Raptor waterlines

[JHickman]

It appears to me that I have 2 waterlines that go up into the passenger wall from the basement. I am having problems with water freezing somewhere in the kitchen as I only get cold water in the bathroom. Everything was fine before cold snap. It is a 3812. I thought all lines would be ran thru the belly with the duct work to prevent freeze up. Any help is appreciated.

[chuckster57]

Welcome to the forum

I’m not familiar with your specific model, but we just had a thread about a members kitchen island freezing, and it turned out to be the low point drains.

[JHickman]

After further investigation...the waterline that feeds the hot water tank leaves the basement and goes up into the passenger side wall,goes over the kitchen slide and then goes back into the floor and comes up in the island. The hot water to bathroom also runs thru the wall. WTF was Keystone thinking? How hard is it going to be to drop the belly pan and run the lines down the floor with the ducting like it should have been done in the first place?

[JRTJH]

Before you go ripping everything out to change the routing, stop for a bit and try to "reason why".... Keystone seldom does the the "more expensive, hard way" without a reason. For them, as for you, if it makes more sense and is easier to route plumbing through the basement, they'll do it that way. If there's a "circuitious route that meanders up, across, down and then to the island" there may be a reason.

Ripping the basement apart, and then finding tanks and bulkheads in the way that make it impossible to "directly route plumbing lines" is just one of the obstacles you may discover.....

The Raptor 3712bs is about a 10-15 year old model. If there was a "design flaw" I'm sure someone would have discovered it and complained by now. Maybe there's a reason why it's the way it is and you're just not yet seeing that reasoning.....

[flybouy]

It would help if you shared some information on your rig. If you go up and click on the "UserCP" and create a signature. List the make, full model, and year of your trailer and tow vehichle. That signature will then show up at the bottom of your posts and folks won't have to ask for it.

[JRTJH]

I was going to suggest the same thing as Marshall. You only list "3712bs" as your RV. Keystone, to my knowledge, never built a 3712bs. They did build, in the 2006-2011 era, a RAPTOR 3712TS and a RAPTOR 3812TS. Both have a peninsula kitchen, not an island kitchen and the water heater is located in the leg of that peninsula.

In 30 years of dealing with vacuum formed FILON trailer walls, I've never seen a water line embedded in a sidewall of any trailer and in both the 3712TS and the 3812TS, it's "impossible" for the hot water line to go "up, over the slide and back down" to feed the sink. In both those models, the sink is "next to the water heater, at most 24" from the hot water outlet on the water heater.

So, someting's amiss. There appears to be a HUGE information gap between what you're reporting and what's in your profile....

[chuckster57]

Just now getting back to this thread, and I agree with John. I have never seen any fresh water lines go up exterior side walls and definitely not over a slide. I don’t have 30 yrs of working on RVs but I do have over 30 yrs of owning them.

[JHickman]

My hauler is a 2011 Raptor 3812ts.

[JRTJH]

Looking at the floorplan for the 2011 3812TS, the water heater is located aft of the kitchen slide, mounted in the cabinet that connects to the kitchen peninsula and sink. The furnace sits on the floor of the same cabinet, so the water heater is just above the furnace. BOTH are aft of the kitchen slide and, if your trailer has the OEM refrigerator, Norelco gas/electric, there is no ice maker, so no water "in the slide".

The cold water line "should" be routed from the fresh water tank/pump/city water inlet, through the belly, up into the cabin INBOARD of the frame rail, connect to the water heater and "Tee" over to the sink cold tap. The water heater "hot water outlet" should exit the top of the water heater, "Tee" down into the belly (to service the bathroom and the other leg of the Tee goes to the sink hot tap.

ALL of the plumbing is, from what I can see, at least 18" from the trailer sidewall, with the exception of the city water inlet and the fresh water tank gravity fill.

I see no reason for any plumbing line to go "up and over the kitchen slide" as there is nothing that uses water located there and just forward of that slide is the main entry door, another "obstacle" to routing any plumbing lines above the slide.

If you have "frozen lines" my best guess would be that if you look under the trailer, just forward of the axles, you'll see two "pipes pointing down" with caps on them. Those are your low point drains. They are filled with water and if exposed to "near zero temperatures" will freeze. As the water freezes up those pipes, it will reach the "main line to the kitchen" (just above the coroplast belly cover) and stop water flow to the galley. Since there's "only one water line from the pump to the galley, where it feeds the water heater and the cold tap on the sink), as soon one line freezes, then all water flow to the galley and all hot water flow to all faucets will stop. You'll only have cold water flowing in the bathroom shower, sink and toilet. Everything else will be frozen.

How to "fix it" ???? insulate the low point drains, fully expect that any trailer exposed to 0F temps is going to have frozen lines and the only "pro-active way to prevent the problems" is to prevent air from blowing under the trailer. That means, for most people, using skirting around the trailer...

If you're going to be "full timing" in that trailer in central Kansas this winter, you will have more than a few days of potentially damaging cold. Insulating those drains, preventing cold wind from blowing under the trailer and keeping the furnace running are the only ways I know to reduce the probabilty that you'll have frozen pipes.

Here's the floorplan that I used to make these comments: