Community Forums

Dan Hen · 10-21-2008, 12:05 PM

We had a tragedy in the middle of the night last week. The Pressure fitting on the water pump came loose and dumped at lot of water in the basement/tank area soaking the floor and the insulation. The C Clip that holds the fitting into the pump came off, why I do not know.

How long will it take to dry out the insulation below the gray water Tank, I have the valve cover off for more air flow.

What a way to christen a new trailer!!

Dan

Dan Hen · 10-21-2008, 12:05 PM

We had a tragedy in the middle of the night last week. The Pressure fitting on the water pump came loose and dumped at lot of water in the basement/tank area soaking the floor and the insulation. The C Clip that holds the fitting into the pump came off, why I do not know.

How long will it take to dry out the insulation below the gray water Tank, I have the valve cover off for more air flow.

What a way to christen a new trailer!!

Dan

rockintom · 10-21-2008, 02:34 PM

Dan,

I can't say what exactly causes that....but I've heard about this happening in several rigs. I remember LindaX2 had it happen to them.

I had several fresh water leaks when brand new and I used fans to force air thru the electrical/utility area to assist the drying. rockin'

Workshop · 10-21-2008, 03:01 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dan Hen:

How long will it take to dry out the insulation below the gray water Tank, I have the valve cover off for more air flow.

Dan </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dan I assume when you mentioned having the valve covers off, this to mean the access panels located under the unit? I agree with Rockin', short of removing the insulation__air flow through the area with fan(s) would be the best option. More air flow the better. Pass through air would help remove the moisture quicker.

TXiceman · 10-21-2008, 03:40 PM

Just a word of my experiences with several different RV brands over the years. All of them need some preventative maintenance from the start in the form of tightening water fittings, clamps, hoses and electrical connections.

Shaking down the road is rough on all of the connections.

Ken

sfischer · 10-22-2008, 09:16 AM

Now Ken, you should know to never say "all of them".

I have had our rig since new and NEVER experienced a loose plumbing connection. I have read about many plumbing problems with the Excels. Don't get me wrong, I love the Excels and if I decided to go the fulltime route in a fiver, it would probably be in an Excel. To me, at least, there seems to be way too many problems with plumbing connections in these Excels. Perhaps a bit of extra training, or at least, better quality control is in order.

wrongway · 10-22-2008, 09:53 AM

I don't see the waterline issues being with Excel production itself. When Excel installs all the water lines, they water test right away, attempting to find/fix/repair and issues that they may have. We see water issues in all types of RV's. Some with have them, some won't.
What we see happening is the fitting loosing up after pressure and travel have been put on the connections. The rubber gasket cone on the inside of the fittings will twist a little on tightening up the connection. When pressure and some vibration is included it causes the fitting to backoff as they say, causing a poor connection, and causing it to leak. It somewhat depends on how soft the cone washer is. The softer or warmer the cone the better the connection. The harder the more chance to twist or not compress the fitting.

Now for the C-Clip water pump connection. A sweet idea for disconnecting the water line from the pump without having to twist the lines, but I still prefer the good old threaded ends. The clamp stands a chance of popping out under vibration. A small suggestion to possibly stop this would be to take a oversize hose clamp and just place around the clamp, (Not tighten down to stop leaking, but to tighten and keep the clamp from popping off.) Somewhat a cheep insurance policy from a water explosion.

On your wet insulation. If you look under your unit, you will notice that the underbelly material has small holes in it. This is to help with ventalation of the insulation. Place a fan in your front storage and force some are down around the tanks and this should help you insulation dry out allong with the trap door off.

Good Luck to you.

Lindaxtwo · 10-22-2008, 10:20 AM

Hi Dan,
We know how you feel. As Tom mentioned we had this happen to us last year, while in Texas. Someone came to get me, where I was working and I go back to the rig to see water pouring out of the bottom of the rig.....talk about a sick feeling.After shutting off the water, we borrowed a shop vac, sucked up as much as we could get to and then got a big box fax and put it in the basement to push air through. Luckily the weather was warm so that helped to dry things out too. Repair showed that the clip that holds the hose on had come off. Hope it never happens again...no fun.

TXiceman · 10-22-2008, 11:42 AM

Every RV we have had and that totals 8 now, they have all had either a water line, drain line, gas line or electrical line work loose over a period of time. The worst ofenders seem to be the plasic pipe and hand twist connections.

If it has not happened to you , it is a matter of time.

The one with the fewest problems has been my 29 year old trailer. It is piped in soldered copper for the water lines. Theh only leak has been where the previous owner cut into the copper to attach a new waater pum and used a slip on connection and plastic hose.

My suggestion to anyone with a new RV, is to spend a few hours checking every electrical, water and drain connection they can reach. It can save a lot of heart-aches later.

Ken

Dan Hen · 10-23-2008, 03:56 AM

I have 2 fans runing forcing air from the uilty area down through the valve access panel opening and one under the traler blowing over the small drain holes.

I have put strap ties over the the C clip to ensure it does not come off again, I agree that a pipe theard fitting sure would be more secure than the C clip method.

For those that have not had a C clip problem the strap tie would be insurance to hopefully prevent a water leak .

I am sorry to hear that others have had the same problem with the C Clip.

Dan

Squirrel · 10-23-2008, 05:49 AM

Dan, at least with the old worm gear clamps you always got a warning (a few drips). These new "C" clamps dump the hole load all at once. Hope you get dried-up soon.

The Squirrel

HB Phil · 10-23-2008, 06:38 AM

This is good advice and pretty easy to do too.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dan Hen:
I have 2 fans runing forcing air from the uilty area down through the valve access panel opening and one under the traler blowing over the small drain holes.

I have put strap ties over the the C clip to ensure it does not come off again, I agree that a pipe theard fitting sure would be more secure than the C clip method.

For those that have not had a C clip problem the strap tie would be insurance to hopefully prevent a water leak .

I am sorry to hear that others have had the same problem with the C Clip.

Dan </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dan Hen · 11-12-2008, 03:59 AM

Follow up on soaked insulation. 3 weeks after the leak, we took the trailer to our dealer for some other warenty work and they opened the belly paper and took out the soaked insulation and it was still wet in the area where the water colected. Where the insulation laid on the dealers floor,the floor got very wet from the water in the inulation. I had the valve access panel on the bottom of the trailer off and had a fan blowing down thrugh the utilty area for most of the 3 weeks. Makes me wonder if it would of ever dried out.

Dan

rockintom · 11-12-2008, 07:00 AM

Dan,

Makes me wonder if you have a small fresh water leak. My insulation was absolutely soaked and it was dry with fans and warm weather in about 3 days.

One quick way to check for leaks is to do a "leak down" test. Shut off the shore water and turn on the water pump. Don't use the water while testing for a leak. If the pump "cycles" after some time (could be minutes or hours) depending the size of the leak. Now that I have all my fresh water leaks fixed I can go days without the pump running. When the pressure drops in the system to predetermined point then the pump will run or cycle. If you find you have a leak than, of course, start checking the easy things first and progress to the more difficult areas.
Just FYI. If possible leave your electric hooked up to shore power....when pump switch is on it draws a small amount of current...15-20 milliamps.

Like my buddy workhorse always says...hope this help someone.

On edit....the system went down and I had to come back and dr. this post up a bit.
Thanks Jim for the reminder!