Hello Everyone,
I'm hoping that one of you might have encountered this problem before on our FG trailers and has some further insight.
When winterizing last month, I observed the antifreeze to squirt out the city water inlet. I tried to reseat the check valve, and at first it wobbled around in there, water/antifreeze still squirted out. After a couple more tries, I think I got the O ring to seat in behind the plunger OK, as it merely dripped a little, but I'm not quite sure.
I've watched videos online of folks replacing the city water inlet on standard trailers (one even had PEX inside), and it seems that for our units, one would have rivets on the outside to drill out first, rather than screws. Then it looks like you get behind the plastic fitting on the outside with a putty knife to loosen old butyl. The videos I've seen is that they simply unscrewed the brass male end of the old fitting, and screwed on another with PTFE tape.
Probably not that simple on our rigs with the PEX, right? I'm just concerned that if I take it to an RV shop, I'll have more concerns if they don't do the PEX right inside and it
leaks. It's a very tight squeeze in there to work (I have a
Scamp 13 standard), as the PEX is under the sink counter inside a skinny cabinet door.
I also assume you can't just take out the plastic retainer ring, pull out the plunger, O ring and spring, and replace from the outside?
A thread I read on an
Escape forum says to never push in that plunger while system is pressurized. Since I'm not all that learned here, does that mean while the fresh water pump is on? Once you've used the pump, seems to me the system is pressurized.
I replaced the washer/screen (which wasn't dirty, but the rubber washer was all compressed and otherwise I felt it should be replaced). In the end, I did get the plunger to move down straight, releasing water and/or anti-freeze), but it still seemed to drip some (although not squirt out).
Trailer is in storage now, but I know this is probably going to come back to haunt me in spring, and of course, it won't work then! If this is simply screwing on a male brass threaded fitting from the outside with PTFE as the standard RV videos show, and drilling out/replacing rivets, I probably can handle it. PEX tubing and fittings, I am clueless about.
Does anyone have a step by step thread they've posted on just this repair, in case it's what I face come spring time? I wonder if my plumber would take his tools outside for me at an hourly rate....ha ha!
Even from the RV videos, it doesn't look like you can simply replace the check valve itself, but with my pea brain, I surely don't understand why. All help/advice is appreciated as I want to think about and prepare for this come spring time, along with my new tire plans.
Sincerely,
Wendy