RV 6gal Water Heater project - help please

[Volchek]

So I am trying to find the right fittings and such to make a braided hose or tubing drain line permanently attached to the drain port on my travel trailer's water heater.

I figure I need about 9" to 12" hose or tubing, a fitting to fit the actual drain port on the water heater, and a valve of some type at the other end.

Why am I doing this? Because engineers are not technicians, and some engineer numb-nut saw fit to put the cheap nylon threaded drain plug behind the gas line and below the gas burner exhaust deflector, which makes accessing the drain plug a monumental PITA.

Accessing the drain plug is one issue, but the cheap nylon drain plugs are too soft to use an open end or box end wrench. I have to use channel locks to remove the drain plug after removing the gas burner exhaust deflector. Needless to say this makes winterizing my RV water heater a pain.

Any advice on what to make this with and where to get the parts? I tried Home Depot and it was a waste of time.

Wish my Pops was still alive, he was a journeyman plumber for years and would have this project licked in about 5 minutes...

FWIW, he did teach me a few things about basic plumbing (pipe sweating, different types of fittings, installing a faucet and sink, etc...) so I'm not a total newb, but getting the goods for this project is proving troublesome.

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide!

 

[PlumbGate]

I think what you are saying you need is to remove the nylon plug and replace it with a fitting with a hole in it so you can move the drain away from the water heater and into a valve for winterizing. If so just look for that size plug as a drain and you could use copper tubing to get to your drain location. You can sweat, crimp or compression fit any number of valves to the copper tubing once it is installed.