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Comment by 1970-01-01

5 hours ago

I thought the same thing. A very small float switch would work here. Somewhere between the radiator and the bumper. Fording depth is different for every vehicle.

Going to move up and down with every bump and pothole

  • Have a rod that pivots in its center and has objects of equal mass at each end, like a balanced seesaw. But make one of the objects very low density (less than water) and other high density.

    Since the densities differ, water will cause the rod to rotate. But since the masses are the same, bumps will create no net torque around the pivot point and thus no rotation.

    ASCII art diagram:

        F------(x)------C
    
        (x): pivot point
        F: float
        C: counterbalance
    

    Also include a small spring to keep the float in the down position.

    I'm sure there are other ways like sensing the electrical resistance of the water.

    Or just let the float sensor bounce. It's underwater when it stops bouncing and is continuously in the up position.