New Owner - Basic Plumbing Question..

[CaptMark]

It's been about a week now where my Tropical 235 has been sitting in my driveway. I didn't get any form of owner’s manual from the previous owner, so I've slowly been going through it system by system, foot by foot.

Some things are tremendously self explanatory, others not so much.

I have a basic waste / plumbing question…

In the back left of the coach, I’ve got the basement utility compartment where the shore power hooks up, cable tv, telephone and where also there is a shower, city water connection with a valve to fill the tanks or use city water and finally a sewer drain fixture.

My sewer drain fixture has a 3” valve and a 1.5” valve which both meet a 3” outlet. I’m going to ASSUME that the 3” valve is black water and that the 1.5” valve is gray water.

I hooked up the 20’ of 3” hose that I have and opened the 1.5” valve. No gray water came out. I opened the 3” valve and no black water came out.

According to my tank monitor, the black water tank is 1/3 full and the gray water tank is 1/3 full.

Shouldn’t something have come out??


There is a hose adapter which is labeled black water, so I am ASSUMING that it is used to flush the black water tank?

Is there a macerator pump or something that I need to run in order to flush the tank? Or perhaps my tank sensor is bad and it’s really empty??


Mark
Fort Lauderdale

[n9iui]

You should have it right; the 1.5" drain should be your gray water If you're sure you had the valve handles all the way out, it sounds like your tanks are empty. You can open your toilet flush valve and look; all the campers I have had dumped (sorry, pun intended) directly into the black tank. I could look in and see the bottom of the tank.
Remember though, when you go to dump the tanks for real, ALWAYS dump the black tank first. This is so the gray water will rinse the residue of the black water out your stinky slinky.
One way I've heard to clean the black tank sensors is to fill the tank about half way, dump a bag or two of ice down the toilet, then take it for a good drive taking lots of turns and starts and stops. Last stop should be at a dump station. The ice is said to gently clean off the sensors.

[oldnotdead]

If you can't get the previous owner or dealer to go over the rig. I would highly recommend finding someone to help you go over the systems on the rig. Either at a local dealer or repair shop. This would be a good time to check out shops that you may want to use in the future. At least you will check out the customer (or future customer) service
OND

[wa8yxm]

To answer your last question first: NO.

To move up the post.

The tank sensors work great.. ONCE, when the rig is new, after that they tend to read 2/3 full even when the tank is bone dry.

Since it's been sitting a while I'm going to modify my normal suggestions.

Fill the tank, at least till the FULL sensor lights

Add some RID-EX and let it sit for about a month. (If that is you can live without using it that long) now use one of the advanced tank flusher wands like the RV-Swivel Stick (Wall Mart) or the Valterry Master Blaster (Kind of what i use) to BLAST the sensors clean... (After dumping of course)

IF you can't wait,, Get .,.the Wand.. And use one of the RV waste DIgesters THE FIRST couple of tanks full Leave the valves closed till the FULL light lights, then dump and blast,, YOu may need 2 or 3 tries before you blast them clean.

You can also use the GEO method (Search forum library) but I think this will work better for you.

NOTE You must use the "Blaster" or "Swivel Stick" every time or it will continue to show part full even when empty.. IT only works for one tank.


Another option is a sensor upgrade,, See Level

[Bill WA6YBD]

Hi Mark,

Dirty probes will cause the display panel to read incorrectly. My son-in-law is having the same problem. We decided to replace the probes. I found these after searching the web and I think he is going to try them. The idea appears to be solid. Here is the web site: rvprobes.com Let us know if you try them and if they solve your problem. I will do the same as soon as we install them.

~Bill

[WSRG]

Sometimes, even if there IS water in the grey or black tank, you may not be able to drain them all the way if your coach is not level, or a little high in the rear. Try raising the front of the coach just past level, and drain the tanks again. There should not be a macerator pump in the factory system. The false reading on your tank level indicator is probably the most common problem in the RV industry. Try cleaning with ice as in the previous post. If that doesn't work, you may have to replace the sensors [no big deal]. By the way, if you end up replacing the sensors, you may find that the rubber grommets on the sensors have gotten hard with age. It's OK just to let them fall into the tanks if you can't get them all the way out...the first time you dump with at least a 3/4 full tank, they will run out with the rest of the waste.

Hope this helps, and good luck!!

Bill