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Kitchen Sink Drain Fix

A follow up to April 16’s Kitchen Sink in RV Slideout (https://rvseniormoments.com/2023/04/16/kitchen-sink-in-rv-slideout-bad-idea/).

The original kitchen drain hose was very stiff which caused the eventual failure of one of the two drain fittings.

The new hose is much more flexible. However, it’s smaller in diameter and does not have a smooth interior like the original hose. Long story short . . . it will clog more easily. C’est la vie.

With the help of a heat gun applied to each end of the new drain hose, a barbed fitting was forced into each hose end:

The end result . . .

Lake McClure – Barrett Cove Campground 2023

Click on any of the photos below to enlarge them.

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What a difference a year makes.

We camped at Barrett Cove Campground in April 2022 during the height of the California drought. Now, after weeks of rain this year, Lake McClure shows the result of all that water . . .

We arrived on Monday afternoon after a short 20-mile drive from Mariposa. Also, we’re staying in the same campsite as last year . . .

We’re only here for a few days so we’re doing as much hiking as possible. The area is gorgeous. Plus, as far as we can tell, there’s only one other camper in the entire park!

This was our “shakedown” camping before we begin our long summer trip East in a month.

It was a good thing we did this. Besides the great views and hikes, we also found several things that needed attention (aka repairing).

Kitchen Sink in RV Slideout – Bad Idea

We took our 2001 SeaView out today in order to prepare it for our first camping trip of the season. Actually, it’s a shakedown outing before our upcoming summer trip.

Anyway, I was running water in the kitchen sink when I noticed water collecting in a basement compartment right below the sink. Great. At first I thought a water line had broken, but it turned out to be the “flexible” kitchen sink drain line. After over 20 years, it’s flexible days ended today.

The connection between the flexible drain line and the lower drain snapped. I’m not the slightest bit surprised as this line has been moving in and out for 22 years.

This was the quick fix . . .

Next step –– replace that white pipe with something more flexible.

Glassing

After “stitching” together both sides of our RV’s damaged rear cap, the next step was to apply layers of fiberglass until the “valley” between each side was filled.

Very tedious process.

First, the tools of the trade . . .

I went the “polyester” route instead of using epoxy mainly because of the YouTube video series I watched – Boatworks Today . . . https://www.youtube.com/@boatworkstoday

Because I used polyester resin, I could keep adding layers of fiberglass with “laminating” polyester resin without needing to sand between each layer. However, the last layer needed to be sealed with either a “finishing” polyester resin or Gelcoat with wax. I used the Gelcoat.

Glassing

Laying down all the fiberglass layers took a few days. At most, I could apply two layers a day.

Sanding

The fiberglass layers ended up with plenty of bumps and rough edges so sanding was necessary to flatten the surface . . .

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