New/Used Pod Owner Lots of questions? |
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TearlessTom
Groupie Joined: 25 Jan 2019 Location: Spanish Fort AL Online Status: Offline Posts: 85 |
Topic: New/Used Pod Owner Lots of questions? Posted: 01 Feb 2019 at 10:26pm |
Hi Everyone,
My name is Tom and I am new to trailer camping or" glamping". I have only camped in a tent so this will be a huge learning curve for me. I/we are from Spanish Fort, AL. Most of my camping was either as a young kid-teens with my family, Uncle Sam, or with my boys at young Cub-Scouts. My boys are now in their 30's so that has been awhile. More recently my camping has been a tent, sleeping bag and what ever I could fit in the saddle bags of either my H.D. or more recently Gold-Wing and always solo. But as the years pass by that ground gets a little hard and cold in my bones. So as you can see this will be a huge upgrade for me even in a small trailer. I have just purchased a used 180 for my better half and me. She is willing to try it so big enough for two but not too much over kill if she doesn't cotton to it and I end up going solo again. I think I have a reasonable understanding of how everything works thanks to watching countless videos and reading this and other forums, but I do have one current concern. My fresh water L.E.D. does not register even when full. It still shows as empty. Is there a fix for the sensor? Thanks |
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Tearless Tom
2017 R-Pod 180 2014 Ford F-150 XLT 2WD 5.0 |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 5:48am |
Welcome to the board Tom. Hope you enjoy your Pod. Use the search system here to answer many of your questions but be sure to set the scope to a wider range of dates than automatically comes up. As for your water level indicator is doing what pretty much everyone's does -- it's inaccurate. There are sensors on sides of the tanks that are supposed to detect the presence off liquid, but the are notoriously quirky. None of the tank level indicators work reliably. You can replace the sensors, but if you research the topic, you may conclude it isn't worth the bother.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Offline Posts: 1446 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 7:08am |
+1 What Fred said. I haven't even looked at my sensors in years. It's surprisingly easy to learn to live without them. Regardless of whether they work, it's a good idea to have a way to add more water to the tank when you're dry camping for several days. (How long a tank full of water depends a lot on how many showers you tank and for how long.) Most places have water somewhere even if they don't run it to your site. So a 5 gallon tote and a funnel or something more imaginative can keep you going indefinitely. TT
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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Motor7
Senior Member Joined: 09 Jan 2019 Location: E. TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 196 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 7:26am |
Welcome. It's worth a look, so crawl under the camper and find the big the white plastic tank, that's the fresh water one(most likely forward of the axle). On one end, you will see some wires kinda haphazardly glued to one end, those are the sensor wires. See if they are all still connected, and any have come loose/detached, that is the problem.
Like the others have said, tank sensors are notoriously unreliable. Some can work perfect for the life of a rv, while others never work, or read a false reading. Coming from a motor-camping background is a huge advantage for you since you already know how to pack small and only with necessities. Getting the wife on board to think and pack small may or may not be so easy I was raised in NOLA, and we had fantastic pralines there, but as a kid I remember always stopping at some kind of big gas station/gift shop near Spanish Fort to buy their pralines when going to and from the Gulf Coast. That was in the late 60's.....and a different lifetime ago. Oh and you might want to try a Hammock. That's all I use now when motor-camping, last trip was three weeks and 5500 miles all but one night in my hammock. I also take it with me when rv-ing and if the site we park in has trees, that's where I sleep. Zero pressure points, backache, etc.
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2016 R-Pod 176T
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mcarter
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Location: Greenbrier, TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 3419 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 9:18am |
Tearless Tom,
Sensors can be replaced, generally to repair you need to ensure wiring is intact to sensor. The monitor is a low voltage circuit that puts voltage to sensor when button is pushed. If it shows nothing the low voltage to the sensor is not present or the ground to the sensor is not present. As suggested first step is to ensure your wiring is intact, then with a button pusher you can do voltage measurement across sensor when monitor button is depressed, that will give you idea of what is going on. They may be inaccurate, but they should work. Good Luck. |
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Mike Carter
2015 178 " I had the right to remain silent, I just didn't have the ability." |
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Shane
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 09 Sep 2018 Location: Northern IL. Online Status: Offline Posts: 98 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 10:35am |
I own a 2018 R-Pod 180 and like everyone else is saying the sensors are not accurate at all. I brought my 180 back to the dealer and had them test them again, they said they worked, but when I took it back out camping for a weekend they were inaccurate. So I figure yes they work, but no they are not accurate.+1 to the 5 gallon tote with a funnel, unless you are hooking up to city water.
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ENGINE 55,TRUCK 44,BATALLION 12
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6289 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 10:58am |
My fresh water sensor is generally accurate in that if the tank is full, it will read full and the level will indicate a decrease as the water is used. Now there are a couple of things. On is the spacing of the sensors. When it is full, it takes a while to stop showing full and display 2/3. Then it does not take nearly so long to drop down to 1/3. Likewise, it does not take long to drop down to E. Then there is generally a good reserve before the pump starts pulling air. I think that is a vortex forming and pulling air before the water level actually is down to the pick-up. Looking at the tank, the pick-up line is an inch or two above the actual bottom of the tank which sags down due to the weight of the water. This works as a general level indicator but is far from an accurate gauge of water level. The gray tank seems to be somewhat reliable, much as the fresh tank is due to there being no solid matter in the gray water (hopefully) to plug the sensors. The black tank is notoriously unreliable. Think about it. There is a little probe that needs to be in contact with the tank contents to read properly. When solids and paper are flushed into the black tank, those can cover the sensors which leads to false readings. Treatment with a good biological agent such as TankTech's Rx or Unique Products' RV Digest-It or some other equivalent product can help break down such things and make the sensors read properly. That is, until more paper, etc. is flushed and the problem repeats. The black tank flush helps, but does not guarantee that the sensors will be cleaned. I agree with making sure the wiring is intact and that the panel is actually getting power. Also that the power is reaching the probes when a button is pressed per Mike's advice above. One thing I just thought of: Do you have your battery connected (proper polarity) and charged? If there is no 12V power, then there will not be any display. Polarity is important because if you connect the battery with reversed polarity, even for a second, there are two 40A fuses in the power panel that will blow to protect the power converter. Then the converter won't be charging the battery or supplying 12V power if they are not connected.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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crw8sr
Senior Member Joined: 12 Oct 2017 Location: Omaha Nebraska Online Status: Offline Posts: 328 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 3:08pm |
Welcome to the forum.
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Chuck & Lyn
Izzy, Morkie. RIP Zoe Joy & Gracie, Yorkie 2018 R Pod 190 2019 Traverse In moments of adversity;when life's a total wreck, I think of those worse off than me and really feel like heck. |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 4:49pm |
+1 to StephenH and mcarter. My sensors work and provide useful service. They are reasonably accurate at the full and empty ends of the scale, granted that they are not that great in the middle ranges.
But if they let you know when your fresh tank is getting empty that provides a warning that it is time to think about finding a water source and dump station. The vast majority of my fresh water ends up in my gray tank so both events occur within about a day of each other for me. Refilling with a 5 gal container will get me about another day, after that my gray tank will need to be emptied anyhow. |
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587 |
Posted: 02 Feb 2019 at 6:26pm |
Our fresh and gray level indicators work marginally but adequately. According to the blackwater readout the virtually empty tank is 3/4 full and has been that way despite the efforts to clean off the sensors with Dawn, ice, chemicals of all types, radiation and witchcraft. Nothing works, but we don't use it much and it's easy enough to monitor through intuition and transcendental meditation.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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