Preventive Maintenance (leaks)

[wagenman]

I have read a lot of old and some new threads about people having issues and leaks in their coaches due to loose fittings in their plumbing system. I read in the construction manual for Heartland that they test all their coaches prior to sending them out of the factory. They test with both air pressure and water pressure, and this is a good thing I guess...

It also seems like a lot of the leaks people are getting are from something as simple as loose fittings or plumbing nuts that have became loose over time.. but of course they all seem to be in non easy to reach areas of the RV..

I want to go through my coach as a preventive measure and just double check my fittings before they leak to maybe save me some real headache down the road..

My question is, has anybody ever done this? Or am I just being over cautious for nothing?

If you have had leaks that were easy to fix, please tell what it was and how you fixed it.. and of course where it was on the coach.....

Also how can I find the high risk leak areas that a lot of people have had?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[jpmorgan37]

Mike;
I periodically check connections after putting some ?? miles on, and a lot depends on the type of roads I travel on. Rough roads require more attention then smooth roads. I check under sinks, at the UDC, in the basement around the hot water heater. Areas that are not easily accessible, I get my flashlight and look in those areas. It sure saves a lot of problems down the road because fittings sometimes loosen up. Pulling an 8 ton house over some of our less than perfect highways will shake a lot of things loose.

John

 

[Cirrus]

Here is one that I found to be loose on my rig. Check every sink drain (there is a large nut that can be tightened by using your fingers). When I got mine home I noticed water 'weeping' from under my bathroom sink. I tightened it, and then checked my kitchen sink drains, and they were both loose as well. This only takes a couple of minutes to do, and all other fittings were tight on my RV.

 

[Duramax1]

As well as a leaking kitchen sink drain, the connection to our hot water tank also leaked.

 

[JohnDar]

One area on older coaches that may pose a problem is the connection to the bathtub/shower faucet. My sister has an older SOB and it began to leak and soak the carpet in the hall while we were camped together this past summer. Only way to access was to cut an opening in the wall and tighten the fittings at the faucet. If you run into this, go to the hardware store first and get one of the plastic panels they sell for covering a hole in drywall. The opening for the smaller one should give you enough room to get at the fittings. Then cut the opening in the wall to just fit the dimensions for the cover. No other way I know to cover up the new access hole. Similar to repairing a leak in your home where there is no existing access.

A stethoscope is an excellent tool for pinpointing where a leak inside a wall is dripping.

 

[caddojay]

Here's another topic that may, or may not, need to be periodically checked. We developed a "bump" on the outside skin, just in front of the steps, after we had travelled 7500 miles last spring. Being the inquisitive person, I opened the wall from the basement and found that the power converter had shaken loose from its screwed down position. I know I didn't travel over any rough roads and the head of the screw that fastened it to a piece of plywood, looked to be sheared off. This allowed the converter to bounce next to the inside of the skin and wear a "bump".

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Mike, All of the answers you received were correct and no, you're not being over cautious. It's not hard to check the connections as every fixture has good access. Also get into the basement area behind the water heater and water hook ups and double check those as well. In our rig, the only one that's hard to reach is the shower drain. I can see it from the basement if I remove the wall that provides access to the plumbing so I just do a visual on that one. Don't forget the water pump connections.

 

[Sharon]

Big time leaks

We brought home our new Landmark a week ago today. The next morning it started to leak into the underbelly and was a mess. My husband had to crawl in there after taking off a panel to get an opening to it. The small line to the refrigerator water had split. He dried it out as best he could. Now the concern is the soggy insulation and the soaked electrical parts.
After my husband was asleep the vacuum started all by itself and wouldn't shut off so he had to get up and crawl under there again and it took him awhile before he could get that disconnected. So now he don't have water to the fridge or a vacuum to use. We call the dealel, who is two hours from here, and there was nothing much they could do. The next morning they made arrangments for us to take it in a week and a day from then to a dealer closer to them, even tho' they don't sell The Heartlands. We we hoping that someone would come to us, as this is awfully inconvenient but we still have to haul it in.
I have been unable to finish unpacking our stuff from our other trailer that we have stored.
I was washing dishes and I notice that the carpet that I was standing on was wet., The kitchen sink fittings were loose.
This part has nothing to do with leaks,except from me, because it made mne cry a lot. I had asked for a queen bed and when we got there to pick it up they had a king bed in there. It fits fine for showing however, when I put sheets, mattress pad and blanket on it and the bedspread it is impossible to tuck in on the sides. A king bed fits in snug with the mattress tight to the wall and also no place to walk into the closet.
Other than that everything is fine. I hope that our next week is better. Can let you know later.
Sharon Hoganson

 

[wagenman]

WOW.. I am sorry to hear about your issues you have had with your new coach Sharon... I can not believe that it almost seems like everybody in here has had some sort of water/leak issue... I will go through mine and make sure every water fitting I can find is tight...

I hope the reps from Heartland read these (and I am sure they do) cause it sounds like they need to spend a little more time dealing with water problems on their new coaches... I mean it is one thing to have a leak after traveling for several thousand miles but its another to have one within the first couple of trips..or worse yet, on your first trip!!!!

Thank you all for your information on this topic... but please keep it going...

I want to believe that a little preventive maintenance will go a long way on this one..

