wildmanbaker
Kennewick, Washington
Full Member
Joined: 02/24/2005
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
|
Just a couple of suggestions. First, the copper pipe: you should secure it so it does not move around much. Are you sloping the pipes so it will drain for winterization?. Things to think about now while still accessible. You should use fiberglass to do the base repair, than you can use bondo, if you need/like to finish the repair. Bondo is not very strong, and will not hold up long without a strong substrate. We know there is no vibration, or flexing in a RV. You are doing great!!
Good luck
Wildman 
|
stevelv
Living on the island
Senior Member
Joined: 05/24/2006
View Profile
|
Thanks all - I have fibreglass so I'll use that and yes the pipes are being secured and sloped
Thanks
RV Park Finder
Ex Fulltimers
Repairing/Restoring 1984 Monaco Regent 36' Gas to restart RVing
DH,DW,Jake and Indie
|
stevelv
Living on the island
Senior Member
Joined: 05/24/2006
View Profile
|
OK, not too much to report today as I only started at 1pm - had to do some real work this morning
Managed to get most of the plumbing done but as always, I just don't have the one item needed to finish - in this case it's a 2.5" flat washer with a 1/2" hole so that I can connect the water bib to the outside filler box.
I installed the ADC filter and managed to borrow the sockets to remove the kitchen faucet that I will do tomorrow and hook up the new one. Everywhere that there is likely to be movement between pieces of pipework I have used flexible braided steel hoses to minimize the risk of fractured joints in the future.
Also as was suggested I need to clamp everything down to stop it moving and/or chafing.
This is the new hot and cold feeds in copper thru to the bathroom. I redid the cold feed that goes to the twin water tanks under the bed with pex as it needed to have an anti-syphon loop (not shown).
This is the water input feed pipe that instead of being a conglomeration of 90 pex fittings will now have two flex hoses - one feeds the main city water and the other Ts off thru a valve to fill the water tanks.
The ADC filter was 'new old stock' from Ebay for $30 - the canister was still sealed and I don't think they have a 'shelf life' - least I hope they don't
On the other side of the coach is the feed line for the Ice Maker - this was one of the major leaks and the 90 Pex fitting had split - I just made a new section out of copper and used shark fittings to connect it all back up.
Should have a full day working on her tomorrow so hopefully lots to report and progress will be made - I hope!
|
tahiti16
Camarillo, CA
Senior Member
Joined: 06/23/2008
View Profile
 Offline
|
Great narrative as you go through this and the pictures really help. I can see why you love the finish restorer, what is saving in time has to worth the extra price!
Ray, Cheryl, Cory & of course Miss Molly the four-legged child
2006 Dolphin 36' F53 V10 5 speed auto 2 slides 7.5 KW genset
|
newxmar
East Otis, MA
Senior Member
Joined: 02/04/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
Great redo! Suggestion while pipes are accessible. Add foam pipe insulation to the hot water pipes. Did this on my MH and hot water stays hot for a long time in the hot water lines. Also found in many cases the hot and cold lines were tied together which allowed heat transfer between the pipes/water.
|
|
|
stevelv
Living on the island
Senior Member
Joined: 05/24/2006
View Profile
|
Thanks
I've seperated hot & cold but not sure about the insulation. I've had issues in stick homes where insulation has hidden leaks etc and as we have a 10 gallon hot water heater I'm not sure we would get that much benefit but thanks for the suggestion.
|
SD00
Middletown, ca
New Member
Joined: 05/26/2008
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
Offline
|
I enjoy watching your progress and was wondering what suspension you have in the back with the tag axle. I have mor-ryde on mine and it requires maintenance as I lost or broke the tracking arm (called center torque arm in manuel) connecting bolt and the axle spun around taking out the tag axle brakes and rupturing the grey water tank, that should be checked if it's the setup you have.
Also, the tag axle brakes are applied by a second vacuum operated master cylinder. When I bought my second one that master was totally dry, after adding fluid it seems to work fine, apparently it had not been checked in a long time. The suspension was replaced at the Mor-ryde factory in '06 but they didn't necissarily checked the brakes.
Mickey
* This post was
last
edited 11/06/09 11:01am by SD00 *
View edit history
The Journey, either stopped or moving, by choice or circumstance, is the Joy of the challenge.
 
|
stevelv
Living on the island
Senior Member
Joined: 05/24/2006
View Profile
|
Yes, I have the Mor-Ryde system on the tag - I have checked the rubbers and they are fine - there is a method described on their website that explains what is an acceptable crack in the suspension rubber and mine are nowhere near the limits - which is fortunate as they are expensive and a rather involved job to replace. However I will also check the mounting bolts now too.
