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frozen chosen · 12-05-2003, 07:37 PM

Our ranks seem small, MaShep, J. Garrison, and me. I have previously asked for a 16 site, ratherr than being lumped in with all Bambis, but nada.....This seems to make sense, as a Bambi ain't necessarily a Bambi. There is much to discuss, and the manual is little help. Just today I asked AS where the fuse panel is, where the 12 V distribution panel is, do I have one or two holding tanks (manual says 2, website says 1), are these tanks heated by a duct from the furnace? (they don't appear to be), how do I change the halogen light bulbs?, where is the water pump? on and on....
Anyway, I'd like to hear if we have any more 16ers out there in the ether. The few....the proud...

Turtle · 12-05-2003, 07:49 PM

...and the tiny!

How about our own website? Or our own clubhouse. We could get a 25'CCD and a plot of land somewhere where the sun shines, the surf is good and the fish bite.

One of the few. Jamie

MaShep · 12-05-2003, 10:09 PM

... and the confused!

frozen chosen · 12-08-2003, 06:43 PM

I got this response from AS re: some missing items in the manual. I was wrong, the bulbs do pull out. Now to figure out how to change a pull out bulb without touching it with my hand....guess I'll use vise grips. One thing, my thermostat does not have a switch on the bottom.

Brad,
The bulbs for the lights are a pull out type. Do not touch the bulb with your bare hands. This will cause premature failure of the bulb. The fuse panel and 12 volt distribution is located under the bed. This trailer has a single combination black/gray holding tank. The water pump is under the dinette on the road side.
The furnace has a thermostat on the wall. It has a switch on the bottom of the control to turn the furnace power on and off. Turn the switch on and set the temperature, then the furnace will cycle as needed. If you didn't get a manual for the furnace you can contact Atwood 1-800-825-4328 with the model number and they can send one to you.

Turtle · 12-08-2003, 07:32 PM

Our thermostat is on the bed side of the closet wall. It has a temp control sliding tab on the bottom and an on/off sliding tab on top. The on/off tab is very hard to move. Always worried about snapping it off. On is towards the middle. Off is towards the right side. But you should know all of this shouldn't you? Didn't you use the heater on your trip home?

I saw some photos on the Geo. Sutton RV site of some 16's. One had an awning, tv shelf and blackwater flush, all of which my pod is lacking. But that's ok. Still plenty to love about mine.

Someday we should discuss recipes for interesting dishes you can create with a 2 burner cooktop. We took a half gallon of ice cream with us on our trip last month and it did great. Of course it was always cold outside. Precooked the bacon for breakfast at home. Quarts of milk do fine in the refrigeratir door. Refrigerator actually holds a lot of food...

Later, Jamie

MaShep · 12-08-2003, 09:33 PM

Jamie:
Our thermostat is as you described. There's a thread somewhere on the forum that discusses poor quality of the Atwood thermostats.
Our TV shelf has a mirror on it.
Looking at the Geo Sutton web site, some of the images seem to have been manipulated. I did notice some additional things...
Our antenna is on the street side, not curb. Is yours? I wonder what difference this makes, if any?
There's a Bambi Intl. Logo on the back above the license plate holder. This makes three? We had ZERO when we got ours. The curb and street side logos were applied when we had other warranty work, but I guess the Sheps are still short the one on the back. How many do you and Brad have on your units?
I really think it's NOT OK that we need to check about all these things. Granted, some are small, but that's not the kind of quality we thought we paid for.
As the awning story went, we were expecting to have one on ours, but it was delivered without it. We were then actually told the 16CCD was not going to have one. Size engineering problems because the arms need to be attached to the rib.

