Plumbing
 

Hi All

The van progresses slowly, I will do some photo's soon.

I am thinking about plumbing, most houses now use plastic as it's cheap and easy compared to copper. I think it may be less prone to failure through vibration being a bit flexible.

Any thoughts on best make as there are several, or stick to copper?

Cheers

Bruce

Plastic for water, copper for gas. Food grade hose is available from boat shops. Standard house pipe is good but it won't go around tight bends easily.

Graeme

Anything will fail if flexed enough times.

Make things accessible - so you can examine/repair them easily (no mater what they are made of).

My Hobby MH is plumbed entirely in white/clear food grade mesh reinforced hose (like the normal quality garden hose) including the hot water which runs at up to 70C. 10 years old and no failures.

I used the same system for the OKA truck in Australia and the only bit that isn't the hose is the high temperature feed from the calorifier to the two tempering valves which is radiator hose.

The two US rigs are plumbed in "Pex" plastic tubing with crimped fittings.

BigBus in Australia is plumbed with a product similar to Pex and also used crimped fittings

No copper water pipe in any of the rigs, but some used for propane in one rig. Others use steel.

The reinforced hose - being very flexible - dramatically reduces vibration from diaphram pumps compared to the rigid plastic which transmits viabration all over the rigs if a pipe touches anything like plywood panels

Other big advantage of the hose is that repairs and changes can be done just about anywhere using basic tailed fittings and hose clamps and a bit of normal garden hose if necessary. Generally not so easy with the rigid plastic pipe.

Check out any camper / motor home supplier. They all have 12mm red and blue xlpe type plastic water pipe and the push fit fittings.

Reasonably flexible and bends with quite small radius' but really tough.

I've not long ago completed an LDV campervan setup for wilding. Plumbing as per Tony Lee's post above, except I marked the hot cold with some blue and red electrical tape every foot or so. No gas as I went for the diesel powered hot water/air heater and stove - very happy with both. Plumbing both of those came with the kit and I just hooked into the fuel return line that usually puts fuel back into the bottom of the tank to stop foaming, so you have a constant supply of fuel. Only one problem was an air leak in the fitting to the stove - my bad cutting.


No LPG means more space in the vehicle - no gas locker - no compliance issues with LPG certs etc.


Waste pipes I used the 25mm black irrigation hose and fittings (elbows, tap, joiners) and a length of 200mm Dia sewer pipe with end caps as the grey water tank. I had some 200mm saddles lying around from years ago that TEK screwed into the chassis..


The water tank is under a seat inside the van, but I could have fitted more lengths of sewer pipe as water storage under the vehicle - but I had bought a submersible pump and the thought of having to fix that under the vehicle put me off. The kit for the tank water filler came with a length of hose.


I have an old Westfalia from 1985 and it has SS pipes and olive fittings for the gas supply and they are the best for coping with vibration. Copper flare fittings are IMHO leaks waiting to happen in a vibration prone environment.

Thanks and pics
 

Thanks all

Think I will go with a mixture of hep2o and 12mm camper hose.

Gas tank arrived, as I work for Bristol balloons and hot air balloons fly all over Africa I will use a balloon fitting and just look for someone doing balloon flights when I need gas.

Bruce

Mine is all hep20, domestic and heating.

Wouldn't use anything else, 5 years in , not one issue. Just use loads of pipe clips.

I used the flexible gas hose that they use for LPG engine conversions. It's incredible tough and Can handle over 100 bar. My undergoing tank is at the rear and my cooker is at the front, soit made it very easy to feed along the chassis. Only took about 1hour to plumb it all in.

Had it has safety checked and certificates after install and they loved it. Got it from a company called Tinley Tech.

Neil

Cloud 9 is Born