Plumbing: Fixing the Trailer Drain

The drain in our trailer slowed to a stop and was dripping out the bottom after our most recent guests departed (not so recently). It's been on my list for that whole time but hasn't made it to the top until our friend Phoenix called and said he'd be passing through L.A.

Plumbing is not my forte but this project went very well; I was able to fix the problem with a spare part we had on hand and only had to buy a single rubber washer and a drain snake (a missing staple of the tool box which we have needed in the past). In the picture above you can see the removed piece that was leaking. It had been patched with some kind of goo that was no longer holding.

We had a rubber boot like thing that I had bought for another project where professionals were ultimately called in to save the day. You can see it in the top of the picture (taken by our 4 year old son) on the stump where I cut the two pieces of plastic pipe apart with a hacksaw.

I guess the original idea was that the white pipe would fit into the black one and it would just drain down which probably worked fine until the pipe backed up. Then they needed put the goo patch on.

Once the pipes were cut apart I had to knock the remaining end of the black pipe off the white one with a hammer. Then I used a hatchet to scrape te rest of the goo off the pipes so they were smooth.

Here it is reassembled. Once I snaked out the drain a few times it almost worked but then I found that the connection at the bottom of the shower needed to be cleaned and have a new gasket installed.

click to enlarge if you dare!

While I was under the trailer reaching up into the very cramped space trying to wrench the pipes back on wihout cutting my arms on the sheetmetal, I had the exciting experience of this mummified squirel dropping out on me. It was straight out of a horror film. My best guess is that the area under the tub had been left open for long enough for it to make a home in there and then was closed up with the poor critter still inside.

Now it's back to the nightstands.