black tank...can't touch this

[jcurtis934]

One of the fifth wheels in the park is an older sob that seems to have a few issues each winter after they arrive and open it up (it sits onsite all year). So I do the nice thing and help educate the owners on rv maintenance for stuff that needs figuring out and let them do the work or hire a mobile tech when they don't think they want to do it. This year, toilet smell. When I went to educate the owner how one should be draining the black tank and rinsing it...I find that no sound can be heard from the rinse and nothing coming out the outlet after a tank dump. Search for check valve, find check valve totally plugged solid, educate on why it is there, replace with the one I took out of monty when I improved my system, turn on rinse and find water spraying out of two fitting that I could tighten several turns by hand, still find nothing coming out of tank, manually adding water down toilet by hose didn't flush out much at all, adding water by timing the flow (3 min) starts to fill bowl...ummmmmmm.... This is one of those jobs for the mobile tech since it isn't my trailer! My guess is at least half the tank volume is a solid mass of dried sludge, thereby plugging the rinse function and a much reduced tank capacity. Thought others would love a funny rv story... john

[Rondo]

Nothing better than an RV owner that knows absolutely nothing on how to actually maintain their unit! If a black tank is half full of sludge, and that's saying nicely, I would suggest using some sort of pipe and/or septic tank cleaner and leaving it in for a few days up to a week to let it digest some of the gunk and then open the valve with plenty of water flowing down into the tank but making sure you are getting flow out of the tank. I'll tell you one thing-- there is no way if I was an RV tech that I would do this job. Let us know what happens with this project!

[bigskyjimmy]

Seen it too many times also ,first time Rvers leaving the black tank valve OPEN all the time and end up with the pyramid , they said during their PDI with their new rig Nobody told them the proper holding tank procedure ,sometimes you got to learn the Hard way

[mhs4771]

You do realize that lots of those folks staying in those seasonal units have never ever camped in thier lives. They buy the unit from the previous owner and move in for the season no knowing the first thing about what they just bought.

[DQDick]

quote:Originally posted by bigskyjimmy

Seen it too many times also ,first time Rvers leaving the black tank valve OPEN all the time and end up with the pyramid , they said during their PDI with their new rig Nobody told them the proper holding tank procedure ,sometimes you got to learn the Hard way

"Learn the hard way"#128540;#128541;#128539;

[Neil.M]

Before we bought our little 21' SOB with a black tank (all of our previous campers didn't have black tanks, just porta-potties. Boy, does dates me) :-( I got on u-tube and watched hundreds of videos to update my RVing skills. There just isn't an excuse for not becoming familiar with the workings of a RV. Not with all the web sites, magazines, and books available out there. I do feel kind of sorry for them though.

[1retired06]

quote:Originally posted by jcurtis934

One of the fifth wheels in the park is an older sob that seems to have a few issues each winter after they arrive and open it up (it sits onsite all year). So I do the nice thing and help educate the owners on rv maintenance for stuff that needs figuring out and let them do the work or hire a mobile tech when they don't think they want to do it. This year, toilet smell. When I went to educate the owner how one should be draining the black tank and rinsing it...I find that no sound can be heard from the rinse and nothing coming out the outlet after a tank dump. Search for check valve, find check valve totally plugged solid, educate on why it is there, replace with the one I took out of monty when I improved my system, turn on rinse and find water spraying out of two fitting that I could tighten several turns by hand, still find nothing coming out of tank, manually adding water down toilet by hose didn't flush out much at all, adding water by timing the flow (3 min) starts to fill bowl...ummmmmmm.... This is one of those jobs for the mobile tech since it isn't my trailer! My guess is at least half the tank volume is a solid mass of dried sludge, thereby plugging the rinse function and a much reduced tank capacity. Thought others would love a funny rv story... john

You sound like a great neighbor to help with that!

[Ozz]

Thanks for helping them learn and do some maintenance for them, you are a good neighbor indeed.
'Pay it forward' Something we all should do for mankind.

[robebeckl]

Where the fresh water enters the tank their is a nozzle that I had to take out and clean. If you don't run fresh water through it often, it can get clogged.
You have to drop a section of the under cover to get to it.
When you it is a threaded device. Have a bucket ready when you remove this!

[jcurtis934]

No way am I going to go under his trailer...no amount of money. I know the stink of my own stuff and would do my own, but I figure this is another lesson learned for these folks and bet they will not do this one again. I suggested that they dump rid-x down the potty poo and see if that has any effect. Can't wait for the local mobile tech to have a go at this one. The last conversation I had with the owner was that the mobile folks were thinking about pressurizing the tank rinse line more than the water pressure to see if they could get it to flow. I'm going to stand far away when they do that. Haven't heard any updates about WHEN the tech is supposed to come...they are probably dreading the job big time. John