Anyway, todays report is short on writing and long on hours and frustration. I got up thinking I'd have the plumbing wrapped up by lunch - ha! - everything that could go wrong went wrong - I either had the wrong fitting, the wrong wrench, missing screws or a piece of old pipework that didn't do what I thought it should,
This was typical of my day - just how am I meant to get a wrench up there to tighten up the new faucet - grrr
Here's a tip - the mounting plate at the base of the faucet was tensioned with screws that I had to guide up into place - I don't have one of those fancy screwdrivers with plastic screw holders, so a small piece of plumbers putty works just fine
Finally the new faucet and drain assemblies are in - if I was charging myself the $90 that the shop charges customers then I have the most expensive faucet in the nation LOL
After going back and checking all the connections for the third time, I connected up the hose bib and tentatively turned on the water. Using the various drain taps I flushed the pipework and checked every one for leaks - so far so good. I then closed the taps and built up pressure and tested each joint. Just one leaked which was the valve that controlled the water tank fill - it's designed for an inline application, not to be sandwiched around the plastic water connections box and so I may have to revisit Home Depot to find something more suitable.
I had another problem with the water fill as when I opened the water fill valve, no water entered the tanks. Hmmm, there was a ball valve in the fill line but opening and closing it made no difference so I removed it completely - it might have been a good idea to have turned off the water BEFORE I cut the old pipe off - thankfully we live in the desert so the bedroom should be dry by morning - oops.
After rebuilding the tank fill with some more shark fittings and pex (I should have shares in that company!) the tanks started to fill and an all round check showed no leaks - happy man.
I filled the tanks (there are two in the Monaco underneath the bed) and put in some sanitizer/cleaner which I will drain and repeat tomorrow as I have no idea when they last held water.
As there is no gravity fill I had to use the hosepipe method - fill the empty water hose with cleaner and then attach it to the faucet and that pushes the cleaner into the tanks - repeat as needed.
So that's the plumbing system completed and now to start on the black/gray water lines - mostly a case of remaking and refitting under the kitchen sink but of course RV ABS is not the same thread as household ABS - double grrrr - so I just cleared the decks and will do this tomorrow.
There were some major leaks in the tub drain and I removed about a pound of silicon and mastic that a previous owner had tried to use to seal it. Eventually I got the sawsall to cut off the P trap and a dremel with a cutting disk to remove the nuts on the drain assembly. This area was nasty from a lot of water leaks so I left it to dry a bit and will clean it up tomorrow for the new ABS - I also put a screw through the floor to mark the location and I will put a drain pipe in there so that if it does ever leak in the future, the water will disperse through the drain rather than soak into the bathroom and hallway floor which has happened in the past.
As I said, it doesn't look as though I achieved much today but it was many hours of sweat and cursing
|
Works2RV
Summerville, SC, USA
Senior Member
Joined: 04/07/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
Quick suggestion on your addition of sanitizer method - I bought an outside cartage filter ( you can use the under the sink model Home Depot sells - it's a lot cheaper than the RV specific one ). To sanitize the tank I just remove the cartage, fill the housing with the sanitizer and screw the housing back on - turn on the water and fill. Once job is complete just replace the filter cartage and your good to go.
Buck
Your doin' Great!
1987 36' Beaver Marquis High Tech Wide body
3208T CAT, MT643 Allison in a Gillig MHA
Koni's & Toyo all around
FMCA, Good Sam
Jetta TDI
Marsha & Buck
|
stevelv
Living on the island
Senior Member
Joined: 05/24/2006
View Profile
|
Thanks Buck
That's a great alternative and I'm probably going to use an external particle filter.
Sorry for no posts yesterday but I pulled a muscle in my back so all I managed to do was the rest of the woodwork with the restorer and another trip to Home Depot to get more ABS fittings for the sewer connections under the shower and sink.
Today I'm going to connect up the new cruise control lever and reassemble the steering wheel so a few photos later on. Then it's onto the flooring which I'm actually looking forward to - the steps might be a challenge with the Allure but we'll see how it progresses.
Just ordered a new monitor and camera (Clarion B/W) for $140 shipped from Ebay so will be tossing the old one out. Monitor was still good but the camera was toast. The new one is in the older style (tube monitor rather than LCD) so still in keeping with the 'vintage' style that I'm trying to retain.
Also my 2 new tires arrived yesterday - these are 8R19.5 and are chinese made, steel belted with 2009 date codes. They are going onto the tag axle and I hope to be able to report how they do over the next few months. From an external inspection they look to be great and at $140 delivered they were half the price of GYs.
The second package to arrive was the replacement fan motor and blower for the rear AC so that's a job waiting to be done when I feel up to climbing back on the roof
|
|
|
