My plumbing needs a good sort-out...

[Canalsman]

Ooh err, missus!

My Autotrail Dakota, now 16 years old, has a number of problems with the fresh water supply plumbing. Basically it needs the underslung tanks removing and all the associated pipework renewing.

This will require the use of a lift. And someone who knows what they are doing and can be relied upon to do a good job.

I have not had good experiences in general with motorhome dealers and their repair services. The only good one was John's Cross, now long out of business.

I'm looking for personal recommendations. The location doesn't really matter, I'm happy to travel, but needs to be in England or Wales.

All suggestions are very welcome...

 

[wildebus]

Ooh err, missus!

My Autotrail Dakota, now 16 years old, has a number of problems with the fresh water supply plumbing. Basically it needs the underslung tanks removing and all the associated pipework renewing.

This will require the use of a lift. And someone who knows what they are doing and can be relied upon to do a good job.

I have not had good experiences in general with motorhome dealers and their repair services. The only good one was John's Cross, now long out of business.

I'm looking for personal recommendations. The location doesn't really matter, I'm happy to travel, but needs to be in England or Wales.

All suggestions are very welcome...

Are you sure it is possible without the entire motorhome body being lifted away from the chassis? Looking underneath on my Autotrail of the same era when I was looking into a water supply problem, this is the conclusion I came to anyway as it looked like the tank sits on Chassis members?
I came to the conclusion that the only viable way to fix a water tank issue without a massive amount of extra work was to cut away the water tank in situ and then somehow slide in a replacement in its place, or fit an new inboard water tank under the bench seat or maybe the bed with your model?

Could well be totally wrong on that, and hopefully so.

 

[Canalsman]

The tanks don't necessarily have to be removed. It's the connections and pipework that require attention. I had assumed that the tanks would be removed as part of the process but thankfully they are fine.

 

[Glandwr]

LVS Dave Newall (Telford) MHer himself one man band. Excellent chap and very honest. Not a dealer

 

[Canalsman]

LVS Dave Newall (Telford) MHer himself one man band. Excellent chap and very honest. Not a dealer

Thank you. I'll give him a call tomorrow...

 

[Canalsman]

Quick update...

I've solved the problem. I have a Shurflow pump which I replaced a few years ago because its predecessor had started drawing air in through a faulty gasket. This was evidenced by a slight water leak.

The past few days I've been getting large amounts of air coming out of the taps with some force. I decided that the filter bowl connections and screw threaded bowl were the culprits and tried cleaning the seals and using PTFE tape to improve the seal. No joy.

I concluded that there was a leak on the feed pipe between tank and pump. Hence the need for help.

Today I put back the original pump which I'd repaired previously with gasket compound. All is now fixed and the original pump is way quieter than the newer one.

I have concluded that the gasket has failed on the newer pump but without any water loss to point the finger.

Good result and worth remembering if you ever have a problem with air being drawn through with the water.

 

[wildebus]

Quick update...

I've solved the problem. I have a Shurflow pump which I replaced a few years ago because its predecessor had started drawing air in through a faulty gasket. This was evidenced by a slight water leak.

The past few days I've been getting large amounts of air coming out of the taps with some force. I decided that the filter bowl connections and screw threaded bowl were the culprits and tried cleaning the seals and using PTFE tape to improve the seal. No joy.

I concluded that there was a leak on the feed pipe between tank and pump. Hence the need for help.

Today I put back the original pump which I'd repaired previously with gasket compound. All is now fixed and the original pump is way quieter than the newer one.

I have concluded that the gasket has failed on the newer pump but without any water loss to point the finger.

Good result and worth remembering if you ever have a problem with air being drawn through with the water.

good stuff

Interesting to me as well as the reason I was able to make an initial comment about the tanks is I looked at these as I had a problem with the pump priming and when I asked the previous owner of the Motorhome if he ever had issues, he said he did with the priming and he replaced the sureflo pump with a new one with no effect, so that took the pump out the picture (so I thought).
After 18 months of living with this issue (needing to mess around with the pump fittings on each fillup from empty), I decided to just change the pump just in case before investigating the pipework and tank further - and the new pump fixed it!
The old pump worked perfectly EXCEPT it would not do the initial priming. The new pump primes the system in around 60 seconds.