 

[jpmorgan37]

Every time I read these horror stories, I feel for the buyer that has spent many thousands of dollars for their new RV. Many of these issues would be resolved before it left the dealers lot by doing a thorough predelivery inspection. We have to realize that these coaches have traveled hundreds, and in Sharon's case, thousands of miles to get to their home base or local dealer and need to be thoroughly checked over for things that will loosen up or shift in the initial transport. I know that we are all anxious to get our new RV and get it home, but it also will save a lot of grief and trips back to the dealer if these issues are resolved at the dealership prior to accepting the coach. There are a number of PDI checklist available, some of which have been listed on here in the past. I will send one to anyone interested, if you e-mail me your request.

John

 

[wagenman]

John, I wish I would have known about this site prior to taking my new 5er home.. cause my inspection was fast and worthless...

I was more into how poor the cleaning was of my unit, rather then looking past that and doing important inspections... my bad

I have read a couple of the PDF files that people have wrote for pre delivery checks and I dont think that I did any of it.. and now I am paying for it.. already

I have my first appointment tomorrow morning for a few minor warranty issues.. the most important one is the rear bunk slide does not go out all the way at the top.. the bottom gets tight, but the top has tons of play in it when out..

Other then that, I have noticed two fairly large scratches in the powder coat, and a hole in the wall where the rear door must have been slammed open.. of course so far they are being good about warranty things.. but I could have saved me a trip back if I would have done a good inspection prior to taking it home...

Oh well you live and learn I guess..lol

 

[Retyred]

water leaks

It is the responsibly of the factory for the water leaking problems and should not fall onto the dealer after all it is the factory building the unit. Sure fittings might leak once in a while but we are seeing a trend of poorly tightened fittings. I had two motor homes befor my Landmark and drove them thousands of miles and never had a leak. I have had three water leaks in this unit two of them were minor. The third was a ice maker line that blew off because the factory did not put the compression fitting together properly. If we had been out, our coach would have been flooded we were lucky but it could have been a disaster.

Retyred

 

[wagenman]

Retyred,

I agree... the water leaks are not the fault of the dealerships... I just got on a side tangent there about my poor inspection.. and yes I would have never thought so much about water problems if not for this site...

But one thing is for sure.. I am seeing..or should I say reading about a whole lot of water line issues with Heartland coaches... and like I said in the beginning if you read the construction "the inside story" manual it tells about how much testing goes into the water system in these coaches... i can not speak from personal experiance and hope that I never have any issues.. but I will definitely be keeping a close eye on my water lines...

 

[2010augusta]

Dittos

I picked up my Landmark in Indiana in November, and hauled back to Colorado to load it up and move to Texas for a few months in January. To my dismay my "factory winterized" unit wasn't. In the first week of use I found a broken shower mixing valve, three loose fittings at the water pump, seven loose crimp type clamps in the service area, loose fitting at both sinks, the water heater, outside shower and the winterize/bypass valves and the kitchen faucet had not been assemble correctly. I have no Idea how the could have passed any pressure test. luckily most of the items in the storage bin were in plastic tubs because I had a quarter inch of standing water in parts of the storage area. I will definitely keep a close eye on all the water lines for the next few weeks.

 

[tkdmike]

Same story here except I had an exceptional dealer who went through all the fittings during PDI. Still, when I got the trailer home both kitchen sinks leaked, the flush fitting for the sewer tank leaked and I'm still having minor weeping in one sink. I only live about 60 miles from the dealer but since we're full-timing and I'm working, I've just dealt with them myself.

This does seem to be a consistent issue with these trailers. A PDI and a dealer who takes PDIs seriously is worth its weight in gold - saved me a ton of trouble surfacing issues before I drove off the lot.

 

[kkamshop]

We had water in our basement when we got our new Augusta home too.
The dealer had put some water in to check for leaks and said everything was fine.
So we are going through it connection by connection to see what's leaking.

The fresh water lines are holding air pressure, but the city water connection appears to have a leak. Still have to check the drain lines.
Also, the anode rod was not installed in the water heater, but we caught that before the air pressure check.
We have not checked with water yet.

On the bright side, this is a great way to become familiar with the workings of our new rig

 

[leftyf]

If I could find the person or persons responsible for the installation of the plumbing, kitchen sink, and drainage in the kitchen...I'm afraid I'd have to run over him/her with my wheel chair...and then back over the body. Twice. That area has been a source of misery since day 1.

I'm replacing the shower head, and flex pipe going to it...and the valve controlling water flow. And am going to move them to a higher location.
The location of the control valves prevents me from sitting on the built in seat. So I have to use a small bathing stool inside the shower...not a lot of room to bathe.

QA/QC? Honestly, I ain't seen a lot.

 

[Bob&Patty]

Boy it is sure hard to please a cranky, peg-legged old soldier. Thats it Lefty, let all out, get it off your chest. AAAAAAAAh, now doesn't that feel better. Bob

 

[SLJKansas]

We had leaks in our water lines, the dealer came out and had to replace 6 of the crimp connectors with hose clamps. He also found that the plastic "L" fittings on both valves of the water heater bypass valves were dripping. He took them apart and resealed them with plumers paste.

The dealer had ran a water leak test, but I don't know how much pressure they used.

 

[wishingfulltime]

Our Sundance unit had a leak in the bedroom sink. The fitting on the hot water handle blew right off sending water everywhere. Had to clear out the bottom and dry everything out. Carry plenty of new line and connectors.