Mods to tanks

[Richard Noble]

It's Father's day - here is what I got to do to my hobby (5th wheel trailer).
Took part of the metal bottom off the 5er to look at the bath grey and black tanks because they were starting to be very hard to close. I replaced the gate valves and intend to eliminate the cable pulls. I've decided to replace the cables with direct pull rods. I can do this by having the grey rod run through the port side frame and the black rod run through the starboard side frame. I will need to drill 1/4 in. holes. I also took the black tank rinser off and soaked it in Limeaway. It really works now. I also replaced all the sensors in both tanks with Horst Miracle Probes. I will replace the monitor's motherboard when it comes in Monday. I found a write-up on how to test this board and it tested bad. I did buy an inspection TV camera (Harbor Freight $79) so I could look into the tanks since I had the valves off and could see in. The original probes where too covered to be usable (black tank). Should get everything back together tomorrow.

[bsmith0404]

Someday I hope to have enough free time to be inspired to take on a task like this. Right now, mods to the tanks are the furthest thing from my mind! I'm kind of curious about having valves on both sides of the unit, seems like a bit of a hassle when dumping tanks or hooking up to a site with sewer.

[Richard Noble]

Actually, it will still drain to the port side for all three tanks. Just the "T" pull will be on the other side. I'm going to rotate the gate valve 180 degrees. Does that make sense? Original configuration was with all three pulls on port side but they all were cable type. One will still be a cable but it has not given me any trouble (yet).

[Dave W]

Interesting mod/idea since I need to drop the front belly cover on ours and try to figure out why the black tank drains way too slowly and has since day one

[Richard Noble]

Almost finished this project. The pulls work great and so do the Horst probes. Only problem has been with the black tank rinser - I tried to reuse the original one but it leaks around the edge, it may have a crack. I'll head to Grand Junction (CO) (nearest big town to us) and see if I can find one. I've looked at the Tornado thingy but there are to many bad reviews on it. Replacing the motherboard in the monitor caused all four tanks to start reading correctly. The black tank would not work even with the new board but the new probes fixed that problem.

I used 1/4 20 all tread as the rods to the pulls. Attaching them to the valves with special connectors (and using thread locker), passing them through holes in the frame and reattaching the "T" handles.

Hope to button the bottom up Wednesday.

[Richard Noble]

As to slow draining on the black tank - you may want to invest in the camera and see if you have the common problem of having the upper hole cutout in the tank. Some company's let the cutout drop into the tank as they install the toilet. This can get caught up in the drain.

[PerryB]

Originally Posted by Richard Noble

As to slow draining on the black tank - you may want to invest in the camera and see if you have the common problem of having the upper hole cutout in the tank. Some company's let the cutout drop into the tank as they install the toilet. This can get caught up in the drain.

X2, been there done that.

[Dave W]

Originally Posted by Richard Noble

As to slow draining on the black tank - you may want to invest in the camera and see if you have the common problem of having the upper hole cutout in the tank. Some company's let the cutout drop into the tank as they install the toilet. This can get caught up in the drain.

I have a camera and will use that before I 'dig' in as others have noted this as a problem. The toilet to tank drain pipe is at a 30* or so angle so I'll pull the toilet (needs an O ring on the flush valve shaft anyhow) and run it down taped on a piece of Romex or similar.

Update 7/12 - camera showed a clean tank but I did install the Horst/Valterra probes after pulling the belly cover down. While in there pulled the valve out which may have had the down side seal partially blocking the line as it flows much faster. I also ran a finger inside the tank outlet - not something for the faint of heart - to see if there was some debris there.