City water hook-up

[Brenda56]

I just bought a '75 Sovereign Land Yacht ... Love it. But ... I think maybe the water may be hooked up wrong. It's working fine inside, altho there is water pouring out of what looks like an overflow pipe inward from the lft bck bumper. The holding tank is emptied(open). The "pouring" starts as soon as I turn on the main water hose, and takes a little while before it stops after turning it back off. I can't find any other place to hook it up, nor can I find a way to shut this off. Help

[dbj216]

He brenda56. Welcome to Air Forums. Where in the world did you find a 75 Sovereign? I think it is 31 feet long. And I know it's 40 years old! You are likely to have all kinds of mechanical adventures. These Air Forums are a good place to get help.

I am having a hard time envisioning your problem. You hook up city water and pressurize the system. Every faucet and fixture works inside. The holding tanks are empty. But you see water poring out of some pipe at the rear of the trailer.

Some of these old trailers have a "plumbing drain valve" that allows draining of the lines for winterizing. Maybe your drain valve is open. I personally have never trusted these drain lines. I prefer to blow the water out of the lines with pressurized air.


It would be good to take a photo of the spot where the water is coming out. Maybe a fellow Sovereign owner can help solve this problem.

David

[HiJoeSilver]

Does it look like it's coming out of a pipe on the bottom of the back of the trailer. It's probably a low point drain valve open. Look inside the trailer above the area where you think it's coming out. You'll probably find 2 valves that have pipes going down through the floor, those are low point drains, and would be a direct path for water to leave the fresh water system. You may be able to see them from inside the access door on back of the trailer over the bumper.

[HiJoeSilver]

Oh yeah, if you find them, make sure they're closed. PO probably left it open after draining the pipes for the winter.

[lahrfarm]

they were in the rear hatch on my '69

[Brenda56]

I saw a picture of the exact same thing I got in a stripped down trailer. Mine will be hard to photograph. The little box around it and an oversized bed makes it difficult to see well. I will find that post and make the reference. Thank You for responding.

[Brenda56]

Hi HiJoeSilver, I can see from the inside where the two pipes are going down thru the floor, one has a valve. I opened it and water gushed out. Closed it, that stopped that, but water was still pouring out of the other pipe which I cannot find any valve To close it. I don't have an access door back there above the bumper, checked. Would be a whole lot easier to see everything.

[CBWELL]

If I remember correctly, my 76 sovereign with rear double, had a valved drain for draining line, and a drain with no shutoff for the pressure relief valve. You may possibly have a "bad" relief valve, or, very high pressure into your trailer, causing the relief valve to open. Good luck, Chris

[HiJoeSilver]

CBWELL, i'll second the pressure relief valve.

The drain line for that will be near the drain line for the low point drain. It may be set to low for the pressure you're feeding it, or it may just have decided it's been around long enough and quit, taking the lazy way out and letting the water flow out. It'll likely look something like this 0190482 - Watts 0190482 - 1/2" 53L Poppet Type Pressure Relief Valve (150 psi)

Is the trailer new to you so this is the first time trying out the city water? If so the PO may have opened the valve to drain it and didn't close it.
It'll have a small lever on top, usually lays flat to the top of the valve(closed) but the lever can be raised to test/open the valve. If you find it and the lever is up, flip it back down and that will probably fix the problem.

From your description of having a bed to look under/around I'm thinking you've got the rear bed with center bath. If that's so, on the left rear there are 2 drains that you've already basically found on the outside. The forward drain line is the drain valve for draining the system, just aft(behind) that will be the drain line for the pressure relief.

If you need to fix it could open another can of worms, what does the fresh water pipe in the trailer look like, copper or gray plastic?

I'm using the diagrams in my '79 manual because my '74 manual and trailers are 4 hours away right now.

If you've got the center bath you're lucky!

[MtnCamper07]

I have a 30' Excella with rear bedroom. Recently, I took it to an RV dealer to have a routine inspection and yearly service performed. The inlet for the city water supply is located on the rear of my TT, street side. The inlet enters the TT under the nightstand, splits into a T, and then one line runs on top of the floor (and maybe behind the wall panel) towards the bathroom where it connects to the hot water heater. When connecting to the city water supply (I was not present), I was informed that there was a leak between the T (in nightstand) and the bathroom. The dealer told me that the technician "ran his hand" over the pipe and was able to detect a split in the pipe. I could not see where the pipe is broken. That does not make sense to me as the pipe appears to be covered up by the carpeting or because the pipe is behind the wall.

Can anyone tell me where the pipe should be? It is not accessible from below (via storage compartments.) Is it behind the wall? If so, how do I get to it? Can I remove the hot water heater to gain access to the pipe or to this area? Let me know. Thanks

[HiJoeSilver]

MtnCamper, there shouldn't be any water lines that run inside/behind the wall in the trailer. Only exception I would expect would be the fresh water tank suction, but not sure on the 93's. Based on my limited experience but good plumbing knowledge, the water line comes in from the street, enters a regulator, comes out of there and fro your description splits into 2 paths, one is the supply for the hot water heater as you mentioned. The other goes forward to feed all the other cold fresh water outlets. The best way to find this is to try to hand over hand the line, following it by looking in the back of cabinets, etc. It will remain inside the conditioned space so as to protect it from freezing, so it will be above the floor and to the inside of the walls(not inside the walls) it may be a bit difficult but you should be able to trace it from inside the trailer.

[HiJoeSilver]

Brenda, any luck? If you go back to the valve you were able to access and follow it back to the T where it splits off the main line, and then follow that main line toward the rear of the trailer you should hit another T. That T should lead to the relief valve. On the belly it'll be the aft drain that it's output goes to.