City and Fresh Water Intake Overflow

[Stephen and Kelly]

Hello. I am hoping this is something I am overlooking but when I connect my hose to the fresh water or city water the water starts to come out of the overflow holes on either side. I don’t think there is a valve near those intakes that I am missing. I have the valves set to normal operation. Any help would be appreciated greatly. 

[John E Davies]

Those are the belly drains (weep holes) and normally there should be NO water coming out. You have a massive internal plumbing leak under that cargo floor. Probably a spilt in a line or fitting. There are one-way check valves for both those water ports, maybe one has opened up.

It should be easy enough to locate. Just look for the geyser. Take a picture and get back to us...

Good luck!

John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited May 2, 2020 by John E Davies

[STEVEnBETTY]

You have a leak, I would guess either the back flow fitting on the back side of the hose connection split, or the pex water line connected to it. 
That hose connection fills your fresh water tank, if you didn’t fill that line with antifreeze or blow the water out with air to winterize, 

it may have froze over the winter. Open the cargo door above it and remove the floor above the hose connection, you should be able to see where the pex water line connects to the back flow valve. Good luck

Steve

 

[Mike and Carol]

That is not normal.  You have a leak somewhere.  I’d check under the curbside bed for any leak in the plumbing lines.  If you don’t see anything I would look under the kitchen sink, if not there then I’d remove the front panel on the bathroom sink and check there.  You shouldn’t have that much water coming from the weep holes.

[DavePhelps]

City water and FWT fill both leaking like that? My guess is that both check valves froze and busted open. That back corner of the trailer is the most  vulnerable in freezing weather. Especially with all that plumbing back there. The pex lines won't rupture but the fittings sure will. From all the water coming out your weep holes it should be easy to find. Good luck.

Dave

[Stephen and Kelly]

Thanks for the direction everyone. I did follow the Oliver YouTube on winterizing but oh well. It is what it is. I was hoping a leak wasn’t the case, but was resigned to the likelihood that it was. Thankfully I can fill the fresh tank and at least have water for the weekend. I’ll take a closer look once I’m home and see what is going on. Thanks again. 

[John E Davies]

You can easily fill the tank using the right back port using a bucket and a short length of hose, suck it in with the pump, just like winterizing. I personally would not use either of those street side ports until I fixed the problem, that is a very massive leak and it could affect other stuff like electrical components.

Be safe,

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Stephen and Kelly]

I checked in the cargo area under the mat and it doesn’t look like I can open up the floor easily to look under there. Not seeing enough visible screws to lift a panel and I didn’t see any obvious water when I lifted the curb side bed. So the hunt continues. The water starts coming out of the holes fairly immediately, so I suspect it is close to the inlet. But no proof yet. What a wonderful way to start the season. 

[Overland]

It’s not easy to get to, which is unfortunate since this seems to be a relatively common problem, at least for a certain batch of trailers. What Oliver really needs to do is to move the two check valves further inboard where they aren’t as likely to freeze.  You’d get some water spilling back out after filling, but that’s a small price to pay for reliability.

Once you get access, you can wrap the check valves in silicon repair tape as a temporary fix, if you don’t have the time or the replacement valves.  

Edited May 2, 2020 by Overland

[WhatDa]

11 hours ago, Ollie404 said:

Thanks for the direction everyone. I did follow the Oliver YouTube on winterizing but oh well. It is what it is. I was hoping a leak wasn’t the case, but was resigned to the likelihood that it was. Thankfully I can fill the fresh tank and at least have water for the weekend. I’ll take a closer look once I’m home and see what is going on. Thanks again. 

Did you pump RV antifreeze through both the fittings?

[Stephen and Kelly]

Yes. I followed the YouTube Video Oliver put out and pumped antifreeze through both. Even when I unscrewed the caps antifreeze dripped out. So I am at a loss as to what I overlooked or why this happened.  

[WhatDa]

Odd, assuming you wintered it near home in MO, where it only dipped into the positive single digits a few times and most antifreeze is rated to -50F for bursting and some to -100F.  If you still have the jug I'd give the manufacturer a ring too.

