Oh Poo....

[Willie B]

Yeah, so I'm told sooner or later, the holding tanks will get you. Well, although we're pretty new to this, I really thought I had figured out the holding tank thing....more specifically the black water tank. I mean, it's seemingly a pretty straight forward process and with the help of this forum, I've read EVERYTHING there was to know....at least that's what I told myself.

We took a short trip this week for 2 overnight stays in our 1999 Tradewinds National RV DP. When we landed, I suited up into my hazmat suit (well almost) and dove headfirst into the camp site hook ups. Feeling pretty 'cocky' about the knowledge I had acquired. Gloves...check, Antibacterial wipes...check, the special outdoor shoes on....check, the correct white hose in place...check, removal of the cap from the holding tank waste line.....mmmmm? For the briefest of moments, I looked at that cap, double checking to make sure the holding tank valves were closed and thought, "I wonder if anything could be lurking in the space between the valve and cap?" Nah, how could it be, I thought. I dumped both tanks at the end of our last trip, and aside from the black water tank sensors not sensing that well, the tanks were empty.

Well, armed with the knowledge of having taken care of everything the last time we camped, with the stinky slinky in hand, I went for the cap removal, and....wait for it.....yep, I was sprayed with the smelly side of RVlife. Arghhhhh! So what did I do wrong? Is it possible the valve could be going bad and therefore leaking? The only thing that changed from the several times before (all of which worked perfectly) was that I tossed about 5-10 lbs of ice in the toilet before we left on our trip hoping it would clear the sensors.

So I'm now a little hesitant to connect the slinky again so any feedback would be great! After all, after being on the wrong end of the poo once, I'd like to keep this as an isolated event where 10 years from now I'm laughing while telling other newbies how to avoid this. OK, maybe I'll need 15 years before it becomes laughable. Thanks!

[KiteSquid]

I have a clear pipe then a cap on the end of me sewer hookup. I always look in the clear pipe to see if I have leaked any nastiness before removing the cap.

No supprises for me.

[Duoglide1]

I have added an additional valve on the end of my pipe. I then put the twist on cap on that valve. I can remove the cap and hook up the slinky. THEN I open that valve before the black valve. No surprises. You can get a Valterra (or other brand) at most RV stores cheap.

[winniman]

I had the same issue. I added the valterra valve onto where my slinky attaches. I now attach the slinky to the valterra valve. Heres the one I bought on Amazon. No more mess. Cheers https://www.amazon.ca/Valterra-T58-T...gateway&sr=8-2

[MSHappyCampers]

It seems to me there are only two possibilities. Either the valve is not closing properly or a clump of toilet paper and ???? was blocking the valve when you tried to close it.

Does your RV have a black tank flushing system? I would buy one of the 45 degree clear fittings for the outlet. That way you can see when the water is clear when you dump. I open the dump valve and turn on the flusher at the same time. When it slows to a small stream I close the dump valve and wait a couple of minutes for the flusher to do it's thing. Then I open the dump valve again. I keep doing this until the water is clear coming out. Then I close the dump valve, let the flusher run for a couple of minutes before shutting it off. The last thing I do is pour an application of Happy Camper tank treatment into the toilet, dissolve it with the cleaning brush, and flush.

With this procedure and the Happy Camper we never have any odors or clogs!

[Wayne M]

I asked my wife ONCE to hook up the sewer line when my back was hurting. I had forgotten to close the gray. (See ONCE). If your wife doesn't read this you may be able to ask her for help in hooking it up - ONCE.