Black Water Holding Tank Baffle??

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 08:29 AM

Ok here we go lol. New trailer to us. 2002 260rbs Sprinter. I noticed last night the toilet, when flushed was acting strange. When you flushed a bowl of water it burped, like the vent was stopped up or something, even with the gate open. I went fishing this morning, ughhh. I found the feminine wipes that were used, completely stopping up the toilet lower neck, right as it enters and into, the tank, I panicked a little and wondered if the tank was stopped up at the gate, even though the indicator said no. I went out and check, nope, flowing ok.

Came back inside and cut a metal hanger and started fishing wipes up and out. It started flowing really well. I closed the gate and filled the tank about half way and opened it and it flowed great. Came back in and checked, yep flowing good through the toilet. One thing I noticed is there is some type of flat baffle inside the tank, catching the wipes, I could see the top edge of the tank while running water and the horizontal plate baffle? is definitely inside the tank. On my old trailer, "things" dropped straight in and when dry, you could see the bottom of the tank.

I took the hanger and spun it around 360 degrees and it hit something firm on all sides, square shaped and about 3 inches outside the tank entrance hole. Is this some type of baffle or something? This is a new one on me....Any advise or opinions? Thanks beforehand

**JRTJH** · 12-21-2013, 08:48 AM

It sounds like you may have a dried mound of solids and feminine wipes on the bottom of your black tank. You indicated the trailer is a 2002 that is "new to you" so the previous owner may have used the RV with the black tank valve open allowing all the liquids to drain out and leave the solids to dry and adhere to the black tank sides/floor. The "baffle" you feel with a bent coat hanger may well be the "solid waste" that's dried in the tank.

About the only way I know for sure to find out is to somehow visualize the interior of the tank. You can do that with a borescope (if you have one or know someone with one).

I know that in years gone by, fresh water tanks in RV's had baffles molded into them to help reduce trailer sway during towing with half full tanks. I haven't seen a gray/black tank with baffles in years, but your RV is 10+ years old, so it's possible. Molded baffles were removed to increase the capacity of tanks years ago when someone made a conscious (or unconscious) decision that weight/capacity of tanks was more important than RV sway.....

Your Sprinter specs say you've got a 28 gallon black tank. A typical 28 gallon holding tank is less than 5 cuft, and many are about 37" x 18" x 9" or close to those measurements. It is possible that your tank is longer than the 37" and narrower than the 18" and you are banging into the sides of the tank rather than a baffle.

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 08:58 AM

Thanks, the pile of stuff may be right, but it sure looks like a white horizontal plastic plate to me, really odd. The tank is about 20-24 wide, maybe 10-12 inches deep and about 3 to 4 feet long, probably about 40 inches long. I'll investigate more today, maybe turn the water off and open the flapper, to get a good look at what is going on. I just thought it was way odd to have any flat baffle under the toilet opening into the tank.

**JRTJH** · 12-21-2013, 09:07 AM

It does seem strange, unless it was some "junior engineer's" scheme to prevent the "poop pile" by molding a slide under the inlet to disperse the contents of flushing away from the inlet ????? That's purely a SWAG at what you might have

Go "swimming" to find out LOL

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 09:14 AM

Lmao, I know, It seemed way strange, I thought maybe a direction chute or something lol, or otherwise known as a poop chute. With the way this storm is going, we'll be lucky to have power all day. Power outage reports are already coming in, in Tulsa per the news.

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 09:26 AM

Well that solves that lol. Tank is only about 5 or 6 inches deep. It's the tank bottom I'm hitting and seeing. The wipes must have piled up from short flushes.

**JRTJH** · 12-21-2013, 09:40 AM

That sounds reasonable. When you were saying the tank was 24x48x12 (or so) I thought it sounded much larger than 28 gallons. That size tank is closer to a 40 gallon tank. I'd guess yours is closer to 18x40x9. Of course, the way manufacturers "nip and tuck" to fit tanks into tiny spaces, it would be 9x9x78 LOL One never knows with any RV manufacturer how they do "work arounds" to make a model fit the interior designer's schemes.....

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 10:25 AM

Lol, so true. I thought it was deeper, just from working under the trailer, I'm going to have to keep an eye on that one. I recently ran across another 2002 Sprinter, same footage and same model as mine, but it had fiberglass exterior, vs mine which is metal. Just goes to show how much an identical model can change. Thanks for the help lol.

**JRTJH** · 12-21-2013, 05:54 PM

The fiberglass exterior was an option on sprinter back then. What you've got is the "standard build" and the fiberglass one was the "optional build"... There's probably several other options in the fiberglass one that you saw that aren't in yours. Usually when people option for the fiberglass exterior they also option for all the other goodies as well.

FullTimer · 12-21-2013, 07:33 PM

Ah ha, I wondered why the same year change. I think ours looks sharper lol. The black tank size surprised me, considering the FW was so much larger, 45 gal. As I go through this one, I find someone has put alot of work and money in it fairly recently, that I didn't see when I bought it. A brand new Dometic rooftop, brand new home grade faucets, not sure of brand yet, new Shurflo water pump, new tires, new toilet. Stuff like that. So very pleased with the investment so far.
I've been doing stuff like a madman the last two weeks to make it more winter friendly, and adding more creature comforts. I found the space under the stove is dead space. So I plan on going to a local cabinet shop and having a matching door made for that area. One of the benches is outside access only, so I will cut a matching access into the inside, same as the other bench, and install a door on that as well. Stuff like that. It will take time, but I'll get it to where it's more user friendly for us. So I'll probably have more questions lol.

golfpro · 01-03-2014, 07:15 PM

you might need to use some rid x to clean out that hard build up in the tank.

