Water Leak FIXED!

I reported here that I had finally found a water system leak that had been nagging me. For the most part, I have not found many “bastard fixes” on Shaneeda – mostly just lack of care/maintenance. However; the previous owner’s attempt to fix this leak definitely falls into that category.

It is somewhat hard to tell from this photo but the line between the 90 degree angle and the T connector was completely missing. Replacing it was the short length of garden hose and two hose clamps.  Just below that, the line coming out of the 90 degree angle was damaged and leaking.  The previous owner had “poured” epoxy or JB Weld on it in an attempt to “fix it”.  It did not work.

I removed all this garbage, cutting the lines as close to the existing fittings as possible.  I also went downstream a couple of feet into one of the basement bays and cut the line there (at a 90 degree angle).  Removing the entire run (the stretch with the epoxy “fix”) would allow me to do some of the work outside of the tight confines.

I made a trip to the home improvement store expecting to purchase some of the SharkBite brand press on fittings.  While there, I found the crimp on fittings to be massively cheaper and also pinch crimp rings for which I already have a crimping tool.  So, I bought a handful of parts and headed home a happy guy.

Within a minute of stepping into the garage, I knew I had blown it.  Apparently, the outside diameter of the tubing used in Shaneeda matches PEX tubing but NOT the inside diameter.  So, none of the crimp on fittings would work (O.D. was too small to fit the I.D. of the tubing).  So, back into the car and to the home improvement store where I returned all that I just bought.

With that wasted effort out of the way, I started picking over the press on fittings.  The SharkBite brand was not there, instead GatorBite existed. Ok, looked pretty similar to me. The big difference MAY be at these fittings are not removable (with a special tool).  Additionally, they had a line of plastic press-on fittings.  The negative though, was that the plastic fittings were huge – physically.  So, I went with the copper press-on style – which are not cheap, by the way.  To be safe, I also purchased a short length of PEX tubing.

Back at the RV, I started fitting the new parts into place.  Thankfully, there was some “extra” in the existing lines so I had a bit of material to work with and didn’t need to splice in extra line. Doing anything is a challenge when you can only get one hand into an area. There is no doubt in my mind that evolution is a hoax because, if it were not, we would have grown two hands on one arm millennia ago.  All went together pretty smoothly except for one item of real interest.  Back in the basement, I trimmed the line that I had previously (rough) cut to install the new fitting.  As I did so, the line broke in half a couple inches away from my cut?  Whoa!!  I think that was a fracture just waiting to break. It may have even been leaking water but I didn’t notice due to the larger leak just a couple feet away.  So, I was VERY HAPPY to have this happen now when it was so easily fixed.

With the new fittings and line in place, I turned on the water pump, ran a faucet until the air was expelled and then ran back and forth and all around checking for signs of water.  Nothing to be found!!  For the first time since I’ve owned her, I left the water pump turned on for more than just a couple of minutes and the pump did not cycle every minute or so.

Success!!