Plumbing a slide-out sink drawer (SOLUTION!)

[GeoDrop]

I'm having some difficulty in getting my slide-out sink plumbed. The sink is installed in a 'drawer' the slides out. (See pic below) The difficulty I'm having is how to get hoses connected and have them'extend' when the drawer is out and sort of 'coil up' when the drawer is closed. The shore water inlet is just behind the sink on the side of the tear.

Anyone else out there do a slide out sink and overcome this hurdle? I have some hoses on order that may help, just looking for some input from someone who may have gone before.



(PS - Let us please not debate the merits of why I'm installing a sink and not a simple stainless bowl or not sink at all... I chose the road less traveled.)

[jimqpublic]

Pop-up trailers often have "swing away" or fold over galleys with sinks. They just use flexible drain hose. Some owners mod them with a bit of soft bungee to keep the drain hose where they want it.

Start out with the Camco low-profile trap, hose, & through-wall fitting kit:

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-37420-Flexible-Camper-Drain/dp/B000EDUTPO

[Lou Park]

I really don't know the hoops you will have to jump through, but a source of coiled hose could be air hoses that are coiled. Since they take 90-100 psi of air, you might have good luck with water. You might be spending a lot of time in the plumbing department looking to see what connects to what just to make them work.
Lou

[vreihen]

The difficulty I'm having is how to get hoses connected and have them'extend' when the drawer is out and sort of 'coil up' when the drawer is closed.

I can't help you with the drain, but the water hoses would probably work out out pretty good using a computer rack drawer cable management arm:

http://www.nmia.com/~cavlon/fseqpt/FS%20WEB/racks/cable%20keepers/19%20inch%20rack%20mount%20cable%20keeper%20arm.htm

Fasten one end to the trailer by the water input, and the other end to the back of the sink drawer. (Mounted horizontally with the hinge pins veritcal.) Tie wrap/tape/suspend the hose against the entire length of the arm and leave a little bit of play at the center hinge. Since the arms do not change length, the hose will never go slack except for around the center hinge.

Copying the above design in your own workshop is left as an excercise for the reader.....

[GeoDrop]

Hmm.. now this is an interesting idea! I'll see if I can find one laying around the office. :-)

The difficulty I'm having is how to get hoses connected and have them'extend' when the drawer is out and sort of 'coil up' when the drawer is closed.

I can't help you with the drain, but the water hoses would probably work out out pretty good using a computer rack drawer cable management arm:

http://www.nmia.com/~cavlon/fseqpt/FS%20WEB/racks/cable%20keepers/19%20inch%20rack%20mount%20cable%20keeper%20arm.htm

Fasten one end to the trailer by the water input, and the other end to the back of the sink drawer. (Mounted horizontally with the hinge pins veritcal.) Tie wrap/tape/suspend the hose against the entire length of the arm and leave a little bit of play at the center hinge. Since the arms do not change length, the hose will never go slack except for around the center hinge.

Copying the above design in your own workshop is left as an excercise for the reader.....

[droid_ca]

has anyone ever made a sink out of fiberglass

[StPatron]

Water supply: I've done this before and found that faucet sprayer hose works great, it won't kink. Get a hose long enough so that you can form a loop or two and position the loops horizontally if you can.

Drain: The Camco product mentioned above looks like it would work great if you can get a gravity drop.

[Steve_Cox]

I did the slide out sink in a drawer to save counter top space in my TD.
A little different approach though, since I had only a 10 gallon water tank, I wanted to conserve water. I figured the best way for conservation was to not put a drain in the sink and it was easily removed for dumping, I am not one of the "gray water worriers" and always watered the trees with it. Oh yeah, the sink is a SS steam table pan. $19.

[bobhenry]

I really don't know the hoops you will have to jump through, but a source of coiled hose could be air hoses that are coiled. Since they take 90-100 psi of air, you might have good luck with water. You might be spending a lot of time in the plumbing department looking to see what connects to what just to make them work.
Lou

I'm with you , Lou.......

In fact I have the coiled air hose bought and out
in the garage somewhere OH WELL I am
on teardrop time !

With the swing out galley in the tear I had to find a
reliable method of water delivery that would extend
and recoil itsself also. I may wind up using the air
line quick couplers if the line needs to be removed to
close in the cabinets.



Waste water is of course the bucket in the picture.
I used a "P" trap to extended the drain thru the bottom
of the swing out cabinet. The only reason for useing the
trap was to offset the drain path so it would be tight to
the back corner of the cabinet and out of the way to
allow for a bit more storage in the cabinet.

[GeoDrop]

A very big thanks to VREIHEN for coming up with this idea. It is amazing that one can hit a road block, post a message here and have a solution with several hours.

My problem was how to deal with the water supply hoses going to a sink that was in a slide out drawer. When the drawer was slid in, the hoses bunched, kinked and generally didn't do well. The solution that vreihen presented was to use a cable management system used for rack mount servers. Fortunately, I work in the technology field and knew exactly what he was talking about. I sent out a call to my geek friends seeking the cable management mechanism. 2 days later I have one in hand and have it installed!! I think it is going to work perfectly.

The downside is that I am going to have to do a major rearrangement of the galley area. The mechanism not only interfered with the small water heater under the sink, it also gets in the way of the shore water inlet box. I can move the water heater over, which then forces me to move the freshly installed power management system. I am more than willing to do this though because the solution was ingenius and I just have to make it work.

The following is a YouTube video showing the mechanism in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jo4UGThNZY

Here is a picture of it:



Thanks VREIHEN!!

[Lgboro]

Thanks for posting the pic - I can foresee a similar problem with my pet cool slide out install and my slide out kitchen. Looks like a very good and efficient solution.

[S. Heisley]

Great idea! Well Done!

[Lou Park]

It almost looks mechanical, as if you push a button and the sink moves on it's own.

[vreihen]

A very big thanks to VREIHEN for coming up with this idea. It is amazing that one can hit a road block, post a message here and have a solution with several hours.

No problem. I've found that things from one field have applications in other places, and forums like this provide a broad knowledge base from many different fields thanks to their diverse membership. My thought was that you could have fabbed one up from a handful of hinges and a few strips of wood, but using the real deal looks professional/factory the way that you have it set up!

I have been thinking about putting a slide-out generator compartment in my race car hauler, and my plan is to use one of those arms along with two rack-mount slider rails to make the sliding shelf. The rails will hold over 100 pounds at full extension, which should be adequate for my large generator.....