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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Texman 182g Mods
    Posted: 27 Feb 2019 at 4:09am
Originally posted by texman

does flame treatment to polys have a working time limit?  Would the foam need to be applied immediately after flame treatment to achieve correct bonding? 

Good question. It looks like the work time for PE flame treatment is measured in weeks, or at least days. Shorter is better of course if nothing else to reduce surface contaminate buildup. Of course let it cool down first. 

Here's an instruction guide from a sign company for how to set up the flame. Don't melt the surface, that would bring plasticisers and other chemicals in the tank to the surface, which is bad. It says bond within an hour which is really conservative. It also says to wipe with isopropyl alcohol but I'm not sure that's necessary either. 




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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 2019 at 4:21am
Originally posted by Motor7

Would not a insulated belly pan from the front of the pod to the rear be a better way to go? Something that could be dropped to service the underbelly components? 



I would say this would be the way to go if what we were after was to heat the whole bottom of the trailer. Box it in as tight as possible and then put some floor ducts in and a couple muffin fans and heat everything with warm air from the interior. That's what most "4 season" RV's do.

But here we're directly heating the water and only trying to insulate and heat the fresh tank and the pump supply tube. If we cover the whole bottom of the trailer we'd have about 10x the surface area to lose heat through. And its very difficult to tightly seal a big airspace like that.  In practice, wind is going to blow cold air through there no matter how hard you try to seal it, at which point your insulation becomes pretty useless. If the insulation is in direct contact with the the thing you're insulating then you don't have to worry about cold air getting in between. 
 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 10:23am
i finally had a few hours to work and do some testing on the recirc water project.  Between weather and work, my time has been limited for that last several weeks.  In order to test you have to fill up fresh water and de-winterize. which means when you are done that you have to winterize if freezing temps are coming or just let the system run. 

My plan was to reattach the sensor wires for the fresh water tank.  I discovered a very important reassembly step that i missed.  The red wire that indicates full tank has to be attached before the tank is in place.  you cant get to it once tank is installed.  not a huge deal since getting a full tank reading is short lived, but aggravating to me.  i cant just skip it and move on. 

I also encountered some unexpected problems with the thermostat that controls the hot water heater.  the stat seems to reset(temp reading goes blank on sensor side) i used voltmeter and voltage stays 13.17volts when it trips, so it isnt that. does the water draw a current greater than the stat can handle at ignition?  and results in the water heater staying in DSI fault.  I think i have alleviated the problem by getting power for the stat from the water pump instead of using the power of the heater to run the stat.  I need to test that more, but still has a few tries and resets some times.  if i bypass the stat, the heater works perfect. i even switched the two stats to see if i had a faulty one but both were the same. 

After draining the water tank several times from testing i decided to add a 3 way valve at the supply fitting so i can actually drain all the water from the tank.  i could not source a poly 3 way valve and used brass, which is fine but very easy to cross thread that brass into the poly tank.  i fought a leak at the tank for a while but i think i have it.  my plan is to cover the valve with a faucet protector type covering that will attach to the valve like the faucet protectors do. 

AT this point since i am not happy with my board insulation and cant add the red wire, i think i am going to remove the tank again and start the insulation process over.  the tank insulation and the stat are the only questions at this point. holler if anyone has thoughts on the stat (OG) i will either spray foam the tank or just maybe try all this without tank insulation for a while to measure fuel usage. 
The good news is it all works and the theory is sound, i think.  it was very nice to see the water return through the clear tubing as it returns to the fresh tank and be able to visibly control the flow with the manual valve.  pic is of the 3 way valve that is part of a kit for winterizing by camco.

this would all be much easier if the weather would be easier to deal with.  But the figuring this out will make the weather not such a big deal.  Almost there.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 5:02pm
I don't know what's up with your water heater tstat. 

I pick off the the power for mine from the switched 12V feed to the water heater, and mine doesn't reset when the heater turns on. It retains its settings when I switch off the water heater as well. Also, the relay output ought to be fully isolated circuit from the coil side which is actuated by the tstat control circuit, so any current surge on the relay output should have no effect on the control side. The worst thing that ought to happen is the relay contacts could weld closed if they were carrying too much current. 

So I'm puzzled. I'll try to take a look at the tstat circuit and see if I can come up with something but right now I don't have any suggestions. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 5:16pm
where did you splice the tstat relay ? 1 or 2? i am at 2

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 5:37pm
Can't recall but it really shouldn't matter, its all in series. I'll take a look tomorrow though when I can run over to where the pod is. 

I looked at the tstat circuit and the coil is isolated so any current surge shouldn't cause a reset. 

Can you clarify when the reset occurs and what you're seeing when it does?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 6:08pm
Temp reading indicates “- - - “. Momentarily and then displays temperature again. It is about every 5-6 seconds that dsi is in test mode before lockout. And no spark or ignition sounds. I do hear a click but I think that is from tstat. I verified my ac electric heating for water is off
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Mar 2019 at 6:33pm
Sounds like maybe a grounding issue from the high voltage created by the DSI spark.  If so I'm wondering why you're getting it and I'm not.

You might try leaving the tstat 12V input connected as you had it originally (in the water heater 12V supply circuit) but bypass the relay, turn on the water heater and see if the tstat still gets whacked by the DSI. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 9:31am
texman, my tstat relay also located at (2) in the water heater circuit.

Since I haven't seen the issue and there shouldn't be any connection between the relay terminals and the logic side of the tstat, my thought is that you might have a grounding problem on your DSI electrode. If you read the troubleshooting guide from Suburban that appears to be a fairly common problem. That could cause a high voltage spike to hit the 12V water heater circuit. 


There are a couple of ways to test that theory. The best would probably be to temporarily provide a completely independent 12V source to the tstat logic power terminals. If the tstat no longer gets whacked when you turn on the water heater then that would confirm the hypothesis. If it still gets whacked then it is likely there is some crossover between the relay terminals and the logic circuit/relay coil. That could still be caused by a grounding problem but could also be a problem in those particular tstat circuits or relays. 

Or, you could remove the wires from the relay contact side of the tstat, jump them together, and then turn on the water heater. If the tstat still gets whacked then that would confirm the theory. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Mar 2019 at 10:43am
i have the stat power coming from the water pump.  The ground is to the terminal in the junction box on the water heater frame.  I am wondering if my ground is loose on the heater and causing this.  i tested previously by bypassing the relay on the stat and just reconnecting the red wires and heater works fine which doesn't prove my ground theory.  i think the stat was still powered but i'm not sure.  i tried several things to try and figure it out.  it was working last time i tried, just had more delay starting the heater and the stat still flashed once or twice and then the heater started. 

i was reading the manual and i am thinking the stat is resetting during the purge cycle of the start cycle.  any idea what is happening during purge?  just the flow of propane i suspect for 15 seconds.  ground fault could cause that i think.
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