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Old 08-30-2018, 07:20 AM   #1
limit4
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Black water drain

We have a 2013 Cougar xlite 26sab and when we went to the dump station our black tank would not drain properly, just a trickle. The drive is sloped a little toward the front of the fifth wheel. When I got home I leveled the trailer and it drained fine. The slope at the dump station is not severe but it is noticeable. Both gray tanks drained as they should. Grateful for any thoughts, thanks in advance. Bob
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Old 08-30-2018, 07:51 AM   #2
66joej
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Quote:
Originally Posted by limit4 View Post
We have a 2013 Cougar xlite 26sab and when we went to the dump station our black tank would not drain properly, just a trickle. The drive is sloped a little toward the front of the fifth wheel. When I got home I leveled the trailer and it drained fine. The slope at the dump station is not severe but it is noticeable. Both gray tanks drained as they should. Grateful for any thoughts, thanks in advance. Bob
If you have a black tank sewer drain for the 5er at home that works fine why not use it? No need to go to a dump station. Unless of course you are away for an extended period of time. Then as you say when level no issues so when at a FHU campsite it will drain.
Maybe the forward angle of the 5er is enough to keep the black tank from fully draining.
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Old 08-30-2018, 07:55 AM   #3
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Any input you get will be, for the most part, "wild guesses and speculation", so here's mine. When you were at the campground, you used your toilet and partially filled the black tank with solids. There likely wasn't a lot of water also added to the tank and when you pulled the plug to empty the black tank, those "solids" moved toward the drain, effectively plugging it, so only a "slight trickle" was discharged. When you towed the trailer home, the motion from towing broke up those solids so that once home, they flowed more freely with the liquid that was in the tank and there wasn't a "poo plug" to partially block the exit at the valve.

Typically, only empty your black tank when it is completely (or almost completely) full. I always fill the black tank by flushing the toilet until it "gurgles" before I pull the valve handle to empty the black tank.

My guess is that you weren't level (not that being level is a requirement to empty the tank) but that you were "just enough off level" for the solids to migrate to the valve, covering/plugging the exit, so that when you did pull the handle to open the valve, there was enough "stuff in the way" that the volume inside the tank couldn't push the "plug" out of the way.

I may be way off on my guess, but if my experience, being "slightly off level" has never hindered tank flow. It "may" hinder complete empting of the tank if the valve is above the tank bottom, but everything in the tank that's higher than the valve will (or should) freely flow out of the tank when you open the valve. The only "problem" with being off level is complete drainage, not initiating flow. So, I don't think being off level caused your issue. Probably the solids in the tank coupled with not enough liquid was the problem and that was "solved" with the agitation of towing home when it broke up the solids into smaller pieces.
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Old 08-30-2018, 09:58 AM   #4
limit4
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John, we were right across the street from the restrooms so put very little solids in tank. Last year we had the same problem and when I got home I filled the tank and got what looked to be vinyl flooring to come out into the bucket. What you suggested could be right, only material from shoddy workmanship instead of solids. Thanks for your input and also 66joej
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Old 08-30-2018, 11:42 AM   #5
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Back in my younger days I was a tech at an RV place.

A customer brought their new trailer back, after the first camp out and said they could not drain the black tank.

Took it back to the service lot and pulled the handle... nothing but drips came out... got a flashlight and looked up into the pipe and there was something flat and black covering the opening at the tank end... it was the cutout from the hole for the toilet

That was 40+ years ago, looks like things have not improved much.

-Brian
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