Buldging/Bowed Floor underside of RV

[terryannbautz]

That's a good idea to overflow it and see if water comes out of the underbelly, but at this point we would rather not make any more waves! The RV tech said it is not good to overflow your tanks. We will leave our gray tanks open whenever we can and keep an eye on the underbelly!

[jim1521]

I believe the water came from the overflowing of the sink, and not from any tank failures. That being the case, you have now drained the belly of the coroplast and let it dry out, so the odor will go away, and you shouldn't have any further issues.

I would NOT recommend overflowing the sink again to test and see if that's the problem.

[riven1950]

Is the RV Tech telling you to keep your tank valves open all the time when you are hooked up in a CG?

I've always heard just opposite, to eliminate poop pyramids and other flushing issues.

[J&J___]

That's a good idea to overflow it and see if water comes out of the underbelly, but at this point we would rather not make any more waves! The RV tech said it is not good to overflow your tanks. We will leave our gray tanks open whenever we can and keep an eye on the underbelly!

Yes over filling the tank is not a good thing to do. Ignore that suggestion.

Leaving the gray tanks open when we have full hookups is something that I personally don’t do. I know a lot of people do. The reason I don’t is any insects in the sewer system have easy access to your holding tanks and trailer plumbing. We have been to hundreds of camp sites and there is no telling what you might find when you open the sewer connection at the site. Most are fine but sometimes flies, roaches and spiders. There is also the problem of poorly vented sewer systems, usually septic systems. I don’t know about the new trailers but my 2008 Heartland would vent sewer smells right up through the tanks and out the roof vent. Smelled like sewer all around the outside of the trailer, close the gray dumps and it would go away. So I monitor the gray tanks and dump as needed. If your tank gauges work then monitoring the tanks is easy but they often fail.

[Aridon]

It's not a great idea to continually over fill tanks but it shouldn't cause harm. The water should fill into a sink or shower from the grey and if there is a pipe which is leaking when it's full then it can leak anytime.

You should consider running the shower and rest of the plumbing to ensure one of the drains isn't leaking. The water came from somewhere.

[terryannbautz]

The RV Tech said to always keep black tank closed and gray tanks open. There are other opinions on leaving the grays open, some do, and some don't. I suppose if ours had been open all the time, and assuming the fluid we did have in the underbelly came from when we overflowed the kitchen gray tