2011 Camelot 43 drain hose from Driver Side Slide kinking

[vanwill52]

Once again trying to help friends with problems. Coach is a 2011 Camelot 43 with ISL 400. It is a bath-and-a-half model with four slides. The two front slides are 30” slides, hydraulically actuated with an HWH system.

The DS front slide includes the double kitchen sinks, residential fridge, and stacked (but separate) Ariston W/D. The washing machine drain and kitchen sink drains are joined by black PVC? to exit to below the slide into a very rugged 1.5” white drain hose (spa hose?) obviously designed to withstand constant flexing as the DS front slide extends and retracts. The PVC exits beneath the DS slide with an elbow to “aim” the 1.5” heavy hose crossways of the coach. The heavy 1.5” hose is funneled through some steel tubing (meant to protect it, certainly). On the passenger side of the coach, the 1.5” hose is guided by some rollers to turn towards the rear of the coach, where it is then supported from beneath by a 1/8” thick aluminum “shelf” on which it is intended to “coil up” as the DS slide retracts. At that point, the 1.5” hose is directed to a bung on the Gray Tank. Unfortunately (and incorrectly, I suspect) the elbow connecting the 1.5” hose to the Gray Tank is aimed straight towards the DS of the coach (directly crossways of the coach). That means that each time the DS slide is extended, this 1.5” hose must make a 270* turn to enter the elbow going into the Gray Tank...or more nearly a sharp 90* turn at the elbow going into the Gray Tank.

NOW—the problem. This 1.5” hose can only make that sharp a turn a limited number of times before it “kinks” and begins breaking down the wire support of the hose material. The hose has finally flexed/kinked enough times to (1) develop a small leak, and (2) to begin to be restrictive enough to slow down whatever appliances are connected to it.

Until today, only the small leak (which traveled all the way to the wet bay (DS) on top of the Gray Tank) was evident. The owner (a capable guy with a capable wife) assumed, as I did, that he had a leak in some fitting behind the wet bay panel. A couple of years ago, I had sawed his wet bay panel in half in the middle and made a very sturdy way of removing each half separately. When we removed the RH half, we saw the leak was actually coming from the PS of the coach, flowing across the top of the Gray Tank, and dripping down behind the wet bay panel.

NOW—how about a solution? Obviously, the 1.5” hose needs to be replaced. That in itself seems a mammoth job. CAN ANYONE OFFER ANY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN REPLACING THIS HOSE?  The only solution I see, given the extremely tight spacing of the components, is to saw a "hatch" into the floor to access the area where the 1.5" hose enters the Gray Tank, REPOSITION the elbow going into the Gray Tank and replace the 1.5" hose.  Anyone else ever replaced this 1.5" hose?

And at least as importantly, has anyone found that the elbow entering the gray tank should have been aimed slightly toward the rear of the coach (instead of aimed directly crossways toward the DS), to prevent the 1.5’ hose from having to make a close-quarters 90* bend?

Sorry for the length of this post, but so many posts begin with asking help and giving so few details that folks who could be of great help simply don’t want to ask all the obvious questions the OP should have included.  Sorry I cannot include pix.  The area is inaccessible and barely visible.

Please help me help these folks! They are wonderful, loving Christian people who led me to faith.  They are parked in my RV shed at the moment.  We have a short punch-list of things to attend to, but this one is the most difficult.

[vito.a]

Harry posted a great how to thread on replacing the flexible drain hose.  Several of us have had to replace it.  

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/kitchen-sink-flexible-drain-hose-replacement-383127.html

[Ivan K]

I had to replace ours but we only have it in the driver side slide. At least 5 years ago, spa hose from Home Depot. The ends were glued in with no good access so I cut the leaky hose leaving couple inches sticking out of the fittings and used a coupler with correct glue to put a new piece in. Yours sound way more complicated.

[Bob Jones]

I had to do mine on my 2000 Diplomat. I know it's different but I cut a large access hole in the bathroom wall to get at it and later covered it with a stainless plate. I also did a fair bit of re-engineering to ensure it doesn't happen again. At the time it was a terrible job as it was the first major work I had to do and it leaked a ton. Lots of whining on my part 🙂 When I look back on it, cutting the access port in the wall was the ticket. Once I did that it all more/less fell into place. I also had to do a bit of re-design to ensure the issue never crops up again. Part of the reward was much smoother slide-out operation. Night & Day as it was binding.

I'm very happy that I cut that access port in the wall. I now have access to what used to be the inaccessible end of the slide out. I agree with your assessment on changing how the plumbing goes into the grey tank. When I first got the unit I re-engineered the black tank flushing system. This necessitated running new PEX across the unit and creating a new hole in the black tank on the passenger side. It was a fair bit of work because I had to take the wet bay apart but I can't tell you how glad I am that I re-engineered it. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by Bob Jones