Blackwater Everywhere!

leeeep1 · 02-26-2024, 06:48 AM

New RV owner here! 2021 Keystone Avalanche 378BH
The trailer sits on top of large hill on our property. It took a 4 wheel dually with the help of a skid loader to get it up there. it's not going to a dump station anytime soon. My daughter and her new "partner" are staying full time for a while and moved in in December. The tanks had not been dumped as of 2/20. I have designed and installed a blackwater dump system. A Flow Jet macerator pump attached to a 1", 350' PVC line going to the bottom of the hill dumping into a 275 gallon tote.
The problem: When I started to remove the blackwater cap from the 3", black water began to come out. It must have been hilarious to watch me try to get the cap back on while the "stuff" was gushing out. I was able to get it back on before too much came out. I concluded the dump valve was probably opened and closed sometime during the last months, allowing the stuff to fill the pipe between the valve and the end cap. We dumped the remainder into a bucket and attached the macerator pump. We pulled the dump valve and nothing happened. Turns out, the valve pull handles are mis labeled! We finally were able to dump what we thought was the rear tank. We began to dump the other tanks and that is when total confusion took over!
Because of the valves being mis labeled, I call Keystone. I was told by my dealer that there was one blackwater tank and two grey water tanks. Keystone says I have FIVE tanks! (1) Blackwater and (2) Greywater for the mater bathroom. (3) Galley Greywater, (4) Blackwater connected to sink in rear bathroom and (5) Greywater for the outdoor kitchen.
I only have three valve pulls! Can anyone tell me how the five tanks are connected to TWO dump ports.
Keystone wasn't even able to tell me how the three valves should have been labeled!
I would love to talk to a current or former Avalanche owner. Thanks in advance for any help given.

Cheers,
-Leo

notanlines · 02-26-2024, 07:17 AM

"moved in in December. The tanks had not been dumped as of 2/20. "
If this is true, your 'daughter and partner' have way more problems than can be handled here.
Assuming they have lived there for eight weeks, with a total grey/black water capacity of 200 gallons, this comes to approximately 10 weeks of living (showers, dishes, cleaning commode use, etc.) at 20 gallons per week/3 gallons per day.
Something simply doesn't add up.

Pull Toy · 02-26-2024, 07:45 AM

You will probably find that two or more of your gray tanks are “Siamesed” and controlled by one dump handle. These tanks combine to give you more volume in common areas. Your half bath commonly will share one tank for black and gray, and may have a separate dump handle near the driver side axles. It may have a separate slinky connection, or it may drain at the main location. Once all tanks are empty, you will need to experiment a bit, and relabel. Food coloring, one tank at a time may help.

Welcome, and Good luck,

leeeep1 · 02-26-2024, 02:57 PM

Thanks for your reply, Yes, there is information missing. All greywater has been re cycled into the garden. They are at our house during the day because of the internet connection, so they use our facilities. They also go #1 outside except at night. Overall the usage hasn't been consistent and level lights just started to come on. I do think they haven't been using enough water. We were able to get at least one black tank about 90% flushed.

leeeep1 · 02-26-2024, 03:03 PM

Thanks, The food coloring idea is one I will use. Do you think the normal configuration would be the two toilets are connected to one blackwater tank and output to one 3" discharge port?

Pull Toy · 02-26-2024, 05:00 PM

Based on your floorplan, in my opinion the half bath has its own tank for sink and toilet combined, behind the axles. This is actually a good thing because it helps to insure more water in the tank. The trick to good black tank maintenance is water, water, and more water! When flushing the throne of solids, an additional five to ten seconds of peddle pressure has stood us in good stead for the last 45+ years. Also, when emptying, fill and flush the black tank at least one more time. You want to see clear water flow when done, preferably through a clear fitting. This will help to eliminate the dreaded POO PILE.

Good Luck

notanlines · 02-27-2024, 07:08 AM

Thanks for the additional info. Along with the good info above, the tanks need to be flushed considerably more often, especially the black tanks.

baybum10 · 03-03-2024, 08:23 AM

I use the Valterra Twist-On Waste Valve on the 3" cap area. It manages any leak issues behind the cap.

Westmonster · 03-03-2024, 09:08 AM

Hi Leo, I have the same model except mine is a 2019. Keystone is correct in that there are "FIVE tanks! (1) Blackwater and (2) Greywater for the mater bathroom. (3) Galley Greywater, (4) Blackwater connected to sink (and toilet) in rear bathroom and (5) Greywater for the outdoor kitchen." If you look behind the rear wheels on the drivers side under the camper you'll find another 3" discharge hose connection and two more pull handles. The labels that read black water and gray water are one the side of the camper. All of my tanks fill up rather quickly with my family of six except for tank (5) Gray water for the outdoor kitchen. When I pull that handle nearly nothing comes out as it is only holding water from the outdoor kitchen sink. I hook up one sewer hose to the front outlet and a second sewer hose to the rear outlet, then join them both together with a "Y connector" with the main line going to the dump connection at the campsite. Mine is labeled correctly on the outside however labeled incorrectly inside at the wall panel showing the different levels of the tanks. Hope this helps.

