This One Piece of Kit Changed My Long-Term Live-In Troopy Set Up

Explorer and filmmaker, Salty Davenport has spent the last 15 years travelling around Australia in his well-kitted out Troopy. He’s been slowly improving his set up, and recently installed a game-changer – the Enerdrive | Dometic Traveller Power System.

For the past 15 years I’ve travelled all over the country searching for the most remote camping locations in the desert, forest, and by the coast. With the harshness of the places I explore, it’s important to have little luxuries that can still make me feel at home.

For years, my adventures revolved around one critical question: ‘How far is it to the next servo so I can buy another bag of ice?’

It was a constant cycle – pour ice into the esky, empty stale water out of the esky, salvage whatever food wasn’t already marinating in the bottom.

So when people now reach out and ask me how they should modify their car, van, 4WD, truck, or whatever mode of transport they’re taking around Australia, I tell them one thing:

In-car power systems.

These are intelligent battery management systems that source power from a second or dual battery within your vehicle. This power is then converted to 12v so you can charge anything you require. They’re an absolute game changer. 

Whether you’re a weekend warrior or doing the big lap, reliable power turns chaos into comfort. And for me as an adventure filmmaker, power isn’t a luxury. It’s oxygen. It’s charged drones, topped-up camera batteries, friend’s phones, speakers, and of course a steady supply of cold beers from my Dometic fridge freezer.

Enerdrive | Dometic: A System for Everyone

There’s an Enderdrive | Dometic  power system and Lithium Battery for almost every person, rig, and style of travel. 

The Traveller system was the right fit for the small space above my drawer system. I chose the 03 model as I loved the display screen and information it provides me on state of charge, individual load monitoring and the incoming solar to my battery. The Traveller system comes with a DC with solar charger and AC charger allowing me to charge the battery while I’m driving, via a solar panel while stationary or main power before I set off on my journey. The best part is when the system arrived, it was pretty straightforward to install myself or to have installed. 

While that’s running, I have USB outlets available to charge phones, head torches, speakers… basically everything I need for my style of travel.

If I was going to insist on any additions, it’s this:

Put a fixed solar panel on the roof.

Trust me.

Don’t muck around with solar blankets flapping in the wind like a kite. Let the sun do the work. While you’re parked up waiting for a coffee the solar panel is topping up your Enerdrive | Dometic system. And on a five-hour haul to your next destination, your car is helping top up the battery constantly without even thinking about it.

Install an inverter.

This allows you to use 240v items just like you would at home depending on inverter and battery size. 

From Ice Bags to Lithium: My Journey

Ten years ago, I bought my first Dometic fridge. Overnight, I became the coolest bloke in the bush. That fridge is still running today. Now it’s my at-home fish fillet freezer, but back then, I didn’t have the cash for a dual battery system. So every night at camp, I’d crank the fridge as cold as possible and then turn the car off, hoping it’d stay cool through the night. 

I’d convince my mates: ‘Just chuck your meat in my fridge. Should be right for tomorrow’, and then I’d wake up to a fridge sitting at 10ºC. Sometimes 5ºC, sometimes 15ºC. I never really knew what it’d be as it depended on how hot the night was. Every morning was a gamble – thankfully, my stomach survived and so did everyone else’s.

Eventually I upgraded to a basic dual battery system, a huge step up. I knew that warm beers and dodgy meat would be a thing of the past.

Wrong.

The battery was too small for the fridge I was running. Solar blankets helped, but if I didn’t start the car for a day? Back to running the engine for three hours, topping things up, and hoping for the best. Sadly I ran this system for years, just settling and making it work, but it was a real pain, especially once I knew how good it could be.

Enter: The Enerdrive | Dometic Traveller System

Finally, I installed the Enerdrive | Dometic Traveller System, and everything changed. I’ve had it for the last 12 months and honestly, it’s flawless.

I installed my system in the rear of the vehicle above my drawers. I can access it from the back of the car or from the side gull wing window, and it connects to the inverter and dual battery behind the driver’s seat (as I’ve taken out the stock seating).

Here’s how I set it up:

1. The Solar Panel

Since I often park the car and take the boat out overnight, I used to come back to ruined food because the solar blanket had folded itself in half on the roof of my car. My other fear was that someone would just steal it. 

So I mounted a 100W fixed Enerdrive | Dometic solar panel permanently on the roof. Sun’s always up in Australia (don’t fact check that), so it just made sense. I just didn’t realise how much this’d change things.

2. Inverter

My 2000W Pure Sine Inverter is a beast! I can run almost anything off it. It’s hardwired straight to the 300amh Slim Line battery so I simply turn it on and plug whatever I need into the powerboard.

3. The Battery

Enerdrive | Dometic’s Slimline 300Ah Lithium battery is an absolute beast.

The only time I’ve seen it drop below 80% was the night I was charging:

• a dead 100Ah lithium battery from my boat
• my laptop
• my drone batteries
• camera batteries
• my fridge

…and yes, my electric blanket. Because it was a cold night.

I went to sleep with the system at 45% and woke up to it already at 55% – the fixed solar panel was grabbing the early sun before I even got out of bed. Any sun hitting the solar panel is then fed down the wiring as Amps into the Traveller. The Traveller then sends this power into the dual battery to store it for when it’s needed. This is happening all day everyday…free power.

Five Days Parked. 100% Battery. Beers Still Cold.

Right now, as I write this, my Troopy’s been parked in the driveway for five days straight. The fridge and freezer are still running. The battery? 100%.

It feels like I’m living in the future; a future where the sun pays my electricity bill and the Traveller system converts it into the power I need at the time, every time.