Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello,

I work at Home Depot .... yes you got it in Plumbing.
I work in an area where people come on Vac. so many come in with a leaking drain or a water line that is in need of repair.
I tell them if you can rip all the plumbing out and put in the type you have in your house.

There is nothing worse then coming into a town on the "weekend" in any type of RV and finding a leak and the RV store is closed on you guessed it the "weekends" or has short hours.

Most hardware stores are open sat. closing at 5 or 5:30 and big chain stores are only closed 2 times a year and open to the late hours. But what they offer is plumbing for the house few do the RV's.

So when you are doing that Plumbing project or inventing a new way to heat your water .... when it breaks where will you find parts. Look in the plumbing department of any store and you will see what I mean.

I have helped many an RVer Jerry Rig at drain or water pipe because the RV store was not open or a long ways away.
And if you use compression parts make sure you see them in more then one store Cause when it goes it may take several parts at $5 or more each.

Ron Dickey
Los Osos, ca

good tip

What about vibration?

That's the only thing I would prefer about a pex type solution over pvc. The softer material seems like it should handle bouncing down the road better.

If you are going to vibrate enough to damage properly installed and properly glued PVC you had better get back on the road. Schedule 80 PVC will take the shock of a small hand sledge hammer. I do agree with pex for a totally different reason. It will survive undamaged thru a freeze up. I do intend to install pex as my supply lines in the caboose build for that reason. However my drain system will remain PVC. I am also going to install it for hvac duct work to allow for floor registers and cold air returns in my heating scheme.

There are types of plumbing fittings that to be compatible have to come from a supplier of RV fittings e.g. sewer i.e. the blade valve from the gray water tank. However the cam lock fitting that I used in place of the typical RV sewer hose bayonet fitting came from Tractor Supply.
I ended up doing some mods to our Pex hot and cold water system to accommodate the shower point and will modify the connections to the water pump by adding lengths of nylobraid hose to help isolate vibration.

Trailers now are plumbed with PEX.. Most any big box store should have PEX tubing and fittings. The only real RV only stuff is the shower fixture and dump valve. Waste water lines are ABS, but some big box stores carry ABS it can just be hit or miss..

I would not use PVC in a camper, ever...