Today - Fresh Water holding tank removal, evaluation, replacement installation and system test. Fresh Water Hand Pump test.
But before we get into that, might I just say after yesterday's assertion, I DID get back on the roof-edge epoxy work, here's my evidence.
I know - it's not good evidence, and it won't hold up in court, but what does these days?
Secondly, No - I did NOT mow the lawn, so sue me! Upon further inspection, it was just not long enough. You know how that kind of adds work if it's too short? You're looking through the differing shadows cast by the different directions you are walking and you start wondering where the cut edge is and you have to stop and look and think and such? Well, that's not MY idea of a fun Father's Day. No sir! Save that for a couple days when it's longer and and you can walk around behind the power tools kinda brain dead you know? Now THAT'S fun!
Instead, I was kind of feeling the water thing still. And before breakfast I was out at the bench working that grey water cap retainer chain deal.
I found a suitable chain attached to the unused gravity fill from Lil' Queeny in my tote box storage.
I did some finagling, but when I installed it on the camper the other eyelet broke from the chain. Darn it! Stupid thing. Well the only thing I could find was some twisted copper wire from an electrical fixture we had saved. I don't really like this, but it is kinda Tom-Mater-like, and it might grow on me. At least we'll know where the cap is! So this will probably get changed in future.
Hey I have a lot of pictures today. And this ain't gonna do itself, so we better get to it.
Three days ago, in real-world time, I took these pictures of the fresh water tank system.
Almost fully to the street side, it's hard to get to the connections, the weight is not centered to the trailer, but it allows half-access to the under-bench storage through the standard factory cabinet door.
Oh did I mention it's metal? Galvanized, so it won't rust, until it does. But you know - is metal safe? Probably just fine, for wash water. Cooking? Meh. Maybe. Did you boil it? Or just heat it up. Did you distill it? To get out the chemical and metal suspension particles? Or are you gonna call your water "fortified with minerals"?
But it's cool! And very Tow-Mater-like right? Well, we can justify anything as long as we have a story to tell.
Here's where it connects to the line going into the galley base cabinet.
Let's get it out for exam.
There are nailed cleats holding the tank in position, so this has to come out first to be able to shift the tank, to remove the filler fixture without damaging the camper siding.
The drain valve came off pretty easy...
And the nipple loosened good too, but it stripped something in the tank and was just loosey-goosey.
But the 1.5" nipple into the street elbow would NOT budge! And began the breakdown of the elbow flange brazing to the tank! I even tried heat, although I'm not sure a gun did enough, and maybe a propane torch would have done better. But you know me and fire!
Had to remove the fixture without extra wiggle room, and it came right off!
I did get an open-end wrench in here and the copper flare connection came off easy. Yes!
With the outside drain-valve and fill-fixture removed, I could finally budge the tank enough and was able to contort it to remove. What was this?
Wow, 28 gauge!
But what is this?
Well! This will not do! And that makes a decision easy.
And the what? Aluminum brazing? Cracked here, where the flange is fastened to the tank surface.
But THIS is in good shape. It would be nice to reuse it. You know, that whole continuity of "old parts" on the exterior. For now. But it has no vent integral. Hmmmm.
And the tank won't be wasted. We're thinking a Tow-Mater-like galvanized waste can receptacle for the galley.!
But a replacement tank. What have I got? I could order a new one, about a hundred dollar bill, plus shipping. There's that 30 gallon we took out of Lil' Queeny when we got her a 40. It was 13" on the shortest height; Tow-Mater needed no more than 12". Too tall. What does the kid's parts camper have? The 1995 Skamper. Hmmmm, 12". And the other dimension was 17.5". Tow-Mater had about 18" available. Are you kidding me right now?
Well let's get it out!
I try to get a winterizing kit installed in my RVs. I hate putting RV antifreeze in the holding tank. You really kind of ruin your water system when you do. My first experience with it, was my Dad's 1972 Truck Camper. The water ever after always had an antifreeze taint. You are miles ahead to use a kit, and pump right from the gallon jug.
So that got dumped.
Side by side to the metal tank.
The plastic has a 27 gallon stamping, so I'm guessing the metal is 18-20 gallon.
After removal of the fittings, and a good washing on the lawn that hadn't yet been mowed, the thing was good as new! Let's size it!
The "hold-it-in-position" cleats got removed. Hmmmm, I can reuse these.
Now if this were centered, it would remove access to the other open areas of the cabinet, at least from the door. But new access openings can be added. The weight would be even - side to side. Is it too far from the hand pump for enough priming suction?
But pushing it a bit to curb-side would still be well balanced, and even counter the extra weight of the heavier stuff on the galley side.
A future water heater on the left? Further from the hand pump primer suction. But access a bit through the door opening, for visual, if not hands. Maybe a 12 Volt pump in there too? And on the right, all we need is 15", so make it 16"; for the power center. Oh, I didn't show you the power center?
Here we go. These are still stored in the parts camper. For future possible use. But now is the time for planning, right?
The pump, and the back side of the power center. A fuse and/or junction block.
Front side of the power center.
Oh, and the donor fridge?
And a plan started forming. From left to right. Because I start with my left brain thinking, and end with my right brain creativeness.
And with that, the planning was done, the camera was put away, and the doing took over. One trip to the tractor store for a handful of clamps, and a few hours later, we had this.
And incidentally, the wood pieces were all re-used, but with holes pre-drilled a bit and screws replacing nails, and the one cabinet hole for the hose was enlarged. Also, 1/2" plywood spacers under the bench seat supports along the wall. That gave just a bit of clearance, so the supports weren't pressing down adversely on the plastic tank, and a 1/2" lean forward on the couch, so the kids don't get too comfortable in the house, instead forcing them outside to play! A pretty straight-forward install all-in-all.
Okay now this is cool. The closest one on the bottom is a pull valve for draining! Easy inside access, no crawling on knees outside to get to this! Theoretically, I could have angled it down into a new drain hole. But instead, I simply used extra hose and looped it over to the existing drain hole in the floor. That could be modified in future. Like if we didn't want hot water, but did want a spot for a small grey-water tank, in front of the axle. But for now, easy access draining, and visual for leak checks and system status! The valve came from the parts camper, I just cleaned it up.
At the far low end, the pick up for the hand pump. The fitting also came from the parts camper.
The fill hose above? Extra I had on hand from the Lil' Queeny project. Getting some good use out of it now. The clamp? From the parts camper.
This is a Pex style straight fitting. The parts camper had a 90 degree barb fitting I didn't like (the 90 degree part). This one came from our 2013 Komfort TT, because it (and two others) recently landed in my spare parts container, as I had recently improved a few things on that trailer too.
It's the vent fitting. Haven't fixed it up yet, but I have an idea.
The hole-in-the-wall is only .25" higher than the tank fill opening. That means the gravity fill will be slow, unless you park the trailer high on the street side while filling. If you park it high on curb-side, forget about it! The clamps offer hose support. I may bridge the hose with a full length rigid support of some sort.
For test fill purposes.
And like I said before (I think), no vent on this fixture, But I gots me an idea.
And here's how the new drain line exit appears.
Did the hand-pump pull? It sure did! With good volume. Too cool. But, the spout leaks! I need a new seal at the spout base. An O-ring I think. So we ain't done yet! But miles ahead of where we started!
