Plumbing On 2910 Bedroom Slide

During our last outing I had the pleasure of walking around the rear of the coach and finding water dripping out of both sides of my bedroom slide. After pulling the mattress and the bed platform panel I found a loose swivel fitting that was easily fixed. However, while all the plumbing, tank, pump and electrical were opened, I decided to move the slide in and out to see how all the pieces moved as the slide moved.

Turns out the elbow fitting that connects the swivel fittings and hose to the stationary plumbing is twisting when the slide moves in and out.  See pictures below. The first 2 pics are with the slide retracted.  The next 2 show the slide extended. Note the different position of the elbow the swivel fitting/hose is connected to. This is a pex crimp fitting that I'm sure is not designed to twist/swivel every time the slide moves in and out.

I believe only the 2910 has a slide that moves the fresh water tank and plumbing in and out. Has anyone checked how your plumbing moves with the slide?  If so, have you noticed the same thing and how did you fix it?

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

You were smart in identifying the PEX fitting pivoting, and also correct in stating that it should not be doing so.

Is it possible to add blocks of wood to the wall to secure the brass-to-PEX elbow(s) so that the coiled flexible hose does all the moving?

Ron,

The wall next to the fitting is part of the slide and moves so I would have to rig up some sort of sliding mount.   

Kevin

We have the 2700 model with what must be a similar setup,  but I've never had problems or pulled the mattress and cover to look at it.   Thanks for posting,  looks like something I should check out.

Jim

Ron,

The wall next to the fitting is part of the slide and moves so I would have to rig up some sort of sliding mount.   

Kevin

Ah!  I understand.  I see your point clearly now.  That vertical PEX pipe with brass elbow on top coming up from below the floor on the left side, travels (rather stays stationary) along the length of that channel.  You have a very interesting challenge.

If I understand this right, the vertical portion of the pipe is fixed to the floor and the horizontal part is in the slide. To me, this means you have a long slot in the bottom of your slide for the floor end to pass thru as the slide goes in and out. Interesting.  Seems like this would put a lot of twist stress on the pex joint,,, hence the problem you found.

I have a 2010 version of a 2900D and it's very different:  no slot, no pex.  What keeps freezing cold air from coming in that slot when the slide is out?  Or critters?

In my 2900, I can see a long flex hose (with screw clamps on the ends) between the bed and the baseboard. It just follows wherever the bed and slide goes.

Larry

Larry

You are correct in your understanding of the design. Two rubber flaps is all that covers the slot, doesn't do much to keep the cold out.

The old design seems much better.

Kevin

It seems to make more sense to locate the fresh water tank on the main floor against the foot of the bed to get it out of the slide-out.  Then all plumbing would be stationary.  The tank and compartment would be better protected from freezing without the rubber flap channel for that pipe.  The heavy weight of the water is removed from the slide-out and centrally positioned for improved weight distribution.  I assume that large green slinky is a gravity fill tube which would have to be deleted, but that is where the 3-way valve comes in.

With such a design change, Phoenix could add an exterior access door on the slide-out to utilize the storage that opened up inside it.  Just don't store buckets of heavy nuts & bolts in there.

Just tossing out an idea here.

Kevin,
As a follow-up to our offline conversation....

I took several photos... some were good enough to tell what was happening.   Sorry but it is a thin gap under the bed and I lit with with a huge COB LED flashlight and the camera flash as well as I could.

The attached files are  actually a powerpoint converted to a PDF so you should be able to open in your browser. --and ZOOM within your browser as needed.  I printed each page individually to stay under the 240KB limit (MAN,, I wish they would raise this limit!!!)

PDF 1 = diagram of plumbing with slide in, with 2 pics
PDF 2 = diagram of plumbing with slide out, with 3 pics
PDF 3 = old photos of inside the top half of the bed with 3 pics.  I captured these back when I insulated the outside walls and floor, and added the accumulator tank under the little night stand.

On the slide IN and OUT pages,  I added little icons to number each photo and on the corresponding diagram you'll see from where that photo was taken.

I hope this is useful.  I learned something from this exercise.  I do have some PEX plumbing inside the bed and at the baseboard under the bed. I didn't remember it.  The hose that is under the bed is definitely flex hose with the criss-cross reinforcing threads.

Thanks Larry,

So far I see one attachment with 4 pictures that show plumbing around the pump and storage tank.

Kevin

Larry,

The other 2 attachments showed up. Thanks for all your effort on these.

Kevin