MaShep · 12-08-2003, 10:06 PM

Another question? Did you get a cover for your propane tanks?

frozen chosen · 12-08-2003, 10:22 PM

Had to go outside and look; ours has 3 Bambi signs, but nothing that says International. It also has a CCD plaque near the front door. The antennae is on the curb side. Our TV shelf has no mirror. The wait to use this thing is killing me. 5 MONTHS! For rciepes, we figure on going local when possible, king salmon season in May (grilled king, salmon cakes), razor clams in June w fiddlehead ferns (pan fried clam steaks (these are 5-6/the pound), clam hash for b-fast; dip-netting for sockeye (grill these with local peruvian blue potatoes...... add butter they turn green, next to the red salmon fillets and you start to hallucinate), fall steelhead, WOOF. Some of our favorite "indoor" pan-food would be dry aged fillets, muscovy duck breasts with raspberry-chipolte sauce, various Sczhuan dishes, and huevos for breakfast. Our daughter will stay with spaghetti w/o sauce (I suspect the mailman).

MaShep · 12-08-2003, 11:41 PM

Hi: Our plaques say Bambi... just like the above pic. The Red, White and Blue stripes are supposed to rep. international (I think). I guess I'll also need to ask AS for the CCD plaque.
Our smoke alarm is in the spot where I guess your antenna crank is located? I'm a little curious to see if it could be covering a hole!?! Sheeesh!
Hey Jamie! Remember when ol' Frozen invited us up North? Sounds like good eats and fishin', eh?

p.s. thanks for taking the trip outside to check on the plates. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Turtle · 12-09-2003, 01:30 PM

Greetings fellow 16'ers,

I have 3 logos. Antenna is on the street side. I wish I could go out and look at our trailer. Can't keep trailer here, lot is too small, which is great when it comes to yard work.
Linda, Is that beautiful sky above your trailer real? We had a few moments of sun yesterday.
I feel ashamed that I ever fixed Kraft Mac and Cheese in the Pod...

Jamie

Turtle · 12-09-2003, 01:36 PM

...the nice aluminum propane tank cover that came with our trailer didn't fit after our weight distribution hitch was attached so we went with a vinyl cover. Actually like the vinyl cover better as it is easier to turn the gas on and off. Jamie

MaShep · 12-09-2003, 01:40 PM

Hi Jamie: The sky in our avatar is real - that's New Mexico last August. The sky in the above post is not, it's a composite from Geo. Sutton's web site.
Wonder why AS switched the side for the antenna?

<mac and cheese> no! maybe Frozen will pity us and invite us up for dinner!

frozen chosen · 12-09-2003, 07:48 PM

Our dealer also found the dist. arms went back too far on the tounge. Never occurred to me to lose the propoane cover, jeez. His solution was to cut the arms down. Turns out they are made of kryptonite and the labor charges were interesting. Worse, I wondered what the effect is of having the arms shortened; my guess would be rather than a WD hitch for 5,000#, mine is now more like 100,000#. If I hook them up, I'll probably be into a reverse wheelie.

pod people · 01-25-2004, 01:50 PM

Hey 16CCD folks

we're about to take the plunge this week and get a 16CCD -

I just wanted to know if you have had any issues with your small, but very cute ASs?

Anything problems to look for on the unit?

Any regrets on not going to the 19' Bambi (CCD or Safari)?

Many thanks

Turtle · 02-07-2004, 05:36 PM

Hello Pod People,

My wife and I love our 16'. We were in Death Valley with it when you posted your question. Hope I'm not too late responding. It was our third trip since we got it in July. Always learning something new. It seems from reading this forum that there will be something not quite right with what ever you get. I've found that if you are the least bit handy most problems can be solved yourself and in the process you become more familiar with your trailer.

We have never felt cramped in it. We need to be aware of where we each need to be so we don't get tangled up. Only one person up at a time usually works.

One thing to consider with the 16', it is great at a full hookup site, but you need to nurse it along when dry camping. In Death Valley the only water was at the entrance to the campground with the dump station. We needed to hook up and dump the tank and refill the water every other day after we showered (showered every other day). We also had to run our Honda 3000i generator about a hour a day to keep the battery up, usually while cooking dinner in the evening when everybody else was running theirs. We ran the heater in the morning for about an hour and in the evening for a couple more. I hear the heater is a battery drainer. We got the Honda 3000i instead of the 2000i so we can run our air conditioner. It's a bit heavy and I got tired of lifting it in and out the truck each time I left camp so I finally decided to just leave it in the back of the truck and just slide it out onto the tailgate when I need to run it.

