Issueopen
Tongue-jack casters can bog down in deep gravel
8 months ago
The huge tires on the Pebble should be great off pavement, but the casters on the tongue jack not so much. This I discovered in the storage facility where I keep our unit under cover. The ground is covered in deep gravel, and when I tried to self maneuver the Pebble, the casters buried themselves in the gravel to the extent that the hub motors would strain then switch off. I can envision this happening in sand or mud after a rain.
Fortunately, I keep recovery traction boards in my truck for winter and off-road adventures. One board placed under the casters (hopefully before jacking on a soft surface) should do the trick. Various brands available from Amazon; I have X-BULL.
Re: tires and Pebble remote control... I noticed when attempting to “drive” my Pebble off the flatbed trailer on which it was delivered, that the Pebble did not seem to have much torque on the drive wheels. The slightest raised bump seemed to be tough for the trailer to drive over.
Apparent during unloading as I tried to drive the trailer over the slight raised edge of the ramps we used to create a pathway for the trailer wheels to drive onto the loading dock. It seemed that unless I got a bit of a “running start” there was not enough torque to push the wheels over.
Given that this was my first time remote controlling my Pebble, AND that it was in a bit of a precarious position on a flatbed trailer so I was pretty cautious with the movements, AND I had some tight turns I had to make as soon as the caster wheel cleared the ramps, it is possible I was just too tentative in trying to push it over the ramps. But it did make me wonder if it has enough torque for steep driveways/hills in remote control. I'm in Flatlandistan, so I have no inclines in my parking area on which to test.
I tried to back the Flow up my driveway to get close to my wall charger. Unfortunately, the bump from street to driveway was too much for the motors and they turned off. We have noticed this at different campsites with sand/gravel/big rocks too. Remote control and magic hitch don’t work in certain situations when the motors are pushed.
After talking with Pebble, they have initial systems very conservative and can update over time. Of course, I appreciate the safety aspects of this — don’t want the Flow to ram into anything (it is surprisingly quick).