Newbie needs some help SHower Line 70 Overlander

[zenarmy]

Ok so... The shower line has a crack in it ( copper) way up inside and my question is... HOW the BLEEP do you get to it? seems like Pex is the way to fix it.. but I cannot reach it

Please help

[Minno]

Well, if your set up is anything like the bathroom and tub/shower in our 72 Sovereign, then repairs made to the hidden water lines will require taking part of the bathroom apart. We found lots of evidence that parts of the bathtub and shower were taken apart to repair water lines, and I would guess more than once based on the number of extra rivet holes, and repairs made to the hidden lines that we found as we were gutting her. My advice, short of anyone posting something to the contrary, is that you'll need to carefully disassemble whatever is in your way to gain access to the broken water line. And then if there are multiple water lines back there, if it were me, I'd replace everything with pex while I had it opened up. Good luck!

Chris

[gutsgolf]

chris what size pex doe it take to do the 31' soverign and how much does it take. will it connect directly to faucets, etc. never used this stuff before.
thanks
richard

[Pirate4hire]

ANyone know where I can get my hands on a shower/tub for my 72?

[mello mike]

Originally Posted by gutsgolf

chris what size pex doe it take to do the 31' soverign and how much does it take. will it connect directly to faucets, etc. never used this stuff before.
thanks
richard

I'm no expert but I recently had my bathroom done in PEX. The standard appears to be the 1/2 inch size and you can get this in clear or in opaque red and blue. I had to buy a couple new faucets with 1/2 connectors to enable my pex to connect directly to them. You can install your PEX with either plastic or brass fittings. An estimate of how much a 31 ft Sovereign would need for both hot and cold water lines, I would say about 70 ft. Somebody who's actually done their whole trailer can chime in here.

[JohnE]

I'm new here, too - just bought a 76 Trade Wind and I came on here to post pretty much the same question - I don't even know what lies behind my shower walls, but there's a leak back there somewhere. I'm planning on starting the project this weekend - any tips/pointers on removing the shower walls?

[StingrayL82]

Originally Posted by Pirate4hire

ANyone know where I can get my hands on a shower/tub for my 72?

Try posting a classified ad in this forum, instead of hijacking this thread. This specific post pertains to replacing the water lines.

Originally Posted by JohnE

I'm new here, too - just bought a 76 Trade Wind and I came on here to post pretty much the same question - I don't even know what lies behind my shower walls, but there's a leak back there somewhere. I'm planning on starting the project this weekend - any tips/pointers on removing the shower walls?

John,

Take your time and label everything you take off. Take pictures too, so you can see how something fit, just in case it no longer does. Also, make sure that your Tradewind is level, resting on jackstands, so that the frame has no flex in it...makes things easier to rivet back in, in my opinion. I've found that, if the frame has some flex to it, things just don't fit right back in the way they were originally.

My other advice would be to buy white or blue PEX for the cold line and red PEX for the hot line...I wish that had been done, when mine was replaced...I settled for writing "HOT" on the white PEX lines, where needed.

[StingrayL82]

Originally Posted by mello mike

I'm no expert but I recently had my bathroom done in PEX. The standard appears to be the 1/2 inch size and you can get this in clear or in opaque red and blue. I had to buy a couple new faucets with 1/2 connectors to enable my pex to connect directly to them. You can install your PEX with either plastic or brass fittings. An estimate of how much a 31 ft Sovereign would need for both hot and cold water lines, I would say about 70 ft. Somebody who's actually done their whole trailer can chime in here.

70' will cover everything you need to do comfortably and leave you spare tubing, for that "just in case moment". Also, there are different ways to attach the PEX to the fittings...mine are crimped, so if you go that route, make sure you have the right tools for the job and double check ALL of your connections, just in case (see, it pops up again) you missed one and have to find out the hard way, at a rally (ask me how I know).

[easyride]

Originally Posted by zenarmy

Ok so... The shower line has a crack in it ( copper) way up inside and my question is... HOW the BLEEP do you get to it? seems like Pex is the way to fix it.. but I cannot reach it


Please help

If your valve is on the back wall,there should be a shelf above it,drill out the rivets holding shelf and trim.Shelf should come off so you can get to the back side of the wall.remove the trim and the valve should only be held in by the copper.Tricky part is unsweat the copper without burning up the tub,pull out the valve and sweat in the pex adapters,crimp on enough pex to reach the trunk,reinstall valve on, sweat on shower adapter,add trim. While you are there it is a good time to snake new lines thru there to the k.sink,crimp on angle stops at k.sink,this will give you valves,and reduce down to the 1/4 pipe used on the faucet.Tie it all in ,in the trunk,and system should work.Unless you are really weight concious,just leave old copper in place ,it`s too hard to remove. Dave

[zenarmy]

Looks like our RV doctor is going to bypass the shower line and connect the shower head and cable to the existing sink faucet.. seems reasonable rather than start tearing the whole thing apart and pulling rivits... as the bathroom fixtures are in great shape...

[Pirate4hire]

Originally Posted by StingrayL82

Try posting a classified ad in this forum, instead of hijacking this thread. This specific post pertains to replacing the water lines.

Sorry there buddy...I wasn't trying to hijack the thread and didn't see the classifieds...just looking for a little help. Thanks for the forum etiquette advice.


John,

Take your time and label everything you take off. Take pictures too, so you can see how something fit, just in case it no longer does. Also, make sure that your Tradewind is level, resting on jackstands, so that the frame has no flex in it...makes things easier to rivet back in, in my opinion. I've found that, if the frame has some flex to it, things just don't fit right back in the way they were originally.

My other advice would be to buy white or blue PEX for the cold line and red PEX for the hot line...I wish that had been done, when mine was replaced...I settled for writing "HOT" on the white PEX lines, where needed.

Good luck John.