Buying a 3400RL Montana - Page 8 - Montana Owners Club

boat391 · 05-05-2006, 05:19 PM

The wife and I just got our new 3400rl and took it out for it's shake down trip Can someone tell me if the galley tank and the grey tank cross fill or do the stay seperate didn't catch that at my walk through never had a galley tank in the last coach lol.......... thanks

Searchers · 05-05-2006, 07:50 PM

Tim, Welcome to the forum! There will be three dump valves, one for each tank. I don't have a 3400RL but suspect the galley dump valve will be found between the center and back, street side of the unit protruding through the frame rails. I'm sure another 3400 owner will be along soon with more specific details.

indy roadrunner · 05-06-2006, 12:41 AM

Tim, it is my understanding they stay separate. That is why you have two gray tank valves to pull when you empty. There is one valve by the Black tank valve, then there is another gray tank valve between the two wheels of the trailer. Not sure which valve is to which tank though. That is a qood question for someone else.

richfaa · 05-06-2006, 03:36 AM

Because of the MOC alert that the pull handles have been, on occasion, incorrectly marked here is what we did when we got the 3400 home. Filled all three tanks, Black, Galley, Gray each with a different color of food dye ( your choice of color) Then pulled the handle and observed what color came out. Poured the food color down the Kitchen sink (Galley), Bathroom drain(gray) and the commode(black). Ours were labeled correctly.However I note that the spec sheet only list 38 gal waste and 76 gal gray,,so how is the Gray/Galley divided as to capacity???? The pull handles are located as above.Also noted that the appropriate indicator light on the monitor panel decreased as the proper tank drained. We can now confirm that the handles are correctly marked and the monitor panel lights are connected to the proper tanks and they work.

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 04:07 AM

That Gray/Galley capacity division split sounds like a good thing to note and check on during our factory tour coming up on the 16th.

CountryGuy · 05-06-2006, 04:33 AM

I may not be reading this correctly, but, I think this is what ya all are chatting bout!

there are THREE 38 gallon take up tanks. one is for black. two are for gray. one gray has its pull handle near or opposite the kitchen and is the galley tank. the other is near the bathroom (holds shower and bath sink water), and the pull is next to the black pull (in our older units before that fancy one in all center for electric, etc).

The only way to get more than 38 gallons for the gray (shower and bath sink) is to use one of those extra gate valves that many of us have installed. Someone will correct me if I am wrong on this, but I believe the way it works is, you add this extra gate valve, you open it, you do NOT open the BLACK pull valve, but you do open the 2 gray valves, this allows the discharged gray water to equalize between the two tanks, and if you use a lot less galley than shower, you can get more showers than what that single 38 gallon discharge tank will hold. We use this when we are on a no hookup situation like a state park for 15 days.

When you do the plant tour, in practically the first work station you will see the tanks installed, THREE of em, PLUS the fresh water tank. The 3 tanks eventually discharge into the same sewer tube, but are installed to hold 38 gallons each, seperately, and without our intervention of the extra gate valve, only to come together in the last little bit of the sewer system built into our Montanas.

Hope that is more clear than mud!

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 04:41 AM

I understand what you are saying, Carol. Thanks. I will check to see if they have modified that "equalization" system, or if we will still have to follow the "old" procedure. I definitely want them to equalize.

CountryGuy · 05-06-2006, 05:02 AM

Dave, I would be very surprised if they had modified to allowing equalizing of gray tanks. From what Al and I saw when we looked at the 2006 versions with that fancy one in all center, they have not changed over to an equalizing system. But, hey, running changes are just that, running changes, you might be the first to know!

The ONLY time we need to do that is when we are sitting on sites with no sewer. As a full timer, I would bet that will not be that often for you. In the event that you get into a campground that has no on site sewer systems, I would suggest that the next time you are in CW, you get that extra gate valve and install. For example in our last 4 months out and about, we used it for 2 days! Otherwise we had full hookups and it is not necessary. If we fill the gray (bath) tank, we dump it, if we fill the galley, we dump it, the only thing to watch for is that you have one or tuther full enough to follow the black water tank dump. (you know the routine, dump the black, then dump a gray tank to rince out the system).

