Lake Charles LA RV show

Went to our local tv show today to see if we missed anything in Houston. I was quite pleased to see a couple Heartland Gateways on site from Southern RV a fairly large regional dealer. What really surprised me was a Heartland Rep also came to the show. His name was Joaquin and was fairly new to the job but he sounds like he will fit in well on whatever team he ends up on. He said he leads a lot of plant 2 tours right now and hopes to end up on one of the luxury fifth wheel teams.

Also while there we went through an open range fifth wheel with a residential reefer in a slide. I asked about freezing issues with water line. They have run the water line inside and into the slide insulation and claimed that by doing so it would not freeze. Thought that was an interesting fix for that issue.


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jassson007 said:

Also while there we went through an open range fifth wheel with a residential reefer in a slide. I asked about freezing issues with water line. They have run the water line inside and into the slide insulation and claimed that by doing so it would not freeze. Thought that was an interesting fix for that issue.


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I'm sittin' here thinking about that and I just can't wrap my head around how they can do that without the waterline being somehow exposed.
Just like all the wires, the waterline has to come from somewhere to get into the slide.
Did you look at or for the water line or do you think this might have been a salesman talking?
Great idea if they actually pull it off.

Peace
Dave

I was thinking the same thing Dave. In a slide that is flush with the walls on the ends, how would that water line transition into the coach?

In the past, we've had some floor plans where the kitchen counter in the slide, came out of the slide at the north end. In this case, the sink was at a 45 degree angle in the corner and to the right was a section of counter with a cabinet below it. That cabinet stuck out into the room a bit and had a slide roller under it. It was under that cabinet that the ice maker, hot, cold and gray water lines (all flexible) passed into the base of another cabinet where they transitioned to hard pipe (in the case of hot/cold and gray).

So on layouts like that, I know how an ice maker line stays inside the coach the whole way. Outside of that sort of layout - I'm at a loss.

Not sure what the flex rating is on heat tape/wire, but I saw something Dan Mayer posted the other day that he used under the coach to trace/wrap certain items for freeze prevention. But I'm wondering if that tape/wire could be used to trace a stainless braided refer water line, then get wrapped with insulation and then still be used outside under the slide. The line would be thick. Would it still flex well enough as the slide goes in and out? Would the heat element (tape/wire) hold up to all the flexing of the slide going in and out?

As an aside, two weeks ago in Kerrville, TX, Terry H replaced his 1/4" poly ice maker line with a stainess steel braided line. He found a 20 foot or so section of it at Lowes I think. This line is not likely any more resilient to freezing but it will go a long way towards resisting kinks, pinholes, abraision etc.

It was similar to what you both describe. The sink is on the wall perpendicular to the slide and the line comes out of the cabinet and goes into the slide under a piece of wood with what looks like broom bristles to hide it. The slide it goes into is a flush floor slide with no carpet transition (Lino in slide and on floor) and an angled piece of wood for it to transition over (did say that part was patented). The water line disapeared into the slide floor at that point. This was a open range factory rep telling me this. He also said that they compare to DRV in terms of quality of components and construction at $60 k less. It was hard not to lol in front of him. Then he started bad mouthing Thor and HL and I disagreed with him and excused myself from the conversation. Just thought it was a neat idea.


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That explains it then Andy - thanks.

jbeletti said:

That explains it then Andy - thanks.

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Not a problem. Just thought it was a neat fix but not sure how it could transfer to other floor plans.


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