Hello All, just picked up a 1984 Sovereign mid bath 29'.
Most everything works, but I have some plumbing issues, firstly, there is no water pump, so I have one on order but I am not quite sure where to place it, other than in the double wardrobe.
The other issue is that when I hook up to city water, the taps all work, but there is water leaking fairly vigorously underneath the airstream around what must be relief valves, almost directly between the axels on the street side. There is also a little water leaking in the same place on the curb side around what also look like some sort of plumbing discharge tube.
Is this because the pump is not located in line. I will add pics when it gets light out and I can take some.
Hello Crew Guy, greetings from Kentucky and welcome to the forum
Water pumps have a device to prevent city water from backflowing through the pump into the fresh water tank. Without the pump in place the water will go inside the Airstream.
Your owners manual will tell you the pump location but I would hazard a guess that it's under the wardrobe. Sometimes there's a door underneath and sometimes it's a false floor in the wardrobe.
Hello All, just picked up a 1984 Sovereign mid bath 29'.
Most everything works, but I have some plumbing issues, firstly, there is no water pump, so I have one on order but I am not quite sure where to place it, other than in the double wardrobe.
The other issue is that when I hook up to city water, the taps all work, but there is water leaking fairly vigorously underneath the airstream around what must be relief valves, almost directly between the axels on the street side. There is also a little water leaking in the same place on the curb side around what also look like some sort of plumbing discharge tube.
Is this because the pump is not located in line. I will add pics when it gets light out and I can take some.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Hopefully there's a pump in place but you didn't see it. Otherwise you may have been dumping water onto the floor of the trailer. That happened to our 1987 mid bath when a plumber de-winterized it by hooking up to city water before installing the pump, which had been removed for the winter. Open line inside the wardrobe.
Thanks so much for the reply. I can see from the manual it is suppose to be in the wardrobe, just don't know where it is suppose to be hooked up at...which line goes where and which power source to use.
Should it be between the city water line and then everything else?
Thanks so much for the reply. I can see from the manual it is suppose to be in the wardrobe, just don't know where it is suppose to be hooked up at...which line goes where and which power source to use.
Should it be between the city water line and then everything else?
If your pump is not there you should see two open lines lying on the floor of the wardrobe, as well as the wires coming out of the wall - one red and one white. These lines go into a rats nest of water lines hot and cold that live over the top of the fresh water tank under the floor, include your low point drains, and some travel out of the floor on the left side (facing forward). You should be able to trace the lines from the city water input to the hot water tank to the bath faucets, then under the floor from left to right where they come up from that opening over the fresh water tank that is under your wardrobe.
I've included a few not so great photos from my unit when I was dismantling. In our case the trailer we bought had suffered a mishap similar to what you are describing and new flooring was lip-sticked over the wet OSB. The seller did disclose that a plumber had accidentally flooded it by hooking up city water with no pump in line, then going for lunch. Ultimately I've done a shell off to replace the entire subfloor....not what we had planned but.....
There are a few warnings that are in the manual regarding the importance of a check valve in the pump line if hooked up to city water.
I hope that another with more plumbing experience can offer you more focused guidance, and my comments will hopefully help somewhat. Look for those two open lines in the wardrobe as well as the two wires that will be hanging from your bulkhead.
Good luck! Nothing like a mishap to acquaint a new owner with the systems.
Here is a pdf of the plumbing system for my 23' 2006 safari. There is also a pic of the inline strainer between the pump and FW tank. On Amazon search for RV inline water strainer.
__________________ -Rich Rich & Yvonne 2006 Safari SE -Dora- 2004 4Runner SE 4.7L V8
Thanks Rich for the help. It helps in the sense of knowing that even a 2006 looks a similar mess to mine. It's nice they gave you a detailed layout of the plumbing, I havent been able to find one for the 1984 that I have.
I'm feeling totally deflated at this point, as most probably feel I would imagine. I think I paid quite a bit though and supposedly had no mechanical errors. That is definitely not true. So now I'm looking at doing a full tear out of the fresh water tank to be able to expose the plumbing and figure out where the leak is coming from. Less of a leak and more a strong gushing of water.
I did connect the water pump and the massive gushing was still present.
Can you see down inside and along your water tank? Im curious of the line going from the water pump and into the fresh water tank...I really think mine is not hooked up properly and maybe that is the root of all my problems. The trouble is I don't have a working diagram of any of this stuff.
