Water tank fill - replacement of external with a covered fill

[brucemc]

Our Sunseeker was equipped with the external style water fill:





Where I prefer the style that has a door, which has a cleaner appearance, and tends to be a bit more sanitary. That, and I like the fittings in white rather than black. Thus, I took on this little project:


First, I reworked the new fitting, as it had lots of areas where water would enter the wall. Odd they would design something that is an access for water but is not designed to keep the water where it should be...


I added a piece of PVC over the latch slot, glued in the fill pipe, and replaced the lanyard with nylon bolts. No water will get into the wall on my unit:






After reworking the new fitting, I removed the old fitting & started in on enlarging the opening:





Enlargement complete:





Installation complete. When setting up the thumb latches and locks, I have a method to my madness - if the latch/lock is oriented horizontally, it is latched/locked, and thus is ship-shape, read to set sail. If it is vertical, it's unlatched/unlocked. While locks don't need to be locked to be underway, latches do. Thus, at a quick walkaround without touching anything, I can verify everything is latched, and optionally locked.



- Exterior view:





New lanyard, new nylon bolt on the cap:





Fitting from the inside:





And if you are curious about the makeup of the Azdel side panels:








There's no wood (luan) used in the paneling, and thus very little chance of wall separation! I like it.


--Bruce.

[A32Deuce]

Same thing I did to ours. Also changed the city water to one that's recessed and built in pressure regulator. I did not care for them sticking out.

[Johnfort]

"Installation complete. When setting up the thumb latches and locks, I have a method to my madness - if the latch/lock is oriented horizontally, it is latched/locked, and thus is ship-shape, read to set sail. If it is vertical, it's unlatched/unlocked. While locks don't need to be locked to be underway, latches do. Thus, at a quick walkaround without touching anything, I can verify everything is latched, and optionally locked."


I also am "retentive" like you and oriented all locks and latches to be right turn lock and horizontal when secured. Makes the pre-flight easier. Only the front door dead bolt lock is different. Oh well, OCD CAN be overcome!

[brucemc]

Yea, it's frustrating when I can't change something to my preference - like keyed locks. I like the teeth down orientation, but the lock on the man door on my garage could only be installed with teeth up... and I'm always having to flip the key over.


Like you, I set up the latches to "right turn lock" as well, though a conflicting desire is to have the latch bar up when unlocked on left/right hinged hatches. The "rotate right locked" overrides the position of the bar in the unlatched position.


OCD.

[Johnfort]

Originally Posted by brucemc

Yea, it's frustrating when I can't change something to my preference - like keyed locks. I like the teeth down orientation, but the lock on the man door on my garage could only be installed with teeth up... and I'm always having to flip the key over.


Like you, I set up the latches to "right turn lock" as well, though a conflicting desire is to have the latch bar up when unlocked on left/right hinged hatches. The "rotate right locked" overrides the position of the bar in the unlatched position.


OCD.

You read my OCD mind!

[Johnfort]

Never understood teeth up locks. Its JUST WRONG!

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by brucemc

Yea, it's frustrating when I can't change something to my preference - like keyed locks. I like the teeth down orientation, but the lock on the man door on my garage could only be installed with teeth up... and I'm always having to flip the key over.


Like you, I set up the latches to "right turn lock" as well, though a conflicting desire is to have the latch bar up when unlocked on left/right hinged hatches. The "rotate right locked" overrides the position of the bar in the unlatched position.


OCD.

The teeth are installed up to reduce the chance of water getting into and freezing the small plungers and springs that the key pushes against. So there is "reasoning behind the madness" of having the "teeth up" in key locks.

[brucemc]

I hear ya, and I respect your statement, but it doesn't quite hold water. What about the case where you have a double-cut? There's pins/springs, or gates/springs on top and bottom of the cylinder, so the same issue would apply. There's a lot of double-cut locks out there.
In the case of the single-cut, moisture wicks up as well as down. Unfortunately, a frozen lock is a frozen lock....