Plumbing Problem and Belly Skin

[dmac]

I have two problems with my 2003 Safari 25 SS that may be related…

1. After taking a shower, water drips from the exterior of the black tank drain pipe. I think that either the shower drain pipe is loose or the trap did not have enough antifreeze last winter. The water may be dripping onto the belly pan and running over to the black tank pipe.

2. The rear belly skin has widely spaced large head rivets around the edges, but none in the “field”. The skin has pulled over many of the rivets and was sagging (duct tape was temporary fix).

Possible causes:

• Problem #1 caused water to pool on the panel, the extra weight caused rivets to fail
• Vibration from out-of-balance running gear (per Andy)
• A factory defect left out the field rivets, unsupported metal oil-canned causing the failure

Questions: Has anyone else had these problems? Is the shower trap below the floor level, or might I have problems with wet/damaged plywood? I will remove the skin for access to the drain to repair, how do I reattach the skin? Has anyone used rivnuts/screws/washers to attach the skin for easy future access? Source for parts?

Thanks!

[john hd]

is your plan to drop the whole skin to investigate the leak?

when i repaired my grey leak a few years ago i cut a 7 x 14" hand hole and patched with aluminum flashing and secured with screws.

john

[dmac]

Since the rear of the rear belly skin is falling down already, I thought I'd drill out enough additional rivits on the street side to access the under-shower area.

Should the center of the belly skin have rivits? Any experts in the Twin Cities interested in providing technical advice?

[john hd]

i think once you get the pan down you will know right away.

if there are frame members that can be drilled for additional rivets adding them will be much better than what you have now.

i just helped my neighbors dave and pat rerivet the belly pan on their argosy, we were able to find large head rivets at ace hardware.

john