dry camping and not enjoying all of it.

[beranekdean]

Have a 2022 Keystone Sprinter 3590LFT using a 2014 Dodge Ram 3500 pulling it. It is presently at Oshkosh for the activities and we have been in it for 3 weeks. We are in open camping with no hookups water tank has been filled several times in being there for three weeks but when we turn on the pump it runs to pressurize then shuts off. without any use it will kick on in about 45 seconds and run again to pressurize. Have opened up every panel on the rig and can find no leakage or dampness. A hot and cold line run to the rear for the kitchen sink but there is only one elbow under the floor under the kitchen sink that we are unable to inspect. Assume if it was leaking it would soak through the coreply or puddle and sag the panels down.

issue #2, had crawled inside the storage pass through compartment after I removed the panel that exposes all of the plumbing and my wife informed me that she thought the black tank was full and I should dump it. I dumped maybe 10 or 12 gallons and then she told me that there was still water backed up into the toilet and not draining out. Ran 20 gallons through the tank flush system and drained it all out. Toilet still standing full. In the mean time she is boiling water to add to the bowl to try and free it up. This morning I ran water up the discharge line and backfilled the tank to 2/3's full. Drained that water out and the toilet bowl still stands proud and full. Any suggestions? considering a drain balloon, and a video camera attachment to look in the tank. Camper neighbor thinks there might be some factory imperfection in the tank that is causing the issue.

[NH_Bulldog]

There could be several issues with the freshwater system. Most obvious is a leak somewhere, and it doesn’t have to be much, just a drip, drip. I recently had a similar situation and found the nylon water heater plug had split and was slowly dripping. Another problem can be the pump diaphragm having debris caught in it. I had a major issue when ours was new because the pump was pulling plastic bits from the tank from when they drilled holes. I installed a screen filter and even after 4 full camping seasons, still find debris caught in the filter screen.

The black tank problem sounds like a very common issue experienced by many boondockers; the dreaded pyramid of poo. Typically caused by not using enough water when flushing, and/or too much TP and/or using “flushable” wipes and “stuff” just piles up and up until you have a plug at the base of the toilet. It can happen in any camping situation, but is most common in dry camping because of the tendency to want to conserve water. Think of your toilet at home where every flush uses 1.6+ gallons of water. In the camper, we tend to use a fraction of that. Your solution is to get a stick, press the toilet foot pedal and GENTLY try to push, pry and knock down the offending pile into the tank. You do NOT want to poke a hole in the tank so be gentle! Once that is done, then you can start flushing the tank again and again. It will take time and a lot of water to re-liquify everything, but that’s what needs to happen. Moving forward, make sure to use plenty of water with every flush

[Pull Toy]

Carefully try your other tank dump valve. It’s not at all uncommon to have the labels wrong on the drain valves. If that solves it, I sure hope you were hooked up!

Good luck,

[dutchmensport]

If your camper is set up to fill the fresh water tank with the garden hose attached and you flip a valve from "normal flow" to "fill" then make sure after filling the fresh water tank you flip that valve back to "normal flow". This will keep the pump cycling on and off. Some campers it cycles once an hour, others it will cycle ever minute. But flip it back to the normal flow position. See if that helps the water pump.

As stated above, your tank sounds like you have the dreaded poop pyramid in the tank. Follow the advise above, there's no better way to take care of that problem. Time, poking, soaking, and lots and lots of water.

[bobbecky]

As far as the water pump cycling, that is likely the check valve in the pump leaking a bit of water back to the tank which is causing the pump to turn on to build pressure back up.
I'm also thinking your drain valves are labelled incorrectly. I would, as has been suggested, drain all three of your tanks.

[PMizzi]

You need to use happy camper black tank cleaner. This stuff disintegrates everything.will need to do a couple flushes…