Great post. I think Mesa Verde NP is one of my favorite parks.
But holy cow, Phil, those are some serious batteries! I at first thought you had the Ah wrong, but when I looked the batteries up myself, I could not believe my eyes. Each one of them weigh 135 lbs! That's 270 lbs of batteries, which is an extra 200 lbs over what you had originally! I am pretty sure you get the trophy for having the biggest on the forum.
They are also quite pricey....yikes.
Yes, it is likely that your fridge is consuming battery power when towing because the wiring between your TV alternator and the TM batteries is too small. Increasing the wire size slightly (maybe 10 AWG?) will solve the problem, but if you want to charge the batteries as well while towing, take a look at this thread:
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=10587
We just completed a long trip too. We traveled a total of 7,000 miles -- our elevation ranged from sea level to 10,500 feet, and we crossed the Rockies twice. We always bought the cheap gas and we spent about $1,500 on fuel, but our average mileage was ~13 MPG.
Dave