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Cold trip update and Monty probs...
Hi folks,
Well we survived our quite cold Salt Lake/Twin Falls outing. The Monty furnace [with supplemental Pelonis ceramic] kept us pretty cozy. It was easy to keep the entire trailer at 72 [which is hotter than we really needed it]. We used about 1/3 tank of propane each 24 hours. I thought that was very good too. And since I did not want to fill my onboard water tank we chose to hook to park water and let the kitchen tap trickle overnight.
Now for the interesting part of the tale; On the morning of the 3rd day I was in the shower at 6:30 AM and Kathy was walking Sami the lab. Suddenly she yelled back in "HEY THERE IS WATER POURING OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE RV." I ran out [after I dressed of course] and it looked something like Niagra! I was pretty sure at first that the plumbing had frozen and burst. And then after I thought about how well protected the Monty plumbing is I doubted that freezing was the prob. Then it occurred to me what had most likely happened; The pressure regulator I use had malfunctioned and the 80 lb plus park water had damaged my plumbing. So, we shut off the water and resolved to fix it when we got home. I pretty much do not mind tearing just about anything apart so removing the belly pan was no big deal. And before we departed that park we drained the galley tank. Well on our last night out I decided to connect a new pressure regulator and turn on the water. I really expected it to of course leak out the bottom again. What a suprise when it did not leak a drop. And, yes now I was really confused!
So we continued to use the water system and upon our return I removed the belly pan sections and the foil reflective layer and a funny thing is that there was no evidence of a leak [removing the pan took me about 1.5 hours]. So I connected the house water supply [with regulator] to the RV system and still no leaks! Then just as I was really becoming confused [as I was lying under the RV looking up] I noticed the galley holding tank was hanging down significantly on one side. Closer inspection revealed that one channel support had a broken weld. It was at that point that I realized the origin of our Niagra Falls-belly pan gusher. Remember we had left the galley sink water trickeling all night? Well at the same time we did not have the galley dump connected to the sewer. Thus, as we slept the tank became full to the brim and that is apparently when the weld broke and the tank dropped [shifted down on one side] and caused water to spill out the top [or it was previously broken and all it was waiting for was a full tank]. Just to confirm this theory today I ran the galley water with the dump closed [waited until the galley holding tank was completely full] and guess what? Niagra falls our the bottom of the RV once again! So, tomorrow I will removed the tank and get a real good look at what really caused the leak [you can expect photos]. And of course I will be really securing the tank before reassembly.
Incidentally, during my under body inspection with the pan removed I also noticed slide hydraulic lines and electrical conductors lying tight up against very sharp angle iron edges in several locations and brake neutral wires that slipped right out of the pinch connectors when barely touched.
I hope this story has not been too long [or too scary] for this forum.
Jim and Kathy [and Sami the Lab]
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