Ivynovich

In several different spots in our 1989 Toyota Dolphin, we have a few spots where the exterior wall is separating. I have a feeling it is not a good situation but I’m wondering if anyone has any tips or advice for how to seal it back up. Some pics are attached, all taken from below looking up. We had some mice get in it this winter too (also accepting advice for getting rid of the stench!) and am guessing the gaps provided a convenient access point.

Hi everyone! I am a first time RV owner. Bought our 1990 Dolphin in June, so are entering our first winter. We live in the Twin Cities and temps are dropping so after our trip last weekend had been planning to winterize it for storage. However, a friend called and said that he's renovating their house for 3 weeks in November in Duluth and was wondering about parking our Dolphin in his driveway to stay in. It's even colder up there...temps could reasonably be in the 20's that time of year. He would like to be able to use the water/plumbing for convenience sake. I'm a bit naive on the subject but my gut is saying it's not a good idea, even though I really want to be able to help my friend out. Is there any way this is possible? What should I be considering or thinking about with this? Of note, the previous owner removed all propane systems so unless I'm wrong and the furnace doesn't run on propane, the furnace is not functional. I planned to send a space heater along to heat the interior. It does have a working electric hot water heater and he'll be able to plug in. Thanks in advance for your wisdom on this.

In case people are curious, running the mini fridge of the battery/inverter has worked out quite well. We’ve done a lot of driving (MN to Maine coast and now making our way back west) so the battery had ample opportunity to charge and we were able to run the fridge the whole time we were driving and, except for 1 exception, whenever we stopped. The longest we ever stopped was probably 8-12 hours and I don’t know exactly how much battery life it was draining because I have yet to buy a voltage meter. Makes me think seriously about keeping the electrical setup and getting a bigger battery bank to better support boondocking vs. switching back to propane. Thanks for your insights to help me get started!

Super helpful, so thanks for your responses. The previous owner pulled the propane fridge (and the whole LP system, but the pipes are still there) so we don’t even have it. I’m on a bit of a time crunch as we want to leave in a week on a trip from MN to Maine so trying to come up with a solution to get us through this first trip, then can consider reinstalling propane. If we can come up with a used propane fridge in short order we would consider that. I’ve definitely considered the options WME lists above. The battery box is big enough for just one battery - are you aware of any ways to expand the battery box to allow room for a second battery? Buying a 2000w portable generator is our current fallback if indeed this setup isn’t going to work...so it seems like that is what we’ll need to do at least for now.

Thanks for the responses. This is starting to make some sense. Maineah: can you tell me if I’m thinking correctly? If my fridge is rated at 65w, 115v, that equals .56 amps (=65/115). Based on what you say, I then need to multiply that by 10, so it will draw 5.6 amps from the battery. Obviously there is a surge in wattage when it starts up which is hard to account for, and the fridge only draws when the compressor is running. So say my single group 24 battery is 50 ah but I don’t want to discharge more than half, that leaves me with 25 ah to use. if I run the fridge continuously, 25ah/5.6amps = 4.4 hours that I can run the fridge if the compressor were running constantly. Assuming it runs half the time, I could possibly run it for 8-9 hours on a single charge. That’s assuming Only the fridge so the water pump and lights may drain a bit as well so it will end up being less than that. We will be boondocking but doing a lot of driving so my theory is that we can recharge the battery while driving and then keep the fridge running for 6-8 hours when stopped. Am I understanding this correctly? Is my math correct? Also, does the size of the inverter matter in terms of its power draw, or does it only depend on the load? For example, if I put a 100w load on a 1500w inverter vs. a 1200w inverter, do they draw the same power from the battery or does the bigger one draw more even though the load is the exact same. What I’ve read is that it is the load that matters, but can you confirm?

Hello! Brand new to the forum. Brand new to RVing. I just bought a 1990 Toyota Dolphin yesterday. It’s a beautiful rig but the previous owner made a number of mods to suit their needs and they don’t exactly suit ours. Namely, they removed everything LP, though the main line/fixtures are still there but we now have a 3.2 cu ft mini fridge and no stove. Eventually we may convert it back, but we need to leave on a trip relatively soon so we’re going to attempt to run the fridge off the battery through an inverter and I have some questions. I’ve spent all day trying to figure this out how to make this setup work for us. I think, based on some research, that I’m going with a pure sign wave 1200w inverter. - The battery is on the passenger side under a bench but sealed inside a box. Wires come out of the box and attach to two silver things with small terminal posts (see picture - I know little about electricity other than what the internet has taught me in the last 12 hours, so I don’t know what those are called.) Can I wire the inverter to those things? If so, which of the four posts is positive and negative? If not, how do I connect the inverter since the battery is inside that box? - While driving, with the alternator give enough power to maintain the battery level enough to run the fridge? - There is just one 12v battery installed. Would you recommend adding a second battery? If so, I then have questions about where to install it and how to connect it to the original battery? Does the new battery need to be in a similar box? Could I somehow open up that box and make it bigger? Im sorry for so many questions. This forum has already been a helpful resource for me. I know someone on here named Zero had some posts about running a similar Igloo fridge on an inverter and being able to get a couple days out of a single battery charge, so, Zero, if you’re reading this, help me out