BLACK TANK VALVE PROBLEM

[jeffba]

They do make Clear Caps. They are available at CW.

[Dave W]

Another vegetable oil user.

At the beginning of this and last season, I put a quart or so of cheap vegetable oil (Walmart, less then $5/gallon) in each tank along with a gallon or so water to 'float' the oil while driving the first trip or ~100 miles. The bath and black tanks are much easier to operate. The galley tank that I almost had to put my feet against the 5ers frame to pull open is now almost a single finger pull. I also squirt a little silicone down the cable hole with the supplied straw.

[Penn Men]

Thanks Dave W! That is good advice and I plan to try that.

More specifically, where do you insert the silicon? I removed the back cover in the stowage area and can’t find where I could inject the silicon. I’ve attached a pic to show what I’m seeing.

Other contributors had mentioned injecting Calgon liquid detergent.

[Mikendebbie]

For more info on adding calgon to the tank - try googling something like "The Geo Method Calgon black tank". Lots of info comes up you can read. It is supposed to make the particles less likely to stick to the tank (ions positive or negative I can't remember).

To lube the valve cable - they mention you should remove the cable end from the convenience center bulkhead wall and hold it up before you spray to get gravity to help distribute the lube down into the cable sleeve.

[Dave W]

Originally Posted by Penn Men

Thanks Dave W! That is good advice and I plan to try that.

More specifically, where do you insert the silicon? I removed the back cover in the stowage area and can’t find where I could inject the silicon. I’ve attached a pic to show what I’m seeing.

Other contributors had mentioned injecting Calgon liquid detergent.

I just pull the tank dump handle out and force it past the exposed solid end. It will take 2-3 applications but it did work for me.


Supposedly a motorcycle cable luber will work, but I found that the common ones wont unless you actually pull the cable off - and if you do that, might as well just replace the valve and cable, rerouting it straighterso spent my $$ for nothing.


Someone here made up a rod operating valve system - and that sound like a good way to go. Veggie oil and silicone will work for me until it wont.

[Penn Men]

Cool beans! Thanks man. Just back from getting a new can of silicon for the coach.

[Penn Men]

Thanks man! Newbie here and all the helpful info is so GREAT! Love this MOC site, I learn something new everyday.

[beeje]

That's a good??. Never seen a clear cap. You will always have some stuff left in the drain pipe after dumping no matter how careful you are.

[LindaV]

Originally Posted by poloace

Replacing my 3rd black tank valve and cable as we speak. My extended warranty is covering it. I put valve lube in the tank, calgon, seems to work for a while. Very frustrating when on a trip, and going to dump, and wondering if the valve will open or not. Happened to us this summer.

Ours has happened twice in the 1 1/2 years we have had it. They have replaced the valve and cable both times. First time it was under Keystone warranty..second time was on the extended warranty but SAMS only wanted to pay for part of the labor (still battling that one). We were told both times that it is due to the excessive length of the cable. (Hubby religiously sprays the cable hoping that would help..but didn't stop it from happening).

[Daryles]

Just recieved my "insurance" valve.
https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T58-...ra+waste+valve
Thanks for the suggestion ��

[rames14]

The “root cause” of the cables sticking is not excessive length, in my opinion. The cable used is a braided cable. That braided cable inside the outer sheath has all kinds of places for corrosion to occur. As mentioned, Valterra makes a solid wire valve that quite a few of us have put on ourselves. I will not tell you it is an easy job (or fun). You want to rinse your black tank really well before removing the old valve. I recommend using stainless self tapping screws when you reattach the plastic bottom covering. Lubing will help, but think about what happens if it doesn’t. Will it fail open, or closed? Full, or empty? Remember, Murphy was an optimist.

[Penn Men]

We live in NE Penn, so as planned I scheduled our next camping trip driving North past my local Syracuse Camping World where we bought our Montana. Pulling out of home base on Sunday, we gave Camping World a heads up we were coming. Our salesperson(Kelly, who is great after the sale) let us know the service dept is closed on Sunday but told us to come up & park in the lot overnight. By the time we arrived she had arranged to have our coach serviced Monday morning when they opened. They fit us in w/o an appt, evaluated the pulls were stuck, got OK for warranty work, and replaced all cable systems. Our service tech(Mooch) even accompanied us across the lot and assisted us to verify the system worked. We were on the road to our intended campground!

Kudos to Camping World of Syracuse treated us very well, they turned our problem into their problem and made the fix!

[beeje]

You are one of the lucky ones. Its a rarity when any camping world fixes anything correctly. Just be aware, that if they replaced your valves/cables with the same products, you are going to get the same results in the future. Valterra valves and solid cables are far superior.