What's this?

[Magistus]

Hello everyone-

I have a 2003 38FBS which has PexB throughout the trailer. Had some leaks and I put some new pipping in the bathroom area with SharkBites for connectors. I came across these which I'm assuming are drains of some sort, there is a handle on each that can be pulled up or down. Then they were up water came out the underneath of the trailer but when down(closed I assume) it stopped and we got more water and pressure at the sinks.

I kept having leaks at the connector with clamps over PexB- hoping these are needed I cut and capped the ends as seen in the picture.

My 2 questions are-

1. Are those drains of a sort?
2. Is it ok to not have them connected?

Thanks for any help and insight.

 

[Kevin Cooper]

Just from the description, they are most likely called “Low Point Drains”.
That is unless you know where they are somewhere else.
If they are, LPD, then you should leave them in. That is how you drain the water out of the lines between trips, and winterizing.

 

[Jagiven]

They are low point drains for the plubling system. Personally I would keep them. They are known to have issues with the o-rings getting nicked and to leak. I added a sharbite valve upstream and left the oem valves in place. No more leaks.

Nice thing about them, you can drain the system fairly quickly if your unprepared for a cold snap.

 

[Glamper64]

I have the same setup under my bathroom sink...there's two pipes sticking out under the trailer that drain the system...you need them.
I had trouble with one of them last fall so I'm going to sharkbite two straight offs on those pipes under the RV as mentioned above and just leave the old ones open.
Now you need to pull those shut offs and pipe up out of the floor...remove caps and cut pipe further back to install couplings and pcs of pipe over to holes in floor...elbow pipes down thru floor and install two shut offs like I mentioned above.

 

[Magistus]

I'm new to RV life, how do I access those pipes in the "belly"? Does the cover underneath the trailer on the outside remove or do I make a hole via cutting it?

 

[Magistus]

I'm also having trouble with freezing I believe right now. It's happened before and usually I take a hair dryer and leave it running for up to 10-15 minutes in the area where the outside shower goes (I removed that for the winter). But so far I have been on and off warming it up with no luck as far as water- disconnecting those LPD's wouldn't effect water coming in to the trailer correct?

 

[Glamper64]

You should see those pipes under the RV...hopefully you can just pull them up from inside...they could be foamed, twist and pull.
The LPD's only drain the water from the system and don't affect the water coming in.
Freezing is not good and when you really want those LPD's and can split your pipes
If it gets really cold you should shut off the water supply and open all your faucets and cabinets and heat the RV with the hair dryer...sorry about that one

 

[Magistus]

:<••%~©8

 

[Glamper64]

Not sure what that means other than a formula for disaster

 

[Glamper64]

You're welcome btw

 

[OnTheGo]

Magistus, The attached pictures are from a trailer I don't own any longer, but I think it's what you are trying to accomplish. The stock low point drain valve handles were hard for me to reach, so I added valves to the discharge lines that extended outside the trailer.

I left the inside valves open continually so when I opened the external valves the plumbing system drained. If I was in freezing weather it would work opposite. The inside valves would stay closed so water in the lines was within the heated part of the trailer and the external drain pipe contained no water.

 

[Glamper64]

Would love to hear back from Magistus to see how the plumbing's going or not...some pics would be great
I would leave more pipe showing below the floor than in those pics...8-10" is good, you want to reach them easily and having extra pipe is good to change out a shut off.