ouR escaPOD mods

Time for an upgrade. Between trips this summer, I noticed that the tire on the door side had picked up a screw right in the middle of the tread. It had not yet gone flat, so I took it to Discount Tire and it was repaired for free even though I had not purchased the tire from them. That is one thing I like about DT. After our second trip, even though the tires were inflated to the proper pressure, I noticed that the outside parts of the tread were quite worn.



The picture does not really show the wear as well as it can be seen in person. In addition, the other tire, while not showing the same extent of wear, also showed some and had one place which looked like the brake had locked and dragged on one spot, which it hadn't. I did not get a good picture of it, so my description will have to do. In addition, when we were on our last trip, another person commented that the tires looked a bit flat. They had the proper pressure, but Forest River elected to install load range C tires. The problem with load range C is that the RP-179 is by itself not too far away from the maximum rated load for the tires. Once it is loaded, it is really pushing the limit. As I understand it, load range C tires can carry 1,821 lbs or 3,640 lbs for the pair. I expect we are too close to that limit. I wanted something with more capacity.

After much searching of different sites, I ended up back at Discount Tire, where I purchased a pair of Carlisle Radial Trail HD ST205/75R14 105M D1 BSB tires. These are load range D and are rated for 2,040 lbs each or 4,080 for the pair. They are mounted and we will be ready for our next long trip.





This leads to a question of how to jack up an R-Pod safely. One is not supposed to use the axle for a jack, but the frame has no good place either. I looked at my setup and saw that the axle-to-riser connection was sturdy enough to hold the weight of the trailer. I just needed to figure out a way to use it while avoiding the axle itself. My solution was to make a block which will go around the axle to let the jack lift at the mount without putting pressure on the axle. It is two pieces of 2x6 pressure treated lumber which was left over from another project. These, I glued and screwed together and notched to allow it to go around the axle and the wires that run to the hub that I could not move out of the way easily. I have used this several times now, and it works well with a small floor jack.



Edit: The sidewall label states the speed capability of these tires as 81 mph (130 km/h), but I will still limit my speed to 60 mph. I'll just feel safer as it also is a higher speed rating than the stock tires.

Time for something that isn't so much a mod as a repair. After reading examples of leakage from the rear spoiler, I thought it was time to take a closer look at mine. This was reinforced when finally, after our trip and some events that kept me tied up, I got around to washing the EscaPOD in preparation for waxing and putting the cover on. When I was washing, I noticed water flowing out from under the spoiler at one of the rippled-up sections. If water was coming out, I figured water had to be getting in.

I first visited Camping World and got some sealant. I got both non-self-leveling/non-drip lap sealant. The only Dicor brand one was a single tube of tan. It was in the close-out area. The other I got was self-leveling Dicor white. Apparently, Camping World is closing out the tan in favor of white. This is too bad as tan was what was used on the Pod initially. In another mod post, I'll explain why I wanted the self-leveling sealant also.

The first step was to make sure I could safely reach the spoiler's screws. These I removed. It was as Is suspected. A lot of the screws showed significant rust. While I had not noticed any evidence of leakage inside, rusty screws meant that at least some water was getting in by that route. So I also visited my local Lowe's Home Improvement to purchase stainless steel screws. I could not find them with the square drive of the originals but I got the right size to replace the original, rusted screws.



Using a putty knife, I carefully removed the spoiler. I found further confirmation that, while the factory sealed around the edges of  the spoiler, no sealant had been applied to the screws or screw holes.



One of the things I was concerned about turned out to not be a problem. I had read that the hole for the wires was not sealed for some Pods. It turns out mine was sealed with a large amount of black RTV sealant.



I used a razor scraper and mineral spirits to remove all of the old lap sealant from the roof of the R-Pod. I also removed as much as I could from the spoiler. I then used Denatured Alcohol to wipe both the Pod roof and the spoiler to prepare it for reattaching. I first spliced the wires since I had cut them to remove the spoiler. Then I laid down a bead of the non-self-leveling/non-run lap sealant, making sure I ran it where the screw holes were. I used a couple of short pieces of heavy wire, one at each corner to help me line up the spoiler. Even so, it was difficult as it wanted to keep shifting until I finally got a couple of screws in. The wires definitely helped but second person would have been more helpful. After getting the screws in, I went back and caulked and smoothed around the perimeter of the spoiler, making sure to leave one small gap uncaulked as a weep hole just in case any water did get under the spoiler again. I cleaned up the areas around where the lap sealant had gotten where it should not have been using mineral spirits or denatured alcohol.

