no pod pics i guess... but this is better !

just an update on my recirculating water mod to prevent freezing:

We camped last weekend with two nights into mid 20s F. (Cimarron Canyon NM) I thought that would be a good test so i activated the power to the system and went to bed.  I didn't hear the valves open all night or hear the water heater running so i thought that something must not be working correctly.  so i got up in the middle of the night and ran some water and it was all ok.  so back to bed. 

Next morning i checked the system and all functioning as intended.  Apparently the mid 20s was not cold enough to get the fresh water line to 34 deg F.  I have an insulated tank and water line.  So, i will need some sustained cold weather to get a real test.

link for slides i used

The BAL tire carrier mounts to the pod frame.  no penetrations into the storage area are required to install.  4 bolts total, two on each side.  measure carefully including the thickness of the wheel that you will store because the wheel has to fit it the space between the bottom of the pod and the carrier.

i used self drilling #12 screws (i think)

we had freeze warnings overnight.  so, i turned on the recirc system only, not the hot water heater. That way only the fresh tank water and unheated water in water heater tank would recirc as needed and use no propane.  I figured this would be fine since no extreme lows expected, only around 32 deg and the tank water should be around 55 deg from well water. 

We hit 32 deg around 4 am and stayed there until about 9 am, so five hours.  The sensor in the supply line was at 37deg at 8 am.  Winds blowing 10-15 mph throughout the freezing hours.  I wasn't in the pod, but i don't think the recirc ever came on since the set point is at 34 deg.  We are supposed to freeze tonight and saturday night.  The saturday freeze should be down in the 20s. 

it is nice to have this as the temps fluctuate around freezing and being able to leave the water in the pod and be ready to go.  It should really open up some boondocking possibilities for us at higher elevations.  Everyone seems to complain about the heater noise, but it doesn't seem that bad to me. it only takes a few minutes to heat up the small pod.  So i am hoping i have at least a 3 season pod for boondocking.  I don't really want to camp in the snow anyway. 

I have also insulated the supply tube with regular foam pipe-wrap, I figure it can't hurt! 

Pod Party sounds good, the surrounding states can have the other party. 

The membrane material on the tank is TPO Roofing.  Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) is a single-ply reflective roofing membrane made from polyprophylene and ethylene-propylene rubber polymerized together.  It is 60 mil thick and tough stuff.  it is not the easiest to work with as far as wrapping a water tank on an Rpod, but that is definitely not the intended use for the stuff either.  it normally comes in 10 foot wide rolls in various lengths.  i have a friend in the roofing business that let me have some.  cuts easily with a new razor.  Scissors work but a slow and hard to cut.  i mechanically fastened the TPO to 1" square aluminum tubing that i mounted to the frame at the front and rear of the Fresh water tank. and then fastened the TPO to the POD frame on each end.  The TPO covers the tank including the fresh water supply line.  The fresh water supply line is insulated with Rubber pipe insulation as well.   The Tstat sensor that controls the valves to allow recirculating water is on the supply line close to the tank elbow.  

started with one tank open that weighed 26.4 lbs at 8:45pm Friday and weighed again at 6am 04/01/2019 and had 26.0 lbs.  So .4 lbs of propane used to keep water heater at 78 deg.  This morning temps about 36 deg and the tank sensor read 40.8deg.  So not sure it ever cycled very much at all.  not a good test period, but it did get below freezing for several hours. 

Fresh water tank is wrapped in 60 mil TPO membrane.  Went ok, just not much wiggle room under there.  the recirc water project is complete now.  I will try and post some test data to measure energy usage soon. 

Only thing left is to replace the dinette table top and Pod will be ready to go again.  I have a piece of 1.5" butcher block coming from John Boos for that.