1965 Caravel - Got the shaft on plumbing

[fun2bethad]

Just headed to Connecticut this last weekend and bought a 1965 Caravel When I pulled over that night for my first camp out, I discovered it had "quest" plumbing! For anyone who doesn't know what quest plumbing is, it's that ugly grey flexible piping that cheap and lazy people use to replace the copper plumbing in their trailers. Anyway......What should I do? Do I try to repair it (it leaked horribly the first time I hooked it up to a pressurized system) or do I replace it entirely? Help!!!

[Condoluminum]

I suspect an awful lot of us have "quest" or gray plastic piping as installed at the Airstream factory in our trailers, like I do.. I guess there may be some factory-installed copper piping, but I havent located much, in 25' Excella from late 1980's.. I did find short length in rear connected to inlet bib, and a section near water heater, but after that, it gets pretty gray though the interior cabinets and under the kitchen counter...

Fixing leaks and pressure testing plastic flex plumbing is something I took to be part of the joy of owning a classic RV, and I've gotten good at fittings and pressure tests... Having a spare supply of small hose clamps and hose sections is a good thing for toolkits as well.. I start with pump pressure, and work up to city water pressure, looking for and listening for leaks (if pump cycles on every 20 seconds, system isn't holding much pressure...).

John McG

[AYRSTRM2]

I hope you are not a plumber and have extensive experience in plumbing, cause I could be talking out of my foot here , but there are members on the board here that have replaced their whole plumbing with PEX (Brand name: Qwest), and swear by it. Read this thread on the topic:

Plumbing 101

I own an old home, and do a lot of the repairs, including easy plumbing jobs myself. I have just done some plumbing work on my '66 and here's my experience: First off, they used flared tubing. No fixture readily available today has a flared tubing end, so off comes the flair. You just lost about an inch of tube length. In some spots that was going to cause me real problems. I decided to resolder in new tube, even though I had never done it before. But so as not to melt the vinyl wall covering and set the plywood on fire I had to remove the piece in question. I got lucky and it worked. I went to put it back in the system, using compression fittings and a new valve. I then encountered my next problem: The old remaining tubing had swelled in the past (someone on here said old tubing always swells) and I could get the coupling nuts over it. I had to use an inch length of PEX with hose clamps to put it all back together!!!

The tubing has had its issues in residential use, but for a camper I think it is probably fine (all tubing will burst if filled to capacity and frozen). I would think that you're lucky to have recently updated plumbing, as long as they routed and hooked it up right. And it's way easier to fix than the soldered and flared tubing if you're not a plumber.

Did it leak at joints, from the handles of valves or was tubing split? Maybe you're dealing with a camper that the PO never winterized and just kept bursting tubes. Believe me, fixing the PEX will be easier than if the copper leaked.

John

[AYRSTRM2]

BTW, why do you think the plastic tubing is "cheap"? That crimping tool is one of the more expensive plumbing tools I've seen. And the tube costs rougly the same, and so do the fittings.

[fun2bethad]

Originally Posted by AYRSTRM2

BTW, why do you think the plastic tubing is "cheap"? That crimping tool is one of the more expensive plumbing tools I've seen. And the tube costs rougly the same, and so do the fittings.

Ooops.....I think I said the wrong thing. Sorry!! I guess Qwest really does have a place in the world of RVers. I think that I was just upset that the PO had let the original copper lines freeze (in the last two years) and then sold me the camper without mentioning the leaks in the Qwest plumbing. I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing since I can't boast of any plumbing skills myself. I should be able to figure out this set up however. Thanks to all for the words of wisdom. I will go dig in and see if I can get it up and running

[Stefrobrts]

Sorry to hear of your leaks. The 62 Bambi I just sold had the grey plumbing as well, but it works fine. I'm sure you can chase down the leaks and get it back up to snuff. Luckily it's a pretty simple system.

But the good news is you got a Caravel - congrats! Lots of happy Caravel owners on here!

[j54mark]

If the tubing itself is grey, then it is polybutylene. If the connectors are grey and rather bulky they are Qest, which is quite a good product when used in the right application. If the connectors are grey and rather small they are made for the polybutylene tubing and are a source of many problems.

Mark

[MW64OVERLANDER]

Originally Posted by j54mark

If the tubing itself is grey, then it is polybutylene. If the connectors are grey and rather bulky they are Qest, which is quite a good product when used in the right application. If the connectors are grey and rather small they are made for the polybutylene tubing and are a source of many problems.

Mark

The trail of plumbing history is littered with the bodies of failed ideas and materials. Who could forget orangeburg sewer pipe or 1250 # crush plastic drain line or for that matter, lead water lines. Polybutylene, unfortunatley, is destined to join these ranks. The pipe promised to be a solution to some of the problems found with copper water piping. It was unaffected by aggressive water and would swell if frozen to about 10 times its nominal diameter before bursting. The original poly fittings, however, were a dismal failure. They became brittle over time and the whole system was the subject of a class action law suit in the 80's and early 90's.

Pex or cross linked polyethelyne has now become the replacement for polybutylene. It uses a brass fitting and a compression ring to make up the joints and so far has shown no signs of the problems suffered by polybutylene. It makes a good choice for use in RV's due to its flexibility and it's ability to expand if frozen, and I would not hesitate to use it as a replacement for copper, unless you are restoring as original and want to match the original water lines.

[eubank]

Originally Posted by fun2bethad

I discovered it had "quest" plumbing!

Humm. You want some of my copper plumbing? I'm not sure that much of it is original; I've had to replace a good number of stretches of it. Boy, howdy, when water freezes in copper pipe, it not only pops holes -- you should have seen the geyser under our couch! -- but also expands the line for many feet in each direction. It's really fun to replace. (I jest. Working with copper is actually very simple. Just be sure to use silver solder on the water lines.)

Lynn