Question re Water Pipes in Vintage 5th Wheel

Question

Greetings, we own a 1996 5th wheel, permanently parked in a seasonal RV park. I've been doing a lot of remodeling and upgrades to it. I'm plan to replace both the bathroom vanity faucet and the kitchen faucet.

My question has to do with the water pipes in this rig. By appearance & diameter, they would appear to be similar to Pex. I don't know for sure that they are original pipes, but I believe they probably are. I have attached a couple of pics of the under sink pipes. I measured them using my digital caliper, and they are 0.63". Half inch Pex at Home Depot measures at 0.625", so diameter is almost identical to modern Pex.

I was hoping to use Sharkbite shut offs to connect to my new faucet fixtures, and I bought the compression couplers at the following link, thinking they may work to transition from the grey pipes in this rig, to Pex pipe and then to 1/2",Sharkbite angle stops. Anyone have experience with these grey pipes in vintage RV's? Or have a better suggested method to attach new faucets to these existing pipes? Thanks in advance for any input!

opnspaces · Answer

I got this from a search of the archives. Here's a link to the related post. But I pulled the relative part out and pasted it below as well.

Link

Old-Biscuit

Polybutylene (PB) pipe is the gray tubing that was made between the late 70’s and mid 90’s.
The 'Quest' fittings are no longer made or available

PB pipe outside diameter is same as PEX so push on PEX fittings/valves can be used.
Sharkbite (Home Depot) Gatorbites (Lowes), Flair-It and SeeTech/Watts will all work

joebedford · Answer

Just curious - why not use Sharkbites?

grit_dog · Answer

Don’t use Shark bites.&nbsp;signed, &nbsp;my buddy the plumber.&nbsp;

webby7 · Answer

That was my original plan, but an RV guy on a different forum said that he used Sharkbite once on these older grey pipes and had leaks, so he went to compressed couplers, similar I believe, to those in my link above. So I did buy a pair of those, just in case. I think I'll probably try the Sharkbite fittings, and if there's any issue with them, I have a Sharkbite Removal tool, so I could take them back off and use the compressed couplers to transition from the grey pipe to 1/2" Pex, then to Sharkbite.

I've used Sharkbite fittings over the years on plumbing repairs on RV's we've owned, and also have used them on plumbing at our site-built home. I've never had any issue with Sharkbite fittings to date.

joebedford · Answer

Yeah, I forgot you're dealing with grey pipe. I don't have experience with those. Sharkbite on PEX and copper, I've used with great success.&nbsp;

Forum Discussion

Question re Water Pipes in Vintage 5th Wheel

5 Replies

About DIY Maintenance

Related Content

Water Pump

Identify water heater

Vintage RV upgrades

Vintage Towing -- Testing the Waters

Newbie power question