Getting it out is fairly easy, as the sinks and shower simply drain to the rear and pour out the opening below the "dump valve". The dump valve holds back the contents of the "black water tank" - or the collection from the commode. Up until the mid-1970's, Airstream didn't include a "gray water tank" - so the sinks and shower didn't have to be collected and stored before being dumped.
That's not the case today though. If you don't have a gray water tank you're expected to use a separate portable gray water tank, sometimes called a "blue boy".
Bringing water onto the trailer is a different story. Normally there are two potential sources... a fresh water tank that you fill or a "city water" connection that allows you to connect a pressurized hose at a campsite.
My trailer only had a fresh water connection - and at some point someone put a garden spigot on there - I guess thinking it made it easier to connect a hose for filling.
The other side of this spigot simply drains into a large polyethylene tank located under the street side bunk. The present system is not pressurized. Back in the day, as they say, the tank would have been metal and a small air compressor would have blown air into the tank, thus creating pressure to force the water out the pipes and feeding the various fixtures.
At some point in the last 55 years the original tank was removed and the poly tank was installed, along with a 12V fresh water pump. There's a flimsy plastic hose between the 1/2" fitting on the tank and the pump inlet. It's technically not under pressure but it's hardly something that I would trust to hold back 20 gallons of water.
Moving aft, you can see the new hot water heater that Frank installed while the trailer was at his spa in Baltimore getting a lift and tuck. The new hot water heater is in stark contrast to the mish-mash of tangled copper tubing that surrounds it. The line wrapping around to the side is the propane line. The others are all water lines... cold on the bottom and hot on the top.
There is no city water connection on this trailer. The plumbing is fed solely by the freshwater tank and the 12V pump that pressurizes it. Just a little further aft of the hot water heater, the lines bend toward the side of the trailer and then route along the wall to the rear bathroom.
There is a LOT going on in a very small space under the bathroom sink. There are the hot and cold lines for the sink, hot and cold for the shower (on the left below), cold for the kitchen sink-style sprayer - call it a "bidet" to sound more sophisticated - but it's purpose is to clean the commode after you do your business. The sprayer hose has dry rotted and is no longer connected. The shower hose had also dry rotted and needed to be replaced. Oh, and one more cold line going to the toilet for the actual "flushing". I had to re-pack or replace all of the valves in this area.
Both P-traps in the two sinks had rusted through and needed to be replaced. Otherwise the drain systems appear to be fully functional. The dump valve is stuck in the open position at the moment. I can't close it but I'd rather have it stuck open than closed. I'll save that for another day. The dump valves made prior to 1964 are no longer serviceable and need to be completely replaced.
The copper lines were a mess, to be put it kindly. It was interesting to see the effect of freezing in the lines. The 3/8 lines had expanded to in some places to larger than 3/8" but still smaller than 1/2". There was a series of copper-to-rubber-to-copper patches here and there, where apparently leaks had been repaired in the past.
It all had to go but that was easier said than done. I'm going to assume that the plumbing was installed before the cabinetry so getting my hands back far enough to cut out the myriad copper lines required being one part mechanic and one part contortionist. But I got it all cleared out eventually.
I used PEX tubing for the new fresh water system, blue for cold and red for hot. I replaced the freshwater pump with a new Shurflo Evolution 3 gpm unit and installed a strainer prior to it to catch any debris that might accidentally get into the tank (not that it could get past the spigot).
From the pump the water is pressurized and goes into a manifold, of sorts. The line on the right goes to the kitchen sink, the next line goes to the hot water heater, then to the rear bath, then to a drain and the final line on the left is a newly installed city water connection. The line with the valve is the drain line... if I open that the system can be pumped dry.
All the lines in the back under the sink are plumbed with PEX now.
I had to cut a hole in the side of the trailer to install a new city water connection. I don't know if that's taboo but I figured I'd rather have an easy to access water connection than a hard to access one, or none at all.
From the inside, the water connection goes to a braided flex hose and then into a PEX line back to the manifold. There's a check valve in the water connection to keep the water from being pushed out by the fresh water pump and there's a valve in the pump to keep the city water from being pushed into the fresh water tank. So the manifold can be fed by either source.
On the outside of the trailer, the new city water connection looks like it's been there since the day this trailer left Ohio. Okay, it doesn't look 55 years old but it does look like it belongs there, at least to my eye.
A new bathroom faucet adds a nice finishing touch.
And not to be outdone, the kitchen sink got a new faucet too - and it swivels to feed either sink, just like the original faucet.
It was very gratifying to finally put some water in the tank and start the new fresh water pump. It was exciting to hear the water forcing it's way out though the lines, filling the hot water heater and, ultimately, coming out the faucets. The hot water heater fired up on the first try (thanks again Frank!). The fresh water pump will pump up to a certain pressure and then shut off. If it senses a drop in pressure (from a valve being opened) it will come back on. Plus it has a feature where it bleeds a little water back to the inlet side so the pump doesn't have to cycle on and off when there's low flow. So no accumulator is needed in this system.
When I first turned on the pump, it wouldn't shut off. After a little research online I diagnosed that a slight tweak to the pump was needed and, after a minor adjustment, everything is now running fine.
The system also works flawlessly on a city water connection and the new valve incorporates a pressure regulator so I don't have to worry about supplying too much pressure to my new PEX system.
Only one major system is left to address. There are no lights in the back two-thirds of the trailer. That's not a problem during the day but it gets a bit gloomy back there when it's dark.
Fixing that will come next.
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