Author: StephenH
Subject: ouR escaPOD mods
Posted: 23 Sep 2016 at 8:46pm
This one is another upgrade. One time when we were at Camping World, I had the "brilliant" idea to purchase an LED bulb to replace the incandescent bulb in the porch light. They had one that, by the number, would have replaced the bulb. It was flat with a number of LED's on it. Unfortunately, the pins were 90 degrees off of what the fixture had. "No problem" I thought. "I'll just turn the socket so the pins will be in the right place." RIGHT! It did not work, so off to Amazon to order a new fixture.
Lumitronics LED RV Oval Porch Utility Light
This one was almost the same as the original fixture with two differences. It came with a cylindrical LED bulb and it lacked the heat shield of the original fixture (not needed since the LED generates much less heat). I had already removed the old fixture and cleaned up the old sealant. I laid down a bead of non-run lap sealant, making sure to seal the 3 screw holes. The old fixture had one screw at each end and an additional one at the top-center. The new fixture did not have a hole where the third screw was in the old fixture. I found out why when I attempted to use just the two holes. The right screw hole had been stripped. Whoever installed the fixture just went ahead and drilled a third hole and put a screw in. I did not care for that. It is another case of lack of attention to detail.
I decided to put an anchor in the one hole, so I drilled it out to accept an anchor (one of the one that looks like plastic wings when it is in the package). I finally got that in and got the fixture installed. Again, no picture as it does not look any different. However, the light is nice, and I am waiting until our next trip to see if it performs as well as I expect it will.
One other thing: When I took the old fixture off, it had a label on it which stated that it was not for wet locations. What is the outside of the R-Pod if not a wet location, especially when driving at any speed in a rainstorm? There is no real sealing to these fixtures. I made sure to seal around it with the exception of a small gap at the bottom as a weep hole. However, I may fill that in before we take the Pod out again.
Subject: ouR escaPOD mods
Posted: 23 Sep 2016 at 8:46pm
This one is another upgrade. One time when we were at Camping World, I had the "brilliant" idea to purchase an LED bulb to replace the incandescent bulb in the porch light. They had one that, by the number, would have replaced the bulb. It was flat with a number of LED's on it. Unfortunately, the pins were 90 degrees off of what the fixture had. "No problem" I thought. "I'll just turn the socket so the pins will be in the right place." RIGHT! It did not work, so off to Amazon to order a new fixture.
Lumitronics LED RV Oval Porch Utility Light
This one was almost the same as the original fixture with two differences. It came with a cylindrical LED bulb and it lacked the heat shield of the original fixture (not needed since the LED generates much less heat). I had already removed the old fixture and cleaned up the old sealant. I laid down a bead of non-run lap sealant, making sure to seal the 3 screw holes. The old fixture had one screw at each end and an additional one at the top-center. The new fixture did not have a hole where the third screw was in the old fixture. I found out why when I attempted to use just the two holes. The right screw hole had been stripped. Whoever installed the fixture just went ahead and drilled a third hole and put a screw in. I did not care for that. It is another case of lack of attention to detail.
I decided to put an anchor in the one hole, so I drilled it out to accept an anchor (one of the one that looks like plastic wings when it is in the package). I finally got that in and got the fixture installed. Again, no picture as it does not look any different. However, the light is nice, and I am waiting until our next trip to see if it performs as well as I expect it will.
One other thing: When I took the old fixture off, it had a label on it which stated that it was not for wet locations. What is the outside of the R-Pod if not a wet location, especially when driving at any speed in a rainstorm? There is no real sealing to these fixtures. I made sure to seal around it with the exception of a small gap at the bottom as a weep hole. However, I may fill that in before we take the Pod out again.