[Overland]

Here’s a link to another thread about the check valve issue.  I really do think that Oliver either had a bad batch of valves or an overzealous installer at one point.  Assuming that the OP’s hull number is 404, that’s right in the middle of the hull numbers mentioned in the other thread.  I think if it were me, I’d give Oliver service a call, mention these threads, and if the trailer isn’t still under warranty, ask if they might extend it for this issue.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Overland

[Stephen and Kelly]

So I got under the floor and was at least able to take a look at the city intake. Yep. Quite the leak. I imagine the fresh intake is the same. 

 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Ollie404
Video edit

[Mainiac]

What, or where, was the leak? What was leaking? A broken fitting? A broken pipe?

[dbp05ret]

I own 408. My check valve was bad. Sounds exactly like mine. 

 

[Stephen and Kelly]

1 hour ago, Mainiac said:

What, or where, was the leak? What was leaking? A broken fitting? A broken pipe?

It was in the City and Fresh intake at the rear. The leak was under the storage floor.

[Mainiac]

Understood. Was the leak a fitting? A cracked pipe? Two cracked pipes? What exactly was leaking? 

[Overland]

Are you unable to see the video, Maniac?  It looks like the brass check valve is cracked lengthwise. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by Overland

[Stephen and Kelly]

1 hour ago, dbp05ret said:

I own 408. My check valve was bad. Sounds exactly like mine. 

 

Did they replace the value or was it something easy enough to do yourself if they just sent the parts?

[Stephen and Kelly]

30 minutes ago, Mainiac said:

Understood. Was the leak a fitting? A cracked pipe? Two cracked pipes? What exactly was leaking? 

It's the brass valve. The video is only the city intake. My fresh intake is also doing the same thing, but I don't have a video of that. I suspect its the same issue with the cracked valve.

[John E Davies]

If you can reach the parts, replacement should not be very hard, if you are at all handy. I would personally follow a previous suggestion to relocate the two valves further away from the cargo area door. Have you ever worked with threaded pipe fittings and Pex fittings?

John Davies

Spokane WA

Edited May 4, 2020 by John E Davies

[Stephen and Kelly]

20 minutes ago, John E Davies said:

If you can reach the parts, replacement should not be very hard, if you are at all handy. I would personally follow a previous suggestion to relocate the two valves further away from the cargo area door. Have you ever worked with threaded pipe fittings and Pex fittings?

John Davies

Spokane WA

This is all new to me, but certainly willing and need to learn how to do more on my own. I assume to move them further inside will require running more Pex line and be a little more involved. In lieu of that, I was thinking that maybe wrapping the valves in some pipe insulation foam might provide some protection. Considering that I pumped anti-freeze (but did not blow out the lines) through those lines and they still cracked would suggest like mentioned earlier that it could have been a bad batch of fittings. All speculation though. I'll probably start with a replacement and if it happens again then move them further inside.

[topgun2]

Ollie404 - 

If you intend to do the replacement of the valves yourself then it really wouldn't be any more difficult to move those valves.  Both jobs require that you cut out the damaged valves.  To move the valves all you have to do is add in a pex connector/union to the existing piece(s) of pex, run additional pex to where you wish the valve to be located and then insert the new valve.

When you cut the old valve out it is more than likely that you will need to add in a short piece of new pex anyway unless there is enough slack in the existing line(s) so that you can simply put in the new valve.  The most difficult part of this whole process is "clamping" these new pieces of pex pipe and fittings into place.  Basically there are two methods of doing this.  You can replicate the method that was used at the factory - pex bands - that are tightened with a special tool that can be a bit expensive or you can use "shark bite" style fittings that are simply Pushed onto the pex and/or fittings.  These shark bites are expensive relative to the pex bands and there are reported cases of failure (read that leaks) if not installed properly or (possibly) due to vibration.  For a one shot deal it is probably less expensive to go the shark bite route versus buying the special tool.  On the other hand - if you can borrow that special tool then it will probably give you a more robust final job.

Good luck!

Bill

p.s.  there are a number of YouTube vids on both methods mentioned.  If you do not feel comfortable then virtually any plumber can do the job.

Edited May 4, 2020 by topgun2

[Mainiac]

took a while for the vidieo to download.

I blow the lines out twice. Add antifreeze after draining the water heater and putting it on bypass. I use the hand pump to put antifreeze into those two fittings, after winterizing the rest. Also pump the black tank flush valve.

I have seen an Oliver tech change out one of those fittings in about ten minutes at the 2019 Rally. I don't know the year or fittings, of the Oliver,  as they have changed some over the years...

Edited May 4, 2020 by Mainiac