The Fresh water tank drain on my Breakaway occasionally leaked at the tank collar; some of the sheetmetal had rusted away.

I found the collar partially split, so banded it with a SS worm clamp, and doused the new street ell with aviation sealant (like Permatex #2, only thinner). I then redid the drain line.

The cause of this split, I believe, was that the line dropping from the ell at the tank was bent back forcibly 90 degrees - this is the fairly rigid line used to plumb the system, and I think over the years the stress cracked the collar. I added another 90 deg ell.

I'd recommend, if your Barth has this same arrangement, that a 90 deg ell be added.

Also, the drain ball valve was soldered to a length of copper pipe, which had previously split from freezing. I don't think this was OEM...

Rusty, you're lucky you have a tank valve in your system..our fresh water pump seized up while boondocking at Holtville Hot Springs..we had just filled fw tank and were settling in for a week or so when pump quit on first day..decided to tackle repair job only to find tank plumbing to pump intake was straight thru (no valve)not wanting to loose any water I had to quickly disconnect pump at inlet and insert plug...repair gunged up pump...then quickly re-install. Can't understand why Barth didn't do things right with a valve?(now have one)

I have found manufacturing glitches that belie the perfection we seem to expect from our Barths. The builders were under the same kind of pressure all production employees have, they weren't all master mechanics, some of them came in with hangovers, some were mad at the boss, some were told to get it out today no matter what, etc., so errors were made.

They could have done a better job of insulating aluminum skins from steel frame members, which many of us have found from the number of corroded rivets we've replaced. I had a row of rivets on one basement access door that attached to nothing because a frame was a quarter inch too short. Should have been caught by final inspection & 3 previous owners, but wasn't.

Current Barth owners tend toward restoration, & I suspect, therefore, we are more picky than most owners. I fix this stuff & I'm happy to think I improved on the manufacturer.