FullTimer · 01-06-2014, 04:35 PM

I suspect something is still going on with that tank. When I fill and flush the tank, it gets down to a couple of inches from the bottom, about 2 inches and drains the rest of the way slowly. It doesn't drain fast and completely. I have done this 3 or 4 times, repeatedly, and the same result every time. Trailer is level. I have 15 extra feet of 1/2 pex, and plan on building a curved hose about 4 foot long, that connects to the water hose or bathroom faucet and spraying the inside. I just need to grab the connectors. It might have some heavy stuff, sitting over at the gate. It would be great for clogs anyway. It's on my list lol.

FullTimer · 01-08-2014, 05:24 AM

I think I figured it out accidentally. I had the water off yesterday for a repair of a slightly dripping connection and by chance I looked into the black tank through the toilet. I saw the round disc from where they drilled the hole in the tank for the toilet or drain. For now I'll live with it, but sooner or later I'll have to deal with that.

FullTimer · 01-12-2014, 11:55 AM

Well today was the day. I got my 21 foot usb cam in yesterday and decided to "look" in the black water tank. Installed in on a spare laptop yesterday, tested it and got it configured.

What I saw stunned me. Since we had bought the trailer, the black water has always showed 1/3 full, has always drained slowly. No matter how many times I filled and dumped, still 1/3. Well, I pulled the toilet and slid the tiny cam into a piece of 1/2 pex about 4 foot long then went videoing. What I saw appalled me, piles of compacted toilet paper, to the roof of the tank, with a trough through it, to the gate valve.

So since necessity is the mother of invention, I took another 4 foot long pex, installed a flareit coupling to the toilet supply water line, bent the open pex end upwards, to be straight out inside the tank, and using the under vanity sink whole trailer cutoff valve I I installed when we bought the trailer, started flushing it, using the cutoff valve to stop the water. It took me almost two hours to soften and break up the paper and flush it on through. Stopping and checking it with the cam every so often. Gingerly spinning the hose to point at every side of the tank.

So when I was done, checked with the cam one last time, reinstalled the toilet and called it done. Tank now shows dead empty. An expert tank cleaning! Haha.

Eta to add, here is the disc from them drilling the tank, firmly glued to the bottom of the tank, so I left it.

f6bits · 01-12-2014, 01:52 PM

I'm just now reading this thread. FullTimer was quite thorough.

But I didn't see any mention of pouring a bag or so of ice cubes in and taking the trailer for a long drive.

My tank is pretty clear (or so I think), but some day I'll do the wand trick. FullTimer's idea of connecting it to a bathroom fixture makes me want to tap into the faucet's hot water PEX line and add a quick release fitting for a wand.

FullTimer · 01-12-2014, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by f6bits

I'm just now reading this thread. FullTimer was quite thorough.

But I didn't see any mention of pouring a bag or so of ice cubes in and taking the trailer for a long drive.

My tank is pretty clear (or so I think), but some day I'll do the wand trick. FullTimer's idea of connecting it to a bathroom fixture makes me want to tap into the faucet's hot water PEX line and add a quick release fitting for a wand.

Thanks, Lol, I also thought of a quick release for flushing it out thoroughly. Right now our trailer stays put, so no trips for us. I was also wondering how hard it would be to drill and install a water hose fitting onto the opposite side of the tank from the valve. To help flush it out with a hard spray, towards the valve. Just my mind wandering lol.

I went ahead and uploaded a test video of the cam, so you guys could see what I saw through the cam, pretty good really, during the initial configuration of it. Sorry about the messy house, lots going on repair wise. Trust me, you don't want to see the other vids lol. I think this camera would also be handy for looking into inaccessible places. You can view it live on the laptop, comes with attachments to grab stuff and the software disc for the player and recorder. I'm pretty impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QGKK...ature=youtu.be

This kind of shows you how close the city water inlet and cutoff valve are to the toilet.

f6bits · 01-12-2014, 02:20 PM

I've read reviews on the in-tank flush system, but have been scared off by users whose spray heads have frozen. My tank is fairly clean and my sensors work fairly well. I'd rather deal with the wand once in a while than have an ineffective flush system. Plus, tapping into the hot water will practically steam clean the holding tank.

FullTimer · 01-12-2014, 02:33 PM

Good points, it only takes a few minutes to remove the toilet, to get good access to the inside of the tank. Believe me, I knew something was off about that tank, I just wasn't sure what. When I got the trailer, the 3 inch back flush attachment was still attached, which makes me think someone else was having issues as well.

**JRTJH** · 01-12-2014, 05:57 PM

Chuck,

It may seem "gross" but I'd really like to see what the inside of your tank looked like. A large number of members "battle" the TP pile and dirty holding tanks. It would be interesting to see just what happens when someone doesn't take care of flushing the tanks and when "things" dry inside them....

FullTimer · 01-12-2014, 07:18 PM

Lol, no problem JR. It will take a few hours to upload and encode, so I'll try to post what the tank looked like right after I pulled the toilet, and believe me, what I found blew me away. You can tell, this stuff had been in there a long long time, long before I bought the trailer.

I will post a GROSS FACTOR WARNING though lol. It is extremely gross. If you have a weak stomach, DON'T watch. If you just ate, DON'T watch.

Let me start the upload, and I'll post the vid in the morning. It's 2.1 gigs, so takes several hours, even on broadband. The video will be right after removing the toilet and my first look inside. I had to pull the camera several times and clean the lens, due to not expecting what I found and pushing it right into the muck, numerous times, trying to get an idea of just how bad it really was. Keep in mind, this is after filling and dumping the tank 3 times. Video uploading now. I want to mention, the tank stopped up a number of times as I flushed it, and the stream of water unstopped it over and over.

This will be the link when it's done. http://youtu.be/TRgCb4nn69E

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