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Old 12-28-2015, 03:06 PM   #1
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Hydro Hot Rear Access - ??Hole in bottom of Coach

Hello All,

Folks are telling me that WRV put a hole in the bottom of the coach to access the back of the Hydro Hot. I have a water leak and need to get to it. If you know about this access and how to open it up please respond here. My S/N shows in my signature file, so it would be a coach around my number with the hydro hot.

EM said it would be sort of visible, but cannot see where anything is standing out. Another fellow said to take a little hammer and tap around that area and the hole will sound "hollow like"?

Also your thoughts on how to keep coach from falling on me when I am under there. Have considered taking it to a shallow ditch and straddling it so even if it comes down, it won't come down enough to crush me. Did not bring my HD jack stands with me.
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Old 12-28-2015, 04:11 PM   #2
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Access hole

Our 07 has a five by fourteen inch hole running N.S. Covered by the fabric on the underside of the motor home. It is located about 40 inches in from the side wall at the wet bay door. Just repaired a loose water line fitting and recovered with a piece of exterior one half inch plywood and coated with flex seal. Used two toggle bolts to anchor the new cover. 1/4" X 4"
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Old 12-28-2015, 04:25 PM   #3
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For access I built a set of ramps from 2X6 material for driving the coach on to to raise the rear of coach by five inches. Provided plenty of room for working. Did not use jacks for elevating the coach, also did not deflate air bags after driving up on to the ramps. Placed wheel chocks on front wheels.
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Old 12-28-2015, 11:03 PM   #4
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Monty, You did not say what kind of water is leaking. Is it water, hydro hot anti freeze or engine antifreeze? Mine is 75723 so it is after yours. WRV did not make an access hole in mine. Somebody said they put them in 08. WRV did not make any way to access the back of the hydro hot, so you have to cut a hole in the bottom. It will not fall on you. There is a 6 foot long piece of angle iron with 2 1/4inch bolts that hold the rear of the hydro hot. To cut a decent hole in mine, I cut both end of angle iron and welded a piece on both ends to bolt back on. If you are on the road, I would not try to cut the angle iron out. Maybe you cut hole in the OSB on both sides of it. I would cut a small hole first short blade in a jig saw. That way you could see in there, so you don't cut any wires or piping. It will not fall on you. WRV did a poor design, not giving any access to the back where the leaks are.

As far as locating the back of the hydro hot, just measure across the top of the hydro hot back to the outside of the coach, then measure the bottom under the coach, there is only a small space between the back of the hydro hot and the holding tank bottom.
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Old 12-29-2015, 06:10 AM   #5
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It is interesting how much WRV varied the basement configurations. On our '05 Limited, 38' FDTS the back of the HydroHot is accessible via the compartment in front of the passenger side rear wheel. There is one of the infamous WRV walls, you know the fabric covered plywood, and the inverter is there too, but once you remove the wall there is the rear of the HydroHot. You have to crawl into the compartment, turn sideways, remove the wall and reach over the inverter (I also rub my head and pat my tummy for good luck, while standing on my right foot &#128591 but you can adjust the mixer valve and access the complete back end of the HydroHot from there. The holding tanks are forward of those compartments with a steel wall in between. There is no access hole from underneath.


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Old 12-29-2015, 10:42 AM   #6
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Monty and I have Apexes, so there is a lot of parts in small area. WRV did a good job of using all the space, but they gave no access to work on the hydro hot.
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Old 12-29-2015, 01:05 PM   #7
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HYDRO-HOT ACCESS APEX & others?
WRV installed the Hydro-Hot on the chassis and then built the coach around it. No access. I had a leak back there and this is what I did. There was a thread on it years ago.

The HH rear view picture was taken on a wrecked coach in Junction City in the body shop. Year unknown. I saved and labeled it for future reference because you sure can't see back there!

TORNADO ROWLETT, TEXAS missed our house by about a mile. Ducked into inner bathroom when alarm sirens went off. Close call
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Old 12-29-2015, 05:00 PM   #8
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Hello to all, and thank you. Need to get it fixed, warmer weather soon, so that is when I will tackle it. Put in the slides, pump up the bags, and then lower the jacks to some boards I have under then now. I will also put a large block of wood under the frame so if the unexpected happens that block will keep it up, still wish I had a place with the old type of oil drain bay in the ground so I could just look up to it and not worry about it coming down. Will report on repair. FWIW I did the sink repair, and some of the scrapes and cuts are still healing, I cussed WRV the whole time.
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Old 01-01-2016, 04:20 PM   #9
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Ok, crawled under there, and if there is an access area, I cannot find it. My next step is to take plyers and pull away part of the floor a little bit at a time so I don't hurt any tanks, etc. There is a 1" access hole, but it corresponds to the hole in the bottom of the HH unit, so that is not going to help much. It seems that there is only a few inches space between the back of the HH unit, and the two waste tanks behind that unit. I am NOT going to just cut/drill into that area without a very good knowledge of the access, hence my taking plyers and pulling parts of the flooring out. Once I have a area opened up, I can fix the plumbing leak, and then take a piece of SS sheet (will have to get from a metal fabrication place) and using very short screws put that in place of the hole I make. I cuss WRV on a daily basis for the crap shoot way this was put together. I have the mid door, so my layout in those compartments is most likely way different in any other design other than a mid door triple slide.
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Old 01-02-2016, 12:34 AM   #10
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Monty I have 07 APEX triple slide mid door and should be the same as yours. I think pliers would be tough chewing into the OSB. I just started with a small hole around the round drain hole and slowing enlarged it as I could see. I used a jig saw with a the shortest blade I could find. I tipped the saw forward so I was just barely cutting through the floor. That is an actual picture from mine.

Right side of picture is front of M/H.
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Old 01-02-2016, 07:11 PM   #11
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Kraig, thank you for the picture, yes, I agree, the OSB is too thick to use pliers on, I have the kind of saw (hack blade type) with the handle on one end and the blade exposed on the other. I am waiting for better weather and not so much wind. I still will be extra careful once I get to this one, we can turn of the pump and not be connected to the city water until I can get there and fix it. Appreciate the picture it helps a lot.
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