On our recent month-long excursion we had 4 instances where we had a very small puddle of water develop on the floor.
First 2 times I noticed it, there was a small (less than Tablespoon worth) puddle/wet spot roughly in the middle of the kitchen floor area of our 2018 Axis 25.3. There was a very small trickle leading to and away from the wet spot (toward front and back of MH). The trickle was short and did not seem to originate from any place I could figure out. Essentially started and ended in the middle of nowhere.
The first possible source I investigated was the refrigerator area. All floor area near and around it, bone dry. No plugged drain or puddling within the fridge. I thought maybe it was just a drip from a sweating bottle of water we had taken from fridge to kitchen counter. (We were in New Mexico. It was HOT & we were hydrating with H2O a lot.)
I also checked overhead around AC vents, etc thinking it might be condensation from above. Nope; again bone dry both to my touch & a paper towel.
We had had an intermittent leak from the bed slide about a year ago. That only occurred after certain hard rains & driving wind. We had managed to track that down to a gap in the exterior trim caulk. Fixed that up with no further incidents. Just for grins, we checked the slide area anyhow. Again, all dry. Also, up to that point in the trip we had gone well over 2+ weeks with no rain, just fabulous sunshine.
Somewhere during that time, DH also found slight moisture/dampness in the basement compartment that is near the water fill/outside shower.
OK random quirk, this one??? What to do? To my way of thinking, random moisture is not a good thing. We need to track it down.
So we just kept our eyes out and I did a daily check along the base of the bed/slide area that had previously been the problem. Nothing for days, until one day DH hit the brakes hard at a red light. He really sloshed water in the partially full tank. Yup, a very small bit of water on the floor now.
That got me thinking: a few days earlier (around time of the first "puddle"), he took a turn too sharp bounced the driver side rear wheel over a high curb. Also sloshing water in tank. Hmmm?
At that point, I put a dry paper towel down at the edge of the bed. When he again hit the brakes hard and sloshed at another red light --- BINGO. Very small amount of water (just barely enough to wring out 1/2 paper towel once.
All told we had 4 of these "puddle/water occasions." They seemed (at least to me) to correspond with a hard stop or breaching and bouncing off a tall curb and the water sloshing. On none of these occasions was the tank newly filled, nor was it near empty.
During the trip we had also been driving quite a few steep and winding roads (Jemez Mts, Bandalier NM to Los Alamos, Taos to Angle Fire, Raton Pass), but that didn't seem to trigger any water appearances.
So we're wondering if a fitting is loose somewhere and only leaks slightly when under force/pressure. We had hoped to be able to lift the horizontal panel above the tank that the bed sits on, but after I talked to Thor I was told that wasn't possible. We'd have to drop the tank. They did sent me a schematic of where the various connections to the tank come in and the "securements components" that strap the tank into place.
Several issues with dropping the tank:
#1- tank sits on top of the lauan flooring that runs the full length of the MH in one contiguous piece. How the devil can you drop it without totally destroying the floor?????
#2 - the gravity fill hose connection enters at the rear of the water tank (and per schematic, a small breather hose probably runs parallel to it). Neither DH nor I have 4 ft arms that could reach that juncture, let alone heads small enough to get in and actually see what we're doing. The other hose connections (city fill, outside shower, water pump, may be accessible via the basement with a lot of contortions on our part. C'est la vie.
So, collective forum genius, any ideas, suggestions, or other thoughts are most welcome. TIA.
(Sorry for the novel, but thought maximum info would save back and forth questions.)
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