Grey Water/Black Water Tank & Flush

[Scoop]

Don’t mean to hijack, but can some one direct me somewhere that better explains the valve in the link and where it is to go? We found one loose in our used trailer when we bought it and I have no idea what to do with it or where or when to use it.

[Bob Landry]

We camp at parks with no sewer hookup. I have a Valtarra gate valve on the output of my dump connection. It stays shut while the two grey tank valves are left open. This plumbs the two grey tanks together and they both fill at the same rate, No worrying about having one full tank and the other 1/3 full. If we have a extra long weekend or extra guests, I may have to dump the grey tanks. I have a Barker that I set on my tailgate and a pump from Lowes that fills the tote. One trip through the campground pulling the tote 5 MPH with it's noisy plastic wheels is responsible for this is idea. I don't remember ever filling the black tank on a long weekend so it gets dumped on the way out or if there's a long line, when we gat back to the storage facility.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Scoop

Don’t mean to hijack, but can some one direct me somewhere that better explains the valve in the link and where it is to go? We found one loose in our used trailer when we bought it and I have no idea what to do with it or where or when to use it.

If you're talking about the valve in post #2 it is the vacuum break/anti siphon valve for the black tank flush. It is probably (maybe) located under your bathroom sink. They cause problems and sounds like the previous owner experienced one if you have a "spare" just sitting around in the trailer. Some folks remove them, some replace with OE valves and some replace with a brass valve. Most anything other than the OE plastic things would be better. I don't have one...it has been removed and I use a brass anti siphon valve on the end of my black tank flush hose.

[chunker]

Many "city folks" who are on a sewer system feed the sink drain everything off of plates, pots and pans to grind up in the garbage disposal. They will rinse plates in the sink and wash down everything. All that food remnants will do fine in a sewer system but will cause problems in an RV holding tank. Horrible stink is just one as well as potentially clogging valves. I'm on a septic tank and at home wipe plates into the garage can before washing in the sink or putting in the dishwasher. In the RV I do the same to minimize food stuff going into the grey tank.

[jim1]

Our Cougar 315 RLS tank sensors have been good, bad and real sh@*^%y. I was adding a rear bumper to the 5ver and rolled back a large portion of the black plastic cover on the bottom to make sure nothing would be damaged. What a total disappointment, screws, wood, wire and other crap came down with it. Probably took 25 lbs off the GVW. I found 1 FW tank sensor wire hooked up tight, the other 3 had loose wires and one lock nut missing. No wonder they don't work. No quality control at all. Just happy I didn't take all the black cover down, there is probably stuff I would rather not see under there. Might be why the other tanks read what ever they want. But my fresh water is reading close to accurate now.

[sourdough]

Jim you might have been pleasantly surprised if you had pulled the rest of the coroplast down. Folks have found tools, cordless drills, bundles of shop towels, spare luan....who knows what might have been there.....a bundle of 100 dollar bills???!!

[Jim27]

Second question: What am I doing wrong to not be able to flush the black tank via the flush port?[/QUOTE]

As far as your black tank flush goes do you have a second bathroom in the garage? On my Raptor the tank flush located in the front bay flushes my garage black tank and my black tank flush for the main bathroom is located on the other side of the trailer. It doesn’t make much sense to me but that’s how mine works. I hope that this helps.

[Life-in-Him]

One thing we've discovered is if the flow rate is full blast, it doesn't do the tank bottom very well.

We use a shutoff valve @ the inlet. (put a 90° elbow to take pressure off the connection)
Then we listen for the water impacting the other side of the tank.

If it's noisey it's to much, so we turn it down. Work much better.

[Scoop]

I put a pressure regulator on mine as I was sure it was leaking without it. Better safe than sorry. I guess just because it is a flush does not mean they used a higher pressure line that can handle it.

[Life-in-Him]

Agree. We use a PR also.

We also use a backflo preventer @ the "L".

Caution vs I did it "just once" is all it takes to polute someone elses water system.

Since the line pressure isn't always the best @ every CG it just makes sense to help out when doing our clean out.


KYD had a personal comment about not using "potable" water connections near dump locations. Can't be sure "the other guy" didn't use the potable hose to rinse their Stinky Slinky.