Scamp 13' water line routing?

[JohnF]

Attached is the manual for the Scamp 13' water layout, but it doesn't show the hot water heater or the shower. Wish they would update their manual; feels a bit like they are stuck in 1975 some days...

We pick the new trailer up in 10 days so I can't just venture out and take a look.

Where are the fresh water lines and drains run?
Roughly what size and material are they?

Are they above the floor in presumably the heated areas w/ our furnace? Or are most of them run underneath the OSB floor and more weather exposed?

Clearly the black & gray water tank valves and outlets are underneath.

Are these 1/2" plastic tubing?

I ask because I'm thinking of:
- stuffing a bit of simple pipe insulation as possible on any fresh water lines under the floor
- wrapping a bit of "heat tape" on any fresh water lines under the floor

At the worst I anticipate a few nights of mid-to-upper 20's for overnight lows where being able to use the water system would still be incredibly useful. In these use cases I'd never have a city water connection hooked up over night; purely the inside-nice-and-toasty fresh water tank source. And I'd simply pour a bit of RV antifreeze in the gray & black water tanks that are more exposed.

[cpaharley2008]

You should be fine with your heat on and water heater on, most lines are inside and the heat should keep them from freezing.

[honda03842]

As Jim stated, all fresh water lines are inside except the feed hose to city water. At night we simply disconnect city water if freezing is expected.

Though the city water feed hose is plastic it is under pressure. Any line under pressure does not have much room for expansion, most of it's margin is taken up by pressure.

We have never had an inside water line freeze with temps in the 20s. Actually we have never had the inside temperature drop below 36F when temps dropped to 20F.

The Black tank is virtually an inside tank and should not freeze at those temps nor should it's drain freeze.

As to the gray tank, our approach is to not have the gray tank full, but rather nearly empty. First it's in contact with the floor which is warm. Second. should any thing freeze there's room for it to move. I've never seen a problem at these temps either.

Any residual water in the shower drain line should be OK. This hose line is rubber/plastic not under pressure and should easily handle any expansion due to freezing. This line is outside below the floor and runs from the shower drain to the grey tank.

I believe all grey and black plastic pipes outside the trailer are at least an 1 1/4.

[JohnF]

Great info - thanks.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Let me add a bit to this. Last winter we in Big Bend, TX when the temperatures dropped to 5° for two nights and were in the teens for 2 nights before and one or two nights after the 5° nights. We had no problems with water lines freezing. We didn't attempt to empty the gray water tank which rarely over half full, but I thing the valve was probably frozen shut.

No toilet, shower, hot water heater to cause problems.