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Access through Corrugated Plastic for Drain Valves

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  • Access through Corrugated Plastic for Drain Valves

    Having dropped the front part of the corrugated plastic from the belly twice; once to replace batt insulation damaged by a water leak and once to replace the cable on the gray tank; and knowing that a third time is pending for replacement of the cable on the black tank I was determined to find a better way. Not because the corplas is hard to drop, because it is hard to get back in place and my primary assistant, SHMBO, has refused to ever help me again. So building on a suggestion from howson to use lattice caps for seaming the corplas I set out to build an access hatch in the corplas for getting to the gray and black tank valves without dropping the corplas for a third time.

    The first step was to locate the access hatch. I was able to compress the corplas and batt insulation enough to make my initial cut along and to side of the discharge line between the valves. From there it was a matter of feeling, looking, and measuring to get a large enough opening. I ran the opening a few inches each valve incase I ever need to replace the seals in the valves. For width I went to just under the edge of the tanks incase I need to work on the tank heaters. The fun part was trying to get a square opening in in a drooping surface. We're full timers and while I had access to a miter saw and some clamps I did not have a ready supply of bracing to try and remove the droop from the corplas. My rough opening ended up at 43 3/8" by 14 1/2".

    I used the lattice caps to trim out my rough opening and around the coupon cut from the corplas. For the coupon, I used 1/4" by 1 1/2" hex head bolts with flat washers on each side of the lattice cap. I used both a split washer and a nylon insert lock nut on the bolts. Overkill, I know, but a little redundancy is not a bad thing. For the opening trim, I added 1 1/4" wide window weather seal to the inside (top) of the lattice cap to provide some water tightness to the gap between the trim for the opening and the trip for the coupon. Because of the weather stripping I stepped up to 2 1/2" long bolts but could have stayed with the 1 1/2" long bolts, but other than that the assembly was about the same.

    I added some black duct tape, top and bottom of the corplas at the corners to help reinforce these areas. I wanted to reduce the chance of the corplas tearing between the corrugations.

    I did use some plumbers galvanized hanger iron to add some support and rigidity to the opening with self-tapping screws into the flange of the overhead supports for attachment. I will probably add some additional hangers at our next extended stop.

    To attach coupon back in place as a cover I went with 1' corner or L-brackets with one leg attached to the lattice cap of the opening or the coupon and then with a common bolt holding the pairs of brackets together. I will probably add some additional pairs of brackets at our next extended stop.

    We've gone about 1,000 miles since I added the access with no noticeable problems. Adding more hangers and brackets will be more for peace of mind than necessisity.
    Attached Files
    John
    2018 Momentum 395M
    2018 Ram 3500 Dually
    Every day is a Saturday, but with no lawn to mow.

  • #2
    John

    That's a great job and idea. I think this will be use by others ( probably me ) when needed versus dropping the coroplast.

    Thanks for posting.

    Brian
    Brian & Michelle
    2018 Reflection 29RS
    2022 Chevy 3500HD

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