Community Forums

digitalone · 02-22-2011, 09:02 AM

Hello,

I have a 1995 Fleetwood Southwind and I need to sanatize/flush the freshwater tank. I have no idea how to flush it though. as you can see in the attached picture that my rusty black box there has three yellow handled ball valves. I'm guessing one of them is for the fresh water. There are also the two well labelled (I can read them but the picture doesn't do them any justice) Black and Grey handles that I assume are for dumping Black and Grey.

Can anyone help me understand this? I'm currently living off of bottled water which is a complete waste since I have city water/sewage at the CG I'm at.

Samc · 02-22-2011, 12:57 PM

My fresh water dump valve is on the other side of the couch, tucked back in the basement up against the tank, dumps out the bottom. Look underneath and see if you can spot a drain

Automobilist · 02-22-2011, 01:03 PM

Start turning handles and see what happens. You're not going to hurt anything.

digitalone · 02-22-2011, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Automobilist

Start turning handles and see what happens. You're not going to hurt anything.

Good point. I am hooked up to the sewer.

I did find my fresh water drain finally. It's on the front side of my water tank up in the middle of the of the RV. Accessible through the drivers side storage compartments.

Now just to figure what to do with 80 gallons of bleach water when I sanitize it.

ehunt · 02-22-2011, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitalone

Good point. I am hooked up to the sewer.

I did find my fresh water drain finally. It's on the front side of my water tank up in the middle of the of the RV. Accessible through the drivers side storage compartments.

Now just to figure what to do with 80 gallons of bleach water when I sanitize it.

When I sanitized ours I tried to convince my DW that the solution wasn't strong enough to damage the grass. She wasn't convinced, I ended up with a 5 gallon bucket and 16 trips to the swimming pool

JMonroe · 02-22-2011, 03:42 PM

It's never hurt my grass. Now RV anti freeze, on the other hand, will temporarily kill it, but it will quickly recover.

Rick Long · 02-22-2011, 04:05 PM

Why would you put 80 gallons in? I only put 1/4 tank and drive around a bit to get it sloshing all over. If you can't move, run your front or rear only jacks up an down a couple times to do the same thing.

ehunt · 02-22-2011, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Long

Why would you put 80 gallons in? I only put 1/4 tank and drive around a bit to get it sloshing all over. If you can't move, run your front or rear only jacks up an down a couple times to do the same thing.

Owners manual suggests letting it sit 4 hours to properly sanitize. Didn't want to drive 240 miles.

Pusherman · 02-22-2011, 05:34 PM

A couple tips on sanitizing your fresh water system:

First, DO dump your fresh water holding tanks when the coach sits periodically. Fill with fresh water the next time you take the coach out.

Second, if your coach is like mine (I do not own a Fleetwood, so I am not intimately familiar with your setup), sanitize your fresh water system by pouring 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 (approx) gallons of fresh water capacity into the fresh water system.

My coach does not have a fresh water gravity fill. To introduce bleach into your fresh water system, either fill the appropriate amount of bleach into your water filter if you have one, or simply pour it into your fresh water hose and start filling the tank as you would when filling on a city water connection.

Once the bleach is in the tank, run every fresh water faucet for several minutes. Let the solution sit in the tank and lines for several hours, but not 24 hours (chlorine can be corrosive).

Flush the system at each faucet liberally (make sure you don't overflow your gray tank). Dump your fresh water tank and repeat the process. Your good to go.

Note: This process always leaves a chlorine residual in your fresh water system for several tank fulls of water. If this bothersome, add some baking soda to the fresh water tank, and repeat the process. If not, continual use will eliminate the chlorine odor.

Pusherman · 02-22-2011, 05:58 PM

Refer to my post here on recommendations on how to sanitize your fresh water sytem: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f84/dump-...tml#post795979

GaryKD · 02-22-2011, 06:24 PM

Hi digitalone,
I do not own a Fleetwood product, However, I read you OP to ask about which ball valve goes to the fresh water tank. To determine this, consider:
1. Turn off the hot water heater.
2. Turn off the shore fresh water.
3. Open all ball valves until no water is draining.
4. Place the shore connected fresh water hose so that it will fill the fresh water tank.
5. Start to fill the fresh water tank until you see water coming out one of the drains.
6. Close one ball valve at a time until the water stops draining. This is the fresh water tank drain valve.
The other two ball valves are for the hot and cold coach water lines.

Gary RVRoamer · 02-22-2011, 06:32 PM

The layout and purpose of each vale is indeed a model specific question. It sometimes even differs for models from the same manufacturer (Fleetwood, in your case) and also from year to year.

Fleetwoods normally have a fresh water tank drain line but not always a valve for it. The fresh water tank drain may be just a cap on a hose that hangs below the underside of the coach in that same general area.

You should have a valve that enables the fresh water tank to be filled via the city water inlet. I don't see the inlet in your photo, so can't tell if there is another valve near that. If not, one of the yellow handles could be for that.

Fleetwoods also normally have low-point drains for the hot and cold lines. It may be that two of those yellow handles are low point drain valves.

Dixieray53 · 02-22-2011, 06:44 PM

In our 2003 Bounder there were a set of handles to dump water from the tank. They were located in a storage bin near the passenger side entrance door, first or second bin. I can't remember exactly which lever did what, but I was able to get the antifreeze out of my water tank.

digitalone · 02-23-2011, 01:49 PM

Alright, first off thanks to everyone for your input so far.

I turned the handles.....

The one all the way to the right dumps water out a grey tube from the bottom of the black box.

The one in the middle dumps water out another tube coming our the bottom of the black box.

The one to left causes the water pump to kick but I have no idea where that water is going yet.

As far as sanitizing the tank, the fresh water is currently filled with the appropriate amount of bleach and soaking. I've flushed all the faucets till they smelled of bleach as well.

Now I just need to figure what the left most handle is for. I'm just assuming at this point but maybe it pumps water into the sewage line to help clean it out before disconnecting. Does that make sense to anyone else? I'll run some more tests when I can, stupid job gets in the way of sunlight hours.