Water Pump / Winterizing Kit Access Door

[PTHutch]

Our 2005 T-280SR came with the winterizing kit option. However, the water pump and winterizing kit on the 2005 T-280SR was located under the sink behind a panel that was screwed in, as shown in the pictures below:

Access Panel:


Access Panel Opened to show water pump and winterizing kit:



I didn’t like the inconvenience of having to unscrew the panel each time I wanted to gain access to the water pump or to use the winterizing kit. I figured, that there was risk that over time I would end up stripping the screws. Therefore, I decided to replace the panel with a hinged door. Fortunately, I decided to do this before Sunline went out of business. I was able to have Sunline make me a custom door to fit the opening with matching wood and hardware. Sue Uibel of Sunline was phenomenal in helping me with this. I gave her the dimensions and the location & size of the hole in the door required for the furnace vent and she created a door the fit and matched perfectly.

The original panel used a support block, which aided in the attachment of the vent.


I was able to reused this supporting block on the new door when re-attaching the heat vent.


The finished product came out great and now I can access the area at any time. Plus it’s opened up a little more storage, which I use for toilet chemicals, extra packs of toilet paper, etc.

Access Door Closed:


And Opened.


The heat duck is a little snug when opened. Sometime in the future I'll have to look at extending it to allow a little more slack when the door is open.

[JohnB]

Hutch

That is really nice. Great job.

My pump I redid after I almost burnt it up sucking an air bubble and replaced with a variable speed model and the whole area to make it easier to access. However my pump is out in a different compartment.

BUT your swinging door has me thinking . This weekend I’m going in to modify access to my HW heater bypass. I had to get under there last weekend and was fed up with the top panel under the sofa. Kitty gave me the sofa lift idea and I can borrow your swinging door heat duct idea.

I was thinking of a slider door, but never thought of the swinging door. That may be a better option as we have a heat duct right there as well.

I’ll report back on what I did with your idea.

The best part of this site is seeing each others stuff as we are all open to sharing. And even if we do not have that exact camper, we can use the idea in other ways.

Thanks for sharing

John

[PTHutch]

John,

Instead of a swing door, you could make it a drop down door. I removed the 2 drawers from under our bed and used the door fronts as drop-down doors. Not sure what the actual area is but a drop-down door may make it better access and room for the door to be open.

Hutch

[JohnB]

Hutch

H'mm, good thought. I'll keep that in mind. All are options at this point. Come tomorrow some time it will be reality.

John

[PTHutch]

John,

Good luck and have fun with the mod. You'll have to share pictures with use when you're done.

Hutch