New Landmark owner - water leak in basement...

[sputnick10]

Well, we finally took delivery of our new 09 Landmark Cape Cod on Sunday... got to our temporary rv park 2 miles down the road from the dealer, got everything hooked up and going... a few hours later I find a pool of water in the basement, and the dealer is closed and would be for Monday too... UGH!
We searched for the right unit for months and I have been lurking on these threads for awhile now... I had every intention of making the dealer hook up the water for the PDI, but my wife and I have both had the swine flu for the last week or so... and we were basicly delerious for the delivery so I did not have them do it, and the salesman had assured me it was part of their pre delivery... We are full timers and first timers! We sold our stick home and have been in hotels since Dec 1st, so we have been looking forward to getting in our Landmark and being "home".

Back to the leak... I have all my tools in storage and have not been able to retrieve any of them yet, so I could not even remove the wall in the basement to see what the issue was, so I turned off the water and waited until the next morning... went and bought a few tools, removed the wall, and bingo... 3 leaks, all at connections at the WH bypass valve. One was the hose clamp had cut into the hose, it was the worst leak. I removed the clamp, cut the hose and reclamped it... that one was now fixed. The other two have proved more difficult. They are leaking at the threads. I remove the valve from the UDC wall, and remove all three hose clamps and hoses. I went and bought new teflon tape, removed the plastic fittings, retaped the threads and put back in... no luck, still leaking. Went and got some thread lube and sealant, tried again, still leaking. It is now Monday night and we have not had water for over a day... the wife is not happy, and neither am I... Removed the fittings again to examine the brass valve for cracks, no cracks, but I notice the threads in the brass valve appear damaged. Decide to take the valve to the dealer in the morning...

Tues. AM, I took the valve and fittings to the dealer, they don't have any in stock, but do have another landmark they rob another valve from... after about an hour the service guy brings out the "new" valve with the fittings in place, but says they have no way to test it. He said the plastic fittings broke in the "new" valve they took from the other landmark and that they had to chip the fittings out... (now I know what happened to the original valve)... I took the "new" valve back and put it in. UGH! Still leaking!!! And now, I can't get the fittings out of the valve. I think he used JB weld or something because they won't budge. I have had it, not having water for going on three days! This was supposed to be a great new experience for us, and it has started as a nightmare!

Made another trip to the HD and Lowes, got a cap and coupler, capped the bypass tubing, and coupled the water supply side to the WH tube... My connections are not leaking, and we have water now... just no way to bypass the WH until I can find a new valve and fittings!

I plan on calling Heartland tomorrow to see if they can send me a new one since the dealer has none...

Now, if I can just figure out why no water is getting to the icemaker...

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Unless things have changed in the Landmarks the ice maker has a shutoff (petcock) back in behind the UDC and it is probably shutoff. Just follow the little hose coming from the refer icemaker until you find his valve and turn it on.

 

[CrazyScotsman]

Sorry about your problems right of the bat, but it seems to me dealer didn't check the unit out before he delivered it to you. I'm sure you will get the problem resolved as soon as you call Heartland.
As far as the water to icemaker, on my Big Horn the plastic water line to icemaker was pinched behind the stove, so after I unpinched it, it started to flow into ice maker. another note on icemaker, make sure you run a bunch of ice before you start using the ice, that plastic doesn't taste to good. Also check under the kitchen sink to see if valve for water to icemaker is turned on.
Hope this helps and welcome to the Heartland family.

 

[sputnick10]

Found icemaker petcock...

It was under the fridge, once I pulled the drawer out I could see it... Of course I went to the basement first and crawled around there looking for it...

 

[kakampers]

I know it's no consolation, but if you're fulltiming, you won't need to by-pass the water heater.

Contact Heartland directly and have them send you all new fittings....

 

[wyleyrabbit]

We had a leak in our unit also. And, of course it was at the same place as yours. Why plastic fittings in the first place??? I upgraded ours to brass and we've been fine since. Also, be careful of the external shower hose, because it can get wrapped with the "spaghetti" behind the UDC. I zap-strapped ours to the roof, works perfectly and no worries of that now.

 

[JohnDar]

One other spot to check is the small sediment filter on the water pump. So far, the only basement leak we've had was there, and we found it during the PDI at the dealership. It was behind the walls, which I crawled in and removed (the tech was a large man, so I did it). Just a small puddle on the mat and on top of the tank beyond the edge of the floor. They had run the pump and plumbing before we got there. Tightened it by hand and no more leak.

 

[rckc228]

Yes change all the plastic fittings with brass. Had several leaks myself.

 

[lwmcguir]

Interesting to see that there has been hundreds of leaks noted on/in the forums. Luckily our dealer did put water in and tested everything except the Grey water lines. It seems that the factory should run a leak test and then winterize if necessary. Then the QC folks could step up and fix these issues at the factory instead of the owners having to in the field.

