I’ve been living in the motorhome for over four years. In all that time, I’ve had no water pressure. I took a cold shower once, by turning on the air compressor and ducking under the drip that came from the showerhead. It was not worth it one bit. I’ve attempted to fix the entire system multiple times, all have turned up failures. It’s been a long road…and I think that I’m finally done.

To sum up, here’s how the entire system should work: On the exterior of the motorhome you have a place to hook up to city water. It’s generally a regular hose connection. Here’s your only input – you hook your hose/city water here. In our case, the previous owner had a brass shut off valve installed which allowed us to shut down the water without having to run over to the hose origin. Also located here is a water pressure reader and a small air valve. It’s a big circuit, you see, from the input hose to this air valve. When all faucets and toilets are off/not running, it’s a closed circuit.

When you turn on the hose, it’ll slowly fill the tanks with water and air. When that small air valve is open, the water will push the air out until the system is completely full with water, at which point water will start to spew out. Close this valve and you should have a running water system.

On the inside of the motorhome and underneath the master bed/refrigerator is a mass of copper piping and two large water tanks – one for hot water, the other for cold. (Personally, I have yet to figure out how to heat the hot water tanks, but once I get the water going, I’ll research that). These tanks are connected to each other with narrow copper tubing so poorly connected it’s a wonder they ever held water. It was the 70s, I guess, and they thought that copper would last forever…even at 80mph on the freeway. They’re also connected to the air compressor thru these same narrow pipes, more on that in a moment. Each tank has a valve on the outside of the motorhome (which I just recently found) that allows them to drain quickly.

Now, when you’re hooked up to city water, as long as the hose is on, you’ll have water pressure. If you turn it off and head out to the streets to live (officially known as boondocking), the old motorhomes are installed with an air compressor which, when turned on, pushes air into the tanks which pushes the water out your faucets/shower/toilet. This is the way it is all supposed to work.

In addition to the faucets, there are numerous red on and off dials hidden throughout the coach, most of which are not clearly marked as to which way is on and which way is off. They may have been at one point, but it’s a lost cause to try to figure it out now. If you have full water tanks and no water coming from your faucets: check around for these guys.

Now, to detail our attempts to fix our problems. First, there were cracks in the main copper pipe that led from the exterior filling valve to the tanks. There were also cracks on the pipes that connected the tanks together and to the air compressor. I believe that the majority of these cracks were caused by putting too much pressure into them…so they burst. And kept bursting. (This pressure problem is an easy fix if someone tells you about it: go to the RV store and get a PSI regulator. You don’t want anything higher than 45 PSI going in there…and even that might be high judging from the state of these old pipes.)

In our first attempt, Vern and I assumed we’d just be able to patch those pipes, slopping goop onto all the connections and anywhere we thought we saw leaks. I can’t even begin to list how many goops/pastes/tapes we tried. Everything worked…for a short time.

My dad came out one summer and we really got into it. We went to B&B Hardware in Culver City and bought a whole slew of other types of pipe goos and patches. We took great pains to remove the old copper pipes and attempted to replace them with a new one(s). Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to bend a copper pipe in the angles that are necessary, and we creased multiple pipes multiple times, which eventually developed into more leaks. We had water for about a week at one point, but as it sat, the leaks grew.

One of the things we tried this time was Rescue Tape. It’s not so much tape as it is a rubbery substance that will shrink onto whatever you stretch it around. It works well, but when you are stretching it over odd surfaces and connections, there are too many places where water can leak out. Eventually, it came in really handy in other areas of “leakage”…but not here.

Our next attempt involved trying to get standard modern sink piping in there. Generally, modern sinks use a flexible silver pipe that is 1/2″ in diameter with a hose fitting. Problems occurred here too. The problem: the old piping used 3/4″ flared connections. And just about no one no one at all makes a connection to bridge that gap.

After searching far and wide, I found a plumber that custom made the part I needed – for $32. (I searched for the name of the place, but I can’t find it. It was in Huntington Beach). He used two 3/4″ female connectors connected by a 1″ piece of copper piping. Essentially, this was a female to female flare connector which allowed me to get a 3/4″ male flare hose fitting that converted to a 1/2″ male hose fitting (which is pretty common). Finally, I could connect the 1/2″ diameter flex hose to bridge the gap from the exterior filling area of the motorhome to the water tanks. I’m sweating just thinking about it. Now I could fill the tanks.

Remember those pipes that connect the tanks to each other and to the air compressor? Those were cracked too, and the fittings needed to be changed. El Toro RV in Orange County helped me on my way…it was really an accident. The fittings that come in and out of the tanks are 1/4″ in diameter (I believe). In attempting to find something to replace these with, he gave me a few things to try. I thought I was going to have to do some major destruction of what was currently there before I could connect these new pieces. Fortunately, these connections were exactly the same size that he gave me…without having to bust my tanks. In the end, I did tear out all the copper piping which I replaced with vinyl hoses. I used compression fittings to seal them, which tighten the connection between the vinyl tube and the brass fittings. El Toro also instructed me to use Rectorseal instead of teflon tape, and I was able to completely seal the fittings on all connections. It worked wonders.

Now I have water pressure between the tanks and to the air compressor. But the air compressor leaks. It’s essentially a simple machine which sucks air through a one way valve and pushes it back into the water tanks. The problem here: the one way valve leaked. So, it would suck air in and push the majority of it back out the same hole. Fortunately, I spend time around many other mobile homeless, and found myself at Slab City, talking with the librarian. He had an almost exact match in air compressor that I had…a miracle as these are no longer made. (In newer motorhomes, the forced air pressure has been replaced with a system that sucks the water towards the faucets…probably a better idea…but to replace completely means tearing out all my old tanks and replacing those too…not worth it).

Upon arriving home, I find that this air compressor isn’t perfect. The old one had the quarter inch fittings, the new has 1/2″. Son of a bee. At this point, I’ve got some many issues like this happening, this one was no big deal. Just had to get some barbed brass fittings that upsized the 1/4″ vinyl tubing I had to some 1/2″ vinyl tubing that I had lying around. Fantastic, I think. I’m a genius (I think this is the last step, of course, and that I’ve conquered it…3.5 years later).

No sir. The next time I was at Dockweiler Beach, hooked up to water, I confidently turned on the hose and allowed the Winnebago to fill all the way up, knowing that I’ve done all the work, patched every patch, replaced every pipe and sealed every connection.

The barbed fitting was having none of that. The 1/2″ vinyl tubing just popped right off with the pressure, spewing water all over the back of the motorhome.

I didn’t have time to fix it then, but a few weeks later I used a metal worm gear clamp to tighten that vinyl onto the barbed fitting…and that’s where I stand now.

This weekend, after receiving my 50 ft white hose, I had a chance to test all this out. All the places that I listed above that I patched: completely stuck. No leaks…no leaks!

Until…the 1/2″ tubing that goes into the water pump popped right off. If it’s not one spot, it’s another. As my search around my tool boxes and in the garage for more worm clamps became a lost cause, I gave up.

I started packing up the hoses and all…and realized that those tiny little red dials might be of great assistance to me. Basically, if I turn off the valve that allows water to go out to the air compressor (which, if we’re hooked up to the hose we don’t need) and we should then have a closed system! And what do you know….it worked!

For the first time ever, I have a fully running, fully functional water system! I assume that I could hook the air compressor up sometime later and head out on the streets again, with full tanks…but for now, I’ll revel in my mastery of this four year undertaking.

Hi-five to me and hobo ingenuity!