Phil Saran · 03-03-2024, 10:52 AM

I don't have your same RV, mine is a 2019 Keystone Cougar 30RLS 5th wheel.

But we also found out that our two dump handles for toilet and shower
were miss labeled the hard way at a Elks Lodge dump station.

I added a slider valve at the end of the 3" pipe that you connect the hose
to. After time I found that the slide valves did not always close all the way
so I had leakage, adding the outer connection and adding another slider
valve cured the leakage problem.

And I relabeled the two pull handles

LHaven · 03-03-2024, 11:02 AM

Rather than fool around with labels (my detailer kindly buffed all mine to death anyway), if your cables are the type that have screw-on handles, go to your parts store for some Valterra handles. They come in black and silver (gray), with obvious mnemonic benefits, and they're only about $6.

jam115 · 03-04-2024, 08:27 AM

Confirming Westmonster's post. I recently purchased a 2023 378BH, and got the same story from the dealer - the three pull valves in the 'convenience center' controlled all five tanks somehow. Took me forever to find the two additional pull valves in the back. They're just to the rear of the bunkhose slide-out, behind the body/skirt and sticking through the frame. There should also be a couple of labels there showing which one is the black tank and which one is the gray tank (if they haven't worn off). The two rear tanks dump through the rear 3" pipe. Hope that helps!

leeeep1 · 03-09-2024, 07:39 AM

Wow! Thank you SOOO much for the information about the two other valves for the rear tanks! The dealer didn't even mention them during the PDI. We found the valves yesterday. The labels are either gone or we have to look harder. One of the valves seems to have loose linkage that will need to be investigated. We will attempt a dump of all tanks this weekend and match them to the pull handles. From what you said about connecting both ports together, can I conclude both Blackwater AND Greywater come out of the two ports, depending on which valve is pulled?

Westmonster · 03-09-2024, 07:51 PM

Yes, both black water and gray water come out of the hoses depending on which handle is pulled. I pull the black water handle first in the convenience center which releases the black water from the master bathroom and wait until the flow has slowed down as seen through the clear elbow at the end of the line. Next I pull the rear black handle as that tank holds both the gray water and black water together from the rear bathroom. Both black and gray water from from the rear bathroom (toilet and sink) is stored in one tank together. Then I pull the gray water 1 handle in the convenience center which releases the gray water from the master bathroom (shower and sink). Next is the other gray water 2 handle which releases the gray water from the kitchen sink. Last is the rear gray water handle which only holds the gray water from the outdoor kitchen sink only. If you don't use the outside kitchen sink then you may find out that nothing comes out when the handle is pulled. Rinse tanks, close valves, and you are ready for action once again.

LenH · 03-10-2024, 04:38 AM

We have a Passport 3351bh with 2 black and 2 gray tanks. I identified our dump handles with white and black zip ties. No more confusion!

Ranchhand · 03-10-2024, 08:09 AM

I have this exact model and year. The labels for the handles behind the wheels are on my slide. So on mine when you are crawled up in there and the slide is out while you are pulling the valves you can not see the labels. It’s really dumb. That being said if your slide was in when you are dumping it would be a little more obvious. For the most part mine sits on a seasonal site so my slide is out while I’m dumping.

leeeep1 · 03-13-2024, 05:14 PM

Update: We are successful! Thank You Westmonster! After locating the dump valves for the rear bathroom and the outdoor kitchen, things went fairly well. Unfortunately I had not read your reply yet about the dual use dump ports. We hooked up the macerator to the rear port but pulled the convenience center blackwater valve, just to see what would happen. Yep, black water, proving your point. Fortunately we were prepared and had hooked a temporary hose to the front port, only a little got out. We moved back to the rear port but the dump labels had come off or were never there. Both handles are black. We pulled one and nothing came out, that was the outdoor kitchen! Now we know what is going on, pulled the other valve and the clear elbow showed us what we wanted to see! Running the macerator made quick work of the first dump. It took four more to get it to run clear. The same procedure was run on the front port but included the two other Greys after the Black. Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions!

LHaven · 03-13-2024, 06:37 PM

Now that it's all straightened out, if it were my rig, I'd replace the black outdoor kitchen valve with a gray. The memory is the first thing to go.

Westmonster · 03-14-2024, 05:58 PM

You're welcome, I'm glad to read that it worked out for you. If you have any more questions then please ask and I'll be happy to answer since I have the same model. We've been in ours now for five years now and although I'm no expert, I'll be happy try to answer any questions that you may have. Enjoy your new camper!

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