Box sticking out into wardrobe

[pwlldvd]

Our 2018 Tommy Bahama 27 trailer has this box in the wardrobe. I think maybe the flying clouds or international 27 FB may be the same.

I wondered, why is it there? It makes almost 4 inches of the wardrobe unusable for clothes.

I took it off and it is an access panel for the shower fixture. Thing is, the box is 3 or 4 inches deep, like the plumbing sticks out into th closet, but it’s actually flush with the closet wall.

So I removed the box and replaced it with a Masonite panel sprayed white. Voila! Wardrobe is effectively 4 inches wider!

Pics to follow

[UncleBad]

Can’t wait to see the pictures... but wondering why it was manufactured this way?

[pwlldvd]

The following pics show:
The box as supplied new. It intrudes into the hanging space 3 or 4 inches which doesn't sound like much, but when you've only got about a foot of space, it is a lot!

The box after removal.

What's behind the box. Hard to see from this camera angle, but the plumbing does not even protrude beyond the surface of the wardrobe wall. One part is very close, maybe a millimeter of space once the masonite is installed.


The wardrobe with masonite installed to cover the hole. I didn't have time to make it pretty, although I did put the rest of the screws in after taking the pic.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/atta...1&d=1560651432


http://www.airforums.com/forums/atta...1&d=1560651432


http://www.airforums.com/forums/atta...1&d=1560651432


http://www.airforums.com/forums/atta...1&d=1560651432

[pcskier]

That's CRAZY! I can't believe how many they assemble that way, and nobody in the design department thinks, why are we doing this? Your method would even be cheaper to build, which you'd think would have gotten someone's attention. What a headscratcher. Anyway...great discover, and solution!

[UncleBad]

There has got to be a reason.

The pex also touches the board that makes up the closet wall, that is a spot I have quieted down with parts of swimming noodles, but from the bottom up. Forgot this access was even there...

AirstreamInc, can someone comment on this?

[rrittierodt]

Just purchased a 2019 Flying Cloud 25FB and they must have figured it out. My closet panel is just a piece of 3/4” board similar to the rest of the walls.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by rrittierodt

Just purchased a 2019 Flying Cloud 25FB and they must have figured it out. My closet panel is just a piece of 3/4” board similar to the rest of the walls.

Wow . . . hard to believe how Airstream keeps demonstrating its dysfunctionality!

. . . . . . . . . .

[jayseejay]

Our 2015 27’ Eddie Bauer with the same floorplan/layout has just a simple 3/4” white panel. Very strange.

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by jayseejay

Our 2015 27’ Eddie Bauer with the same floorplan/layout has just a simple 3/4” white panel. Very strange.

Yes my 2012 was that way too. I replaced it with a piece of 1/8 inch masonite. Weighed 2 lbs. Less and let me fit in 2 bins I bought at the Container Store.

[thewarden]

Originally Posted by jayseejay

Our 2015 27’ Eddie Bauer with the same floorplan/layout has just a simple 3/4” white panel. Very strange.

Our 2016 27FB Serenity is the same, flat, white panel, no box. Mmmm?

[UncleBad]

Plan on doing the mod this weekend to remove the mystery box.

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

Plan on doing the mod this weekend to remove the mystery box.

First I took the mystery box off.....



...and took the opportunity to quiet up the pex plumbing with some thin felt circles. THAT’S where the banging noise was coming from when using the water pump! Very quiet now.




Replaced the box with a custom peice of painted particle board. Use the old mystery box and copy the hole pattern to reuse the same holes in the wall. Routered the edges and sanded so it should not catch on any clothing. I also put some felt strips around the edges to keep it just slightly raised and away from the plumbing when installed.

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by UncleBad

...and took the opportunity to quiet up the pex plumbing with some thin felt circles. THAT’S where the banging noise was coming from when using the water pump! Very quiet now.

Nice job. Interesting about the banging pipes. I have that on my 23, but unfortunately in the shower walls or floor. And not from using the shower, just from the pump being on, period. Can't get to them to isolate like you did. I am going to install an accumulation tank at my pump, I've heard that can make a big difference. Won't be fun to squeeze it in to that space, either.

[GMFL]

Why not use a piece of lexan for the cover so you could monitor for leaks without having to remove.

[UncleBad]

Originally Posted by GMFL

Why not use a piece of lexan for the cover so you could monitor for leaks without having to remove.

Interesting idea. I had all the materials already and it’s very simple to remove. Also we will know if there are any leaks as there is an access panel just below and to the left of the shower.

This way it blends in and after a while we won’t even notice it.

[OriginalMrT]

This is what we did. Stock cabinets from Home Depot left enough space between the shower mixer and the wall. Still 4 screws to remove.

[SDP 28 FC]

My 2016 FC RB doesn't have the protruding "box" either - just a flush panel that covers the access.

[Teton Stream]

Originally Posted by pcskier

Nice job. Interesting about the banging pipes. I have that on my 23, but unfortunately in the shower walls or floor. And not from using the shower, just from the pump being on, period. Can't get to them to isolate like you did. I am going to install an accumulation tank at my pump, I've heard that can make a big difference. Won't be fun to squeeze it in to that space, either.

PCSkier, read your post and thought I would share with you the outcome of installing an accumulator in my 2017 23FB to cut down on pipe noise. I did the same think on my 2010 20' FC Bambi and it worked perfectly. I tried it on my 2017 23FB and the water pressure went pear shaped... anemic pressures. When I called JC they informed that in the Bambi they installed pressure cut off pumps and in the 23FB they had installed variable speed pumps (speed of pump reacts to pressure needed versus demand pump on 100% until pressure reached). Took out the accumulator tank and pressures were back to norm... noise still present.

FYI

[RicknTrish]

Because I also was curious about an extension that seemed to serve no purpose, I called customer service at the Mothership in Ohio. The rep said that on some models there are switches on the back side (outer wall side) of that box (I didn't ask what the switches were for), and the box has the wiring to those switches. The switches can't be seen when standing at the closet door. He said that as long as I don't feel any switches, and therefore there should be no wiring inside, then there's no engineering reason preventing removal of that box and replacing it with a flat cover over the plumbing (as some on the thread have already done).

One would think they'd manufacture a flat cover for those models without the switching/wiring, and include that specification as part of the manufacturing process for those models. Seems like the priority was to save a few bucks on standardizing a part for a certain number of models, versus have a different part (the flat cover) for a small number of models that would prioritize closet space and, by extension, customer satisfaction...

Thanks very much to pwlldvd for the original post and to others on this thread who shared their modifications. We intend to replace our box with a flat cover, and maybe those Home Depot shelves, in order to maximize closet space.

Rick

[RicknTrish]

Update: After removing the cover, here's what I have (see pix). The plumbing actually sticks out beyond the plane of the wall, and I don't see any obvious way to fix that. Pushing on any part of it doesn't reveal hardly any "give". Even if I tried planing the right edge of the opening to enable the red plastic plumbing to better fit inside, no guarantee that it would do that, and it wouldn't change the orientation of the main middle section that includes metal attached directly to the backside of the shower fixture. That entire middle section breaks the inside plane of the wall by about an inch, and it's not moving. Don't know why some others have apparently more flush plumbing in their closet holes - did their showers get secured an inch farther away? Don't see how that's possible, given the close tolerances on everything else that the shower contacts - walls, doors, ceiling, floor - everything has to align to a template.
I'm going to see if I can find a shallow plastic container of some kind that will fit over the hole, but still provides about 2 inches of depth. Would still gain a little space on that side - the OEM box is a good 4" deep.