 

[2010augusta]

Even with the numerous leaks we had, i believe that Heartland DID leak test and then winterize our unit. I know that Heartland put water in it because, it was delivered to the dealer minutes after coming off line and then we did a quick (45 min) PDI without adding any water, because it was below freezing. Two months later when we put water in the trailer for the first time. I found the the mixing valve for the shower was cracked because it was not properly winterized. Changed out the mixing vale with another and it was fixed. Once we got to our new location I call Heartland service and a new valve was sent to us. I had to go through and fix the other leaks, but this all happened after hauling the trailer from IN to CO and then on to TX, before testing the water system. I would suspect that some of the fitting worked lose on the trips. After correcting the leaks and tightening every other connection I could find, we were leak free for 12 months...Then last week I found another leak on a rubber line. replaced the hose clamp and it was fixed. I know some of what happened is my own d*** fault for not doing a better PDI and making the dealer hook up a hose and then re-winterize the trailer.

 

[wyleyrabbit]

Agreed.

First, those fittings should NOT be plastic/nylon/whatever. They should be brass, just like the bypass valve and other connections! Heartland, are you listening???

When we sprung our leak, we were in Squamish, BC and there are no RV dealers there. I had to beg the guy at Home Depot for a plumbing 101 lesson and buy almost $75 in tools and parts, and spent hours of my vacation fixing this ****ed leak that should have NEVER happened in the first place. My alternative was to cancel our 7-day vacation on day 2 and tow the unit back to my dealer in Langley (we had already paid in full for the campground so really didn't want to do that).

The other people in the campground couldn't believe that (paraphrasing) "such a nice new 5th wheel would use cheap parts in such important places". Heartland should do things like plumbing properly and with the proper parts, and make this a selling feature over those "other brands". Show pictures in the brochure of "our plumbing" vs. "their plumbing". Seriously.

My $0.02.

Chris

 

[jbeletti]

Interesting to see that there has been hundreds of leaks noted on/in the forums. Luckily our dealer did put water in and tested everything except the Grey water lines. It seems that the factory should run a leak test and then winterize if necessary. Then the QC folks could step up and fix these issues at the factory instead of the owners having to in the field.

Plumbing systems are pressure and water tested inside the plant before they roll out. At some point early winter, all units are winterized as well.

Jim

 

[jbeletti]

Agreed.

First, those fittings should NOT be plastic/nylon/whatever. They should be brass, just like the bypass valve and other connections! Heartland, are you listening???...

Chris,

On the ends of the PEX lines, what connectors did you end up replacing ours with?

Jim

 

[sputnick10]

I was going to replace them with brass ones to, but could not find the elbows with barb ends, and did not want to use pex ends in case I needed to remove them again... but I think I will look harder and find a better way... but the plastic fittings are worthless... I found another leak on a pex / plastic connection and replaced that one with brass.

 

[jmgratz]

If you ever go to tour the factory you will see the completed units coming out of the assembly building with water draining out of the drains. This showed me they had tested the water systems at the factory. Now after they have bounced down our fine roads delivering them to the dealers maybe the fittings have loosened up. Dealers need to check the fitting by pressure testing the water systems. I presume many dealers do not. MHO

 

[Bill1374]

As an added check, while you have the panel off to access the bypass and winterizing valves, check the connections there plus the connections on the water heater. Mine had worked loose on a trip last fall and dumped alot of water in the underbelly.

Bill

 

[sunflower]

If there are better parts that make the water system more bullet proof the manufacture should advertise that and by all means charge me for it,I never did mind paying more for added value.Little items like this make the most annoying problems.Like don't cheap out on electrical connections,etc.If heartland can show better construction as above industry standards we should be happy to pay more,I can't believe $100.00 or so more would lose a sale if presented as quality.Why not make something good, better.

 

[Delaine and Lindy]

Air check...

I know for a fact that the factory does PDI all units before releaced to the dealership. Our 5er traveled 20 miles from the factory to the dealership. The dealership during the check out PDI they also do a air test on the water systems, and I think air is a lot easier to clean if there is a leak. Then they load the water systems and let it set for a certain amount of time under pressure without a pressure control valve. Water when it leaks into the under belly can be a hazzard. Another 5th wheel we had did have 4 leaks behind the wall panel in the first 180 miles. I also think all RV manufactors are using to much plastic fittings. But so is the housing industry. Its just the nature of the beast. GBY....

 

[wyleyrabbit]

Chris,

On the ends of the PEX lines, what connectors did you end up replacing ours with?

Jim

Jim,

I have ( so far ) only changed the ones attached to the hw tank bypass valve, but after all the pain, suffering, and bad words I am tempted to change out all the plastic ones for brass ones. I was just going to buy parts from Home Depot, since they seem to have a good selection of PEX stuff.

I am also tempted to change out some of the other tubing with pex pipe too.

Chris

 

[wyleyrabbit]

Jim,

My last post was from my iPhone. Now that I'm back home on my PC, I can do things more easily.

The PEX elbows I was thinking of changing to are these:


Waterline1/2 in Barb Elbow

• Model:1442144
• Good for all pex pipe
• 200psi

I am, of course assuming that my rig has 1/2" PEX tubing. Honestly, I can't remember and our trailer is a 20+ minute drive away. Is it 1/2"?

Cheers,
Chris