Ice-box drainage

[Fitz]

Is there drainage for the ice-box on '76-'79 Westies? or does it have to be removed to have the water dumped? TIA

[This message was edited by JohnB on September 07, 2002 at 12:37 PM.]

[skink]

'76 to '79 ice boxes have a tube though the floor of the Bus that drains the water in the bottom of the box.

[Capt. Mike]

Transferred to consolidate similar topics.

Ludwig van Member posted September 07, 2002 11:24 PM

Our '78 has the icebox-type cooler on the left side, with access via a lid. On longer trips we always end up having to rely on bag or block ice. Acccording to the camper manual, there should be a tray for ice, with a drain hose for meltwater. Ours was gone before we got the van, so the ice just sits in the cooler with the food.The drain hose grommet isn't flush with the bottom, and allows a little water to accumulate, causing cans to rust and cardboard packaging to turn to mush.

I found the solution in the wire shelving section of the home improvement store. It's called a Helper Shelf, and is about 8 by 15 inches and stands on 4 legs. It cost about $6 CDN, I think.I carefully bent the legs under the shelf, pointing them toward the centre. The shelf is now a snug fit in the bottom of the cooler, and keeps everything clear of the wet bottom. I could have cut the legs shorter, but this would have caused the weight of everything on the shelf to rest on 4 small points on the plastic liner. Bending the legs under creates 4 rails to spread the weight.

The only down side is that some tall bottles that used to fit in the cooler no longer clear the lid. Other than that, it works fine.

[rklann]

I've just cleaned up the icebox in my new '78 Bus. The previous owner had a handmade aluminum ice block holder in position overtop of the drainage outlet with a hollow bolt type contraption draining into the drainage outlet on the bottom of the icebox. This ice block holder is damaged and not of much use. I was planning on throwing it away and using the previous poster's idea of a wire shelf. On closer inspection of the drainage outlet on the bottom of the icebox, I see that there is a black looking object recessed about an inch or so below the icebox surface. There is a hole down to this object surrounded by what looks like white insulating material. It looks like the bolt contraption sat down into this hole onto the black object draining water straight from the aluminum holder into the drainage system. My question is, is it okay not to use the aluminum block and simply allow the water to drain into the hole as it is or do I need to line this hole with something. Perhaps I am missing a part or perhaps the previous owner pushed the upper part down into the hole to make room for his homemade device. Thanks for your input. Rhonda

[Capt. Mike]

Go to your dealer (Guideline #8) and ask to look at the parts fiche for your model camper. My copy, diagram #42 shows three parts:

#19, 211-070-148A is a drip tray apparently molded plastic and presumeable with a drain nipple out the bottom.

#20, 231-069-132A is a drain hose, presumable the clear vinyl.

#21, 231-070-147A is the ice grid, in effect an ice-block basket that sits on legs to hold it up near the top of the ice-box.

It would appear that the drip tray fits in the bottom of the ice grid and the drain hose then runs down through the hole in the bottom of the ice-box to the outside. Without one at hand, I can only presume it is insulated/sealed around the hole through the body in the manner of the water tank drains of later models. The fiche does not show any through-the-body or through-the-box fittings. Westfalia often used just Duxseal (body putty) or foam to seal through-body passages. It's possible the ice-box itself has a nipple on the bottom to carry drainage through the body and the drain hose from the ice tray just fed into it -- that isn't visible in the fiche.

[rklann]

Thank you Capt. Mike. I spent the morning inspecting the icebox further and testing it. The results were not good. The black object was a plastic plug that fit directly onto a piece of surgical tubing acting as a drain that exited though the bottom of the van where it emptied directly on the ground. I tested the icebox by pouring a quart or two of water into the bottom of it to see how it would drain. Some of the water drained through the tube, but a lot of it drained somewhere else...I opened up the metal air vent under the icebox to see what was happening and there was a puddle of water on the wood base and I hate to imagine where the rest went to. I pulled the hollow screw contraption off the homemade ice block holder and it fit nicely into the drainage hole but had a bit of play in it. I tested again by pouring some water in and I had a lot more come out the tube, but still too much pouring out around the tube. From your description it looks like I am missing some sort of drain nipple to prevent the water from creeping out around the narrow drainage tube. Any ideas? Thanks, Rhonda

[Capt. Mike]

If I'm reading you correct, you have a hole in the bottom of the main ice-box chest and on through the bottom of the car. Since that damage is already done, you can get some good 'drain' fittings from plumbing supply sources and some auto-supply that will have fuel & radiator drains. What I would suggest is that you will have to install a drain nipple in the bottom of the chest that extends or has a drain hose out through the floor pan. That way at least your chest will drain without leaking into your sub-floor.

There are also rubber, one-way body cavity drain nipples that would accomplish the same task. Most are, in effect, a rubber grommet that has a hose leading out the bottom. The front trunk of the early 911 Porsche's had two such that fit tightly through the trunk pan like a wiring grommet but then had about a 2½" 'hose' leading out that ended in a flattened area such that it acted as a one-way drain. P/N 911.025.612.00. A little sealant would insure the grommet section didn't allow leakage into the sub-floor. This drain is relatively small -- about a ½" hole, so yours may already be beyond that state. Similar arrangements are used in auto A/C condensate pan drains.

Depending on size, you may then be able to have a drip tray under whatever you create for an ice-holder that has a smaller hose that will lead into that drain. Or build a small 'grate' over that drain so that your foodstuffs are off the bottom and you can allow the condensate drain to run lower than and UNDER your food to the drain.

There are pictures on the Tech Drawings site of a member that made Vanagon fridge shelving out of plexiglass. I made a plexiglass ice retainer for a '73 (same principle -- ice shelf with drain -- because I couldn't always count on a block ice-supply and cubes would spill over the tray. Thus I made a retaining box so I could fill the tray with cubes on the road. The point is that you can fabricate a lot of these things from plexiglass with a little ingenuity.

Since you no longer have the original wire rack, this might be an opportunity to increase ice capacity at the same time. If you use plexiglass for the ice rack, be sure and drill it for ventilation so cold air can drop out into the food area of the chest.