73 Brave D20 Fresh Water Project

[Zombago]

I figured I'd start a new post to detail work and progress on my fresh water system upgrade Project for my 73 Brave D20.

Let's start with a little background. Like most owners of a classic winnebago from this era, I don't have "working" pressurized water system. I still have the original 26 gallon steel cylinder tank. I also have the original compressor. Everything is hooked up with copper tubing and plumbing. The compressor or switch to turn it on doesn't work, so I can't get any water through the pipes unless I am hooked up to a city feed. It also looks like my original manual/gravity fill for the tank has been JB welded together, so like most it also doesn't open. The gauge also always reads 20 PSI, so that doesn't work either. Last trip out I hooked up to a city water feed that must have been well over 100 psi, and even though I had a water regulator preset for 45psi that the water hose plugged into it blew the tank. So I knew the system had to be replaced, now I'm determined to get it working using a modern set up with a plastic tank and an on demand pump.


Between reviews, youtube videos and comments on fresh water RV systems I've seen plenty of complaints about excessive pump noise and seen pump cycling for uneven flow, and knew I and my wife would want something a little more consistent and quiet when it came to our water usage, especially considering the pump would be right under our bed. I originally settled on getting an accumulator to sit between the pump, after my head swam after looking at silencer kits, pump isolators, hammer valves, and other things to keep a pump quiet and pressure consistent. After I didn't win an action for a pump and accumulator for marine use, I figured I could always wait on getting one, and that the investment would best be spent on a good pump.


So based on others comments and feedback I went with a 5 chamber variable speed pump, of which the only brand I could find was the Aquatec. Sure it is twice as much as the others at the same GPM like the Flojets or the ShurFlos, but I figured more consistent pressure, the variable speed, and quieter operation would be worth it. We'll find out, I'm sure. The other other benefit to me of the Aquatec was the quick disconnect fittings it comes standard with, but more on that later.


Space is also an issue, the existing compartment where the water system is also doubles as the wiring closet with fuse panels, the original 120v to 12v converter, in addition to some extra storage for tools, hoses, belts, and a little rat's nest. The old tank cylinder is about 38" long and has a 14" diameter, which works out to about 26 gallons. My measurements without changing anything limited me to a little over 41"L x 24"W x 14"H. Changing out the old cylinder with a rectangular tank of roughly the same dimensions as the original will get you several gallons more as most 30 gallons rectangular tanks easily fit in the void left by the old tank, but I took a chance and wanted to maximize my capacity and went with a 42 gallon tank from PPL MotorHomes. I also looked at tanks from ClassACustoms on ebay as they were also very affordable. These do seem on the thin side of tanks, so we'll see how that holds up in the long run. Most suppliers and manufacturers don't seem to post specifications on their thickness. I did consider Moeller since they have thicknesses of 0.3", which seems great, but dimensions are limited, cost was certainly more (they are using more materials), as well as the increased shipping made me pass. Other things to consider are the fitting sizes, number of fittings, and if customizations are in order. I wanted 4 fittings, one each for filling, venting, draining, and to feed the pump. You'd be surprised by the number of tanks that only have three, or have none at all. The last thing I wanted to do was to put some holes in or ruin the integrity of a new tank that I spent $200-$300 on plus shipping only to screw it up.


So onto the project. I firmly believe in having a good plan, especially since I've already started several projects on the old winnie, only to realize I bought the wrong things, or needed more parts to make them work. The basic tenant to me in this is changing as little as possible, the last thing I want is to take a "working" system, and then totally break it. Considering I know the rest of the plumbing works, I really only need to concentrate on getting a new tank in place, and changing out the compressor for a pump. Armed with enough adapters, hopefully not much more needs to be changed as I should be able to reuse or connect to most of the existing plumbing without having to redo it all.

When planning for the new system, the design element I liked most about the old compressed system is the simplicity of having a single feed of water into the winnie. You didn't need one gravity fill for the tank and one for city water hook up to the plumbing, like I have seen on newer RVs. Since I plan on doing some serious boondocking with the Zombago, and the manual fill is sealed shut, I still need a way get water into her when I don't have city water hookup available. While I can get a new fill compartment that has both, I'm not ready to start cutting out parts of the exterior just yet.


Researching this problem I did stumble upon this modification adding some extra plumbing and T-valves to adapt the pump to fill the fresh water system from external sources. While the concept is great, it seemed complicated, and I know I am accident prone or I would forget to set the valves right and do something wrong. This is when I started thinking about the quick disconnect fittings on the pump I wanted to get. One solution was to put a quick disconnect coupler on the tank end of the fill, and another on the plumbing, this way I could the use quick disconnects when I wanted to fill the tank or just wanted to hook up city water to the plumbing, then I could use the quick disconnects on the pump to route to either the plumbing, or the the tank if I want to fill from another source like a portable tank. This still seemed a little complicated to me, so then I opted for this simple design.


The new design called for a 3 way valve on the water feed into the RV, this way I can choose whether the water coming in goes straight to the plumbing, or to the fill the tank which are the typical configurations mostly used. Since it just takes a standard hose hookup on the outside, I can get another set of quick disconnect fittings for the pump that I can screw my fresh water hoses into. With a shut off valve on the output from the tank that normally goes to the pump, I can disconnect the tank from the pump, hook the pump input to a garden hose to pump water from a portable tank or other fresh water source and hook the pump output to the water feed into the RV to fill the tank using my fresh water hoses. This seemed the most simple method I could come up with to ease some serious boondocking, filling, and the convenience of hook ups to fresh water system.

That's about it for now. I just ordered the parts, so I'll start documenting the process, and share with the forum as this project progresses. Thanks for reading.

[Wantawinnie]

Fairly close to what I recently did for plumbing in my Chieftain. Original copper pipe into pex. Opening the top valve fills the water tank when lower valve is shut. Open lower valve and shut top valve gives city water. Water pump pulls from bottom of tank. I didn't see any three way pex fittings where I bought stuff.

[minniewebbie]

This is great, thanks for the write-up, I am looking at doing this soon... now I am going to have to look into water tank replacement also.  I do not like the look of the old metal tank.... N:(