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 05:07 AM

Right. Thanks, Carol. If I do see something different at the tour, I will report it.

richfaa · 05-06-2006, 06:05 AM

Yes carol that explains it 38 Gal gray..38Gal Galley.We suspected that but could not find information to that effect anywhere.The extra gate valve sounds like a good Idea as most group areas in C'G's do not have sewer hookups and we do several of those per years with our local camping group (40 units) we do however have the 30 gal blue tank. Wish I had known that I would have had the dealer install one..

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 06:51 AM

I'll check with Bill and see if he will install one for us, Rich. Good idea.

boat391 · 05-06-2006, 07:01 AM

Thanks so much for getting back to me on this the extra gate valve sounds like the ticket we do alot of boat racing so we don't always get hookups my old coach had a 45 gal gery so when I saws the 76 gal grey I thought I found heaven lol after our shake down I confirmed we found heaven thanks once again for all your replys hope to one day get out and meet such a great group of folks

CountryGuy · 05-06-2006, 07:06 AM

The gate valve Al put on, I believe, without running out there to take a peak, is a twist on type thing, no great installation here!

I believe in the archives here on the forum there were a number of discussions about these, and my ole brain is working overtime here, but I think I remember that there were a couple of different kinds of these gate valves, one required some installation, ours did not. I believe an arguement against the twist on kind was that someone was fearful of twisting off at the wrong time. I think from looking at this thing, the "latch" was so deep, that it would take some doing to get it to twist off. Looked pretty stable to me. That said, I'll bet there is someone out there with a horror story! HA HA HA

Charlie · 05-06-2006, 10:16 AM

Rich-
While you were checking your tanks did you check to see which tank the washer drain goes into? I was suprised.....mine goes into the black tank.

richfaa · 05-06-2006, 12:25 PM

They no longer do that.The drain goes direct to the outlet valve as does the bathroom sink drain. At least on this 3400 it does. Do not know when they changed.

Searchers · 05-06-2006, 12:37 PM

Rich, do I understand you to say the bathroom sink does NOT drain into the gray tank, rather directly into the sewer line? I'm not sure that's up to code, but it sure wouldn't work for me.

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 02:11 PM

Rich, are you saying that we can equalize those two tanks now?

richfaa · 05-06-2006, 03:21 PM

Searchers..I don't know way I said that.For a time the bathroom sink drained into the black tank AND the W/D drained into the black tank..Now the W/D does not drain into any tank but goes directly to the outlet valve.The bathroom sink and shower DOES empty into the gray tank. Maybe next week it will be different. Dave.. I did not say that Carol said that and it is a good idea...who's on first???

dsprik · 05-06-2006, 03:28 PM

I think you'll get a "Golden Glove" for this Rich...

VanMan · 05-07-2006, 03:36 AM

The "extra" gate valve I have has the bayonet connector (making it removable - no dealer installation involved. You just remove the original cap, install the gate just like you do the sewer hose and then put the cap back onto it. A couple of things to remember though - if you are using the gate as an equalizer in very cold temperature it is subject to freezing up and also with the bayonet setup (rather than hard plumbing [gluing] this or a similar gate), you have to be careful removing the cap that you do not undo the entire gate (that would be a BIG mess with 70+ gals of gray water coming at ya'(if you didn't think to close both galley and gray valves first - even then, you'd still have all the stuff between those gates).
Twist-on Gate Valve at CW
You want the extra valve anyway (not just for equalizing) because there is usually a little water left in the galley drain pipe because of the long run (or at least on mine). After traveling and the drain and/or TT bouncing, that water always finds its way to the sewer connection and then comes out when you open the cap.

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