So, did you get one?

pod people · 02-07-2004, 09:00 PM

The 'pod' came home about a week ago. We been loading it and plan to get away for our
first trip next weekend. We have really been surprised at how much storage space there
is for such a small trailer. It also seems to have more people room than we first thought
(of course - this is my impression in the driveway - I hope I feel the same after a trip or
two!)

We have heard about quality control issues with the internationals - but really have found
very few problems so far. We have been able to solve most of them ourselves - I think
your right that if you are a little handy - you can address most issues. The only problem
that has us stumped is the hand shower leaks at the connection into the wall when
the shower faucet is on. Its a slow leak - it just drips out where the hose is screwed into the short 'L' out of the wall. We have tried everything we can think of - new washers, silicon, etc - but no luck. I
guess the dealer is going to have to address this one.

We are planning on a good bit of dry camping - we were concerned about the small
water and grey/black tank - but if you can make it 2 days - that's not too bad.

Sounds like you had a good trip - Death Valley really is a beautiful place and the weather
is great this time of year.

We're open to any hints, improvements, ideas, etc - this is our first trailer (tents before)
and advice is greatly appreciated.

Turtle · 02-08-2004, 10:46 AM

The shower hose has a built in draining valve at the base of the hose so water drains out after use. Is that where the leak is? If so, it sounds natural. I added a quick shut off button to the handle as a water saving device. I got the shut off at my local plumbing supply store.

I added a kill switch to the CD player. It's always on otherwise and puts out an annoying amount of light at night, not to mention a theoretical drain on the battery. Just a basic 20-amp on/off button at Radio Shack. Just hook it up to the red wire of the CD player.

We also had some foam added to the seat cushions. Click on my photos to see what I'm talking about. We added an inch but maybe more would be a little better.

We made a flat panel curtain for the door to our Pod that we attach with little Velcro tabs. Good for when too much light comes in in the morning or to eliminate that embarrassing silhouette as you get in and out of the shower at night...

We added a small shelf in the closet about half way up the front of the water heater. Good for hats, purses, slippers, or whatever.

Put a paper towel holder in the overhead above the table. We didn't get a toilet paper holder and have just been placing it on the wheel well, but now we're looking for the right one to install.

Let your fellow 16'ers know what you learn and add.

Thinking of the Southwest Desert in late March/early April. Any secrets you'd like to share?

BTW, Our's is christened the Escape Pod or the Pod for short.

Turtle · 02-08-2004, 11:08 AM

Oh, and another thing! The dang fan for the refrigerator on ours was annoyingly loud! Loud! Like a buzzing bug you can't get rid of. It was screwed onto the thin and cheap luan plywood under the kitchen counter (accessible from the outside) which just acted as a sound board amplifying the noise. I moved the fan to the inside of the upper outside access panel. I put disconnects on the wires to the fan, drilled holes (ouch) in the access panel and bolted it on with rubber spacers, hoping that would help on the vibration. Soooo much better but still noisy. Does anybody have any suggestion for better vibration dampeners?

Pod People. That's an excellent name. Love it.

We actually went four days dry camping at Yellowstone (they had shut off the water because of freezing and the dump station was down for repairs).

Jamie

MaShep · 02-08-2004, 11:18 AM

Hey Jamie:
Ditto for the fan. We'll look at ours and see how it's attached. For a fix we just turned off the refridg. to stop the noise. It takes a few minutes to actually stop.
Another annoyance for us was the little green light on the CM detector. I taped a little piece of paper over it and the red battery indicator light near the door. When you are in a small space, little things matter.

I bet a dollar if you call Jim Parrett at Airstream, he'll send you the paper rack right away.
The Airstream customer service number is 877-596-6111.

Great to hear your trip to Death Valley was good.

Linda

thenewkid64 · 02-08-2004, 12:18 PM

One of the ways to quiet down the fridge fan is to replace it with a 24 volt fan. The fan will need to be rated to move 2X the air your 12 volt fan does so that will mean it is a lager fan. Since it is a 24 volt model it will run at half speed without mods. Or get 2 24 volt fans, but then the amperage draw may be a bit much.