Ill definitely need to post some pics and see if someone can talk me through it. I'm pretty desperate at this point. (deep Sigh).
Not sure if you noticed the diagram for my '87 mid bath (post #5); yours should be similar. I'm sure that the photo of the cut out above the fresh water tank looks the same in yours. If the floor is off here's what you'll be looking at for the fresh water entry, as well as flow, overflow, and drain valve. It looks like a mess of pipes but it's quite simple if you take some time to study the lines. Sounds like one may be unhooked.
Get right down in there and looking in the hole is 'ick' if you don't like dark plumbing spaces, but if you keep the trailer you'll adapt. Many of us have travelled through the Valley of Despair having ended up with something that isn't as it appeared. There's lots of info on this site. One step at a time.
Thanks for the quick reply for my desperation. The photo you just sent was helpful and your tank itself is exactly like mine, which is super helpful. Looking at your image of your tank, the blue Pex coming up is currently rising from the tank in mine and terminating in the wardrobe with a shut off valve on the end...like you would use to shut off a hose. Super weird. Like that's it, it does nowhere, just from the bottom of the tank up to the wardrobe and stops. It's not leaking because I have the terminating valve closed.
My question would be, is that the main line that should be connected to my water pump and the other end of it to my main city inlet? I can't quite tell from the diagram you sent.
I need to figure out how to send photos too so I can post what I see in my trailer.
And yes, our plan is to keep it and use it forever. Even though I'm young (40) I have Leukemia so I'm on chemo which makes it difficult during a pandemic to leave the house and see family. We are on the West Coast and most of my FAmily is on the Easy Coast and according to my doctor I can't fly or chance staying in hotels for the forseeable future. My wife's idea: let's buy and airstream and travel across country self contained.
Our excited dreams are quickly becoming the stuff of nightmares however. We thought we were buying something that just needed some cosmetic updating according to the "only owner" of this trailer...both turned out to be false.
I'm not afraid of a good home project, however, leaking in a small space where I can't see anything and have limited access is really proving difficult. I keep consoling myself in that it's just a series of hoses, it can't be that hard...famous last words I guess.
The angled hose closest to the tank is the same as the blue Pex in your pic. This is the one that goes to a water shut off valve in the wardrobe.
My pump is currently connect to the the pipe in a T valve furthest from the tank following it to the left is goes to the water pump, then filter, then city inlet. Following it to the right goes to the kitchen sink. And following is down toward the tank it goes to a little relief valve that is open to the ground below. And this is where a lot of water is coming out at.
Do you really need the FW tank? If you can block off the line between the pump and main line where city water comes in then you can travel and just use the city water connection.
__________________ -Rich Rich & Yvonne 2006 Safari SE -Dora- 2004 4Runner SE 4.7L V8
The angled hose closest to the tank is the same as the blue Pex in your pic. This is the one that goes to a water shut off valve in the wardrobe.
My pump is currently connect to the the pipe in a T valve furthest from the tank following it to the left is goes to the water pump, then filter, then city inlet. Following it to the right goes to the kitchen sink. And following is down toward the tank it goes to a little relief valve that is open to the ground below. And this is where a lot of water is coming out at.
In my photo the blue pex is the line out of the tank to the plumbing. It had been the grey piece that I'm holding but I'll be going with pex.
If the water is coming out of a relief valve at the bottom of the tank that is one of your low point drains (there may be up to 3), or if it's coming out of the side near the bottom it could be the fresh water tank drain on the side of the tank. The one on the side of your tank is between the axles, they are plastic, and they fail. There is great stuff on this site about replacing it with brass fittings and valve, which is what I did. The low point drains go through the bottom of the tank and likely just hang there at this point as the plastic valves at the bottom take abuse over time. There's a cover that is screwed onto this part of the tank that allows you to access the fittings on the side of the tank.
Get your head under the trailer if you can and confirm where the water is coming from, the side valve between the axles, or the bottom. You may not have a big problem if it's the drain valve. If a low point drain it's also likely a simple fix.....sort of. You may not have water pouring into the trailer, which would be a bonus.
A few photos of my old pan and a new one I had fabbed to give you an idea of what the tank pan looks like. You can see the side drain valve, as well the bottom cover. When I run the plumbing I'll put in the low point drains.
This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Airstream, Inc. or any of its affiliates. Airstream is a registered trademark of Airstream Inc. All rights reserved. Airstream trademark used under license to Social Knowledge LLC.
Linear Mode
