plan on running your generator for the micro and a/c.

Once you have a load budget post it here and we can walk through your solar and battery system design.

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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold