Our latest project is a 73 Overlander. It really is in great shape. The PO really took care of it. He passed and I believe some freezing occured. I know I have a fresh water leak under the tub, another under the sink.
The sink is not a problem.
I really hate to pull out the tub or flooring because it is in such great shape. That was confirmed when we ripped out the carpet. From other posts I could pull back the exterior to see what I have going on? What about underneath?
It's sealed like a drum, I almost hate to do anything.
Open the rear compartment and see if you have an aluminum panel that hides the tub plumbing. The instructions say to remove that first. Why not try that as see if you can find the damaged line. May give you an idea how difficult it will be to repair.
There are instructions on removing the tub feed lines/mixing valve without pulling the tub out.
__________________ GARY
OHIO - WE ARE THE MOTHER SHIP Charter Member - NOVA WBCCI - 5308
Is your fresh water plumbing still the original copper? If yes, can you fairly easily get to the pipes on both sides of the tub? If yes to that as well, I would be extremely tempted to replace the copper pipes under the tub with pex. Install fittings where you can fairly easily get to them, and patch in two pieces of pex, one for the hot water line and one for the cold water line. You might be able to use the old copper to pull the new pex under the tub.
If you have one split in the copper lines caused by freezing, you probably have other places in the lines that are now weakened by freezing. Might consider replacing all the copper water lines with pex. I know that would be a pain, but better than developing new leaks down the road.
I went to the airstream website and looked at the 73 floor plans. It looks like your bathroom is basically the same layout that we had in Little Girl (72 Sovereign). The water pipes mostly likely run front to back under the tub. Hopefully, you can gain access to them on the front of the tub from under the bed, and also gain access to them at the rear from under the vanity. I don’t remember if the water pipes were anchored to the floor under the tub or not when we tore everything out.
Even if you can’t pull the copper pipes out, I’ll bet you can work an electric fish tape (used to pull wires through conduit) under the tub from front to back, and then use it to pull pex pipes back under the tub. I’d make the pex as long as I needed to in order to get to a slightly more convenient place to install the copper to pex fittings.
Got any kids around? Small arms and hands might have an easier time threading the fish tape and pex under the tub.
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