Why mineral spirits? It does an excellent job of cleaning and does not damage either the fiberglass or the plastic. Denatured alcohol does not do as good a job dissolving and removing the sealant, but it is what Dicor recommends for cleaning old lap sealant before applying new sealant. For that purpose, it works great.

I did not get a picture of the finished job as I wanted to get the cover on due to the threat of rain. However, it really is not any different in appearance than it did before. The above pictures tell the important part.

Originally posted by jglynn55 Has anyone checked under the long dinette bench seat. What is under there? Is there any room for storage? rpod 179.

The rope I sewed into the top side and the fabric with it slide into the keder rail. I have to work it around the rain gutter spout on the end and into the "C" shaped section. Once I get it started, my wife pulls on the rope while I continue to feed the fabric into the track until it is in place. Then I adjust the other end to get it around the spout. This is done before extending the slide-out.

I'll try to get a close-up picture, but I won't be putting the cover on for a while since we don't have any trips planned. The rail is essentially the same as that on the other side, except it is smaller. In the meantime, if you right-click one of the pictures, you should be able to save it to your computer. Then use your image viewing program to open the picture and zoom in on it. You should be able to get a pretty clear view of the end.

With the tire and old tire carrier out of the way, I now could mount a Curt Cargo Carrier. The virtue of this model is that the shank is the right size for the hitch receiver on the rear of the R-Pod. It also comes with an adapter so it can be used on 2" receivers, so if I want to use it with my Escape, I can do so without having to purchase additional adapters.

It arrived in pieces. The instructions were straight-forward, so I assembled it. The only part that could be tricky is in making sure that the two base pieces are installed so that the tops of them are flush with the shank. There were complaints in the reviews about holes in the wrong places. I can only assume that those people had the base pieces upside-down. For me, everything lined up and assembly was pretty quick. This model comes with a threaded hole in the shank. The "pin" that goes into the shank is a threaded bolt for part and a longer unthreaded section, presumably to help line up the holes. The threads tighten the shank into the receiver so that it cannot shift. There is a spring clip for the hole on the end, but with the bolt tightened, it really does not do much. A lock could be put through through for security. The last step was to tighten the bolt that was already there to lock the spare carrier so that it would not shift. This, however, went into a second hole. While it would help ensure that the shank could not come out of the hitch, since there was a hole there, it really did not do much good for stabilizing the carrier. The Curt supplied pin/bolt did a good job of making the carrier so that it did not rattle or shift.

The carrier, once installed got a part sheet of polyurethane sealed Lauan plywood to help hold a propane tank and a small bin in which was a gasoline container along with a bottle of Stabil to be used as needed. On the part of the rack without the plywood was a larger bin (Rubbermaid Action Packer) in which was the BBQ grill, awning and slide-out cover fabric and track pins, and our 30A electrical cord along with the Camco circuit analyzer/surge protector. A bicycle lock secured the propane tank and Action Packer. The gasoline bin was not locked, but everything was cinched down with ratcheting straps or other cinch straps. The pictures will show these.





The purpose of the rack is primarily so that I don't have to carry either Propane or Gasoline inside either the R-Pod or our Escape. The total weight on the back is well under FR's stated 150 lb limit. The spare tire rode well in its new location, and the luggage rack on the back was a great addition. Unfortunately, it is a little too short to carry the poles for our awning. We still carry those inside the R-Pod in a bag my wife had made years ago to carry a tent and poles. It is a little short, so she has promised to make one more suited for the length of the awning poles.

Edit: To anticipate what some may be thinking, even though we hit some serious bumps on our trip, the luggage carrier did not sag or shift. The contents rode securely. and the whole arrangement proved to be quite useful.