1/19/2022 – The Watering Pt 2 (Electric Boogaloo)
It seems like the bad weather is following me this trip. I was stuck outside of Charlotte, NC for the past few days. There was about five inches of snow that pretty much shut everything down. I didn’t want to deal with drivers that don’t understand snow so I hunkered down, watched movies and played games for the weekend.
Today I finally got around to fixing my water situation. I tried sealing up the pump and filter with silicone to see if that would fix it, but there was too much pressure from the pump to hold the water. I had to search around for a RV store that had one at a reasonable price. I found one up in Statesville, NC at Gander RV. I wanted to put in a shutoff valve so if I get in this situation again I can shut the water off, pump out the lines from the faucet and not have to worry. I found a valve at Home Depot, and a steep enough hill fairly close so I could use gravity to slow the water from the tank. I was ready to take it all apart and realized I was missing a nipple to connect the valve to the supply line. I go back to Home Depot and they only had steel ones. I look online at Lowes and Home Depot and the closest one that has it is just North of Charlotte.
I make my way down to the next Home Depot, buy the nipple, and start looking for a hill. I didn’t find one until I got to Wadesboro, NC. I grab one of my small totes from the back and get everything set up to try to minimize the mess. I have to heat up the hose to the faucet to get that off so I could unscrew the old pump from the supply. I get that off and get the valve and filter on so I can stop the water flow. This was the part I was worried about. It ended up only being a trickle with the gravity assist. I got the new pump in, the faucet side back on, and it was time to test. I flipped the valve, turned on the pump, and opened the faucet to full success. I didn’t have any leaks and despite a small burn on my finger, from grabbing the soldering iron in the wrong spot, I was happy with the result.
I cleaned everything up and the van all back together then made it all the way to Wilmington, NC.