Water inlets and plumbing

[Zephod]

How do you do your water inlets? I'm going to have the actual inlet pointed straight down, hidden by the skirt. Basically, you have to know where it is to attach a hose.

Passing it up through the floor, how do you attach it to the floor?

With my waste pipe, I used a piece of pvc 3/4 tubing that went through the floor and glued a collar each side. I want to use 1/2 inch piping for the water inlet but I'd like to use the high pressure screw fitting lines Ive seen in Lowes. They're usually blue or black with a nice brass nut on each end with a black o ring seal. Not sure what they're called.

An alternative would be to use pex and jubilee clips. I'm not sure about the availability of Y connectors for pex nor attaching pex to faucets. Similarly I'm not sure about how pex would handle heat from hot water.


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[bevans6]

PEX has every adapter you might require for a water supply system, including adaptors to connect it to common 1/2" copper pipe, it uses it's own crimp clamps or simple press-in fittings, but never jubilee clips (they completely won't work and will guarantee leaks under any kind of pressure), and it's specifically designed for water systems including hot water.  Part of the PEX system includes flexible copper lines that can be used to connect to the hot water tank outlet in some installations.  PEX is all I use for any water plumbing these days.  A big advantage of PEX for our use is that it's remarkably resistant to damage from freezing.

[richard5933]

There are special fittings used in both copper and plastic/PEX systems designed for anchoring the pipes at the points they cross through a support member. Check the bins where you buy your pipe - there should be something ready made that will work better than gluing things together. Search online for something called a 'plumbing wing fitting' and you'll see what I'm talking about. They are commonly used to anchor the pipe behind the wall to stabilize the shower head.

On my bus the water inlet is 1/2 copper which terminates in a standard garden hose fitting. It is anchored to the side of the bay using standard issue copper mounting clamps with a small piece of hardwood as a spacer off the wall to make it easier to use the connection. I'd recommend sticking with something similar so that no matter where you are it will be simple and easy to connect to the water supply. I've got our regular hose set up with solid brass quick connect fittings to mate to the water inlet. I've also added a water pressure regulator (just a small brass RV thing) to keep from blowing the bus plumbing if I connect to a water source with abnormally high pressure (happens more than you'd think.)

You should have some type of cover for your inlet as well, especially if it is going to be pointing straight down. Lots of dirt and debris down there an you wouldn't want it on the inlet. Ours is in a bay, so I set up a quick connect with nothing on it but a brass cap. When we're not connected to city water I just insert the quick connect to plug the opening. If it was outside the bay or under the bus I'd add some type of additional cover for sanitary reasons. Make sure that there is a separation between the inlet and outlet as well, for the same reasons. I'm sure there is code which covers this.

Richard

[j.m.jackson]

I've got a generic rv water inlet fixture on the side of mine, just above the level of the tank. It allows filling of the tank, venting the tank, and running straight off city line pressure. Three fittings on the backside. I'm plumed with vinyl hose, cpvc, and pvc right now.

If I touch anything on it, it'll be converted to PEX. Fittings are cheap, lines are cheap, and it's very durable and flexible.


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[Iceni John]

Because I don't want to drag my freshwater hose under the bus, I have water inlets on both sides.   On each side there's a 3/4" garden hose connector (capped off with a 3/4" Sch.40 threaded hex plug to keep out nasties), a 3/4" brass check valve, and a length of 3/4" pipe connecting to the opposite side.   By opening a valve I can also fill either or both my tanks from these inlets, or I can fill each tank through its own gravity fill inlet  -  these are marine stainless deck fills, much nicer that the usual plastic RV fittings.

All plumbing inside is 1/2" PEX, color-coded red and blue for hot or cold.   There's an 8-branch individually-valved distribution manifold so each appliance has its own continuous water line, two pressure gauges to read the incoming city water pressure and the in-bus pressure after the Watts 263A regulator, a Watts 2-gallon pressure accumulator tank, a G.E. whole-house filter, and to move water from the tanks I have two SHURflo 2088 pumps on a slide-out tray  -  either can be removed for maintenance or repair in less than a minute with no tools.   All this is in a space less than 12" wide between the driver-side tank and luggage bay.

Make all your plumbing easily accessible  -  sooner or later you'll need to reach or work on something.   Someone in the RV yard here with a newish Winnebago had to tear out half his kitchen because of a leak behind a cabinet, not what you want from a 6-figure RV less than two years old.

John

[Zephod]

The outlet is easy to identify. That's a garden hose fitting also.

I don't yet have a black tank... just a bucket and a grit container.

I'll put a simple screw cap over the hose thread for the input. As long as I let the water run for a few minutes, it should be fine.

I don't see why a Jubilee clip won't work. In American parlance I believe it's a screw clamp.


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[bevans6]

Go ahead and try a jubilee clip. Tell us how they do.  I bought the special tools and solid copper clamping rings because I was bored and had nothing else to do just before a trip, not because all my brand new plumbing was leaking at every joint...  and I used Oetiker clamps, not dime store Jubilee hose clamps.

[j.m.jackson]

You have to use the crimp rings and crimping tool with PEX. But it doesn't leak. I have a whole house here plumbed with it, with manifolds in the basement, so there are no joints between the manifold and the device using the water.


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[Iceni John]

Z, hose clamps will NOT work on PEX.   Either use the proper clamps and tool, or use the push-in Sharkbite fittings.   And no, it's not a wicked capitalist conspiracy by that dastardly evil cartel of PEX manufacturers, it's just how it is.

John 

[TomC]

I have the fresh water fitting on the left side mid point about 5ft up from the ground. It has a check valve in it that doesn't work anymore. So I just turn off the pumps, crack one of the sink faucets to relieve the pressure then go ahead and hook up the hose. At my water tank (under my bed) I have a fill valve that I turn on to allow water into the tank. With the valve closed, I can use city water-but typically do not. I prefer to use my tank an pumps since I can easily turn off the pumps. Yes you can see it from the outside, but-my bus is now a motorhome. It has been a motorhome longer than it was a transit bus (15 years as a transit bus, I've owned it now for 24 years). Good Luck, TomC

[Dave5Cs]

One line with ball valve goes to our tank and one line Teed off that goes to the house plumbing with another ball valve in it. Turn off house when filling and it fills the tank. Turn that off and open the house valve and it goes to all faucets etc on the house. If we are not hooked up turn on the pump and the pump pulls water out of the tank and goes to the house. All Pex fittings and rings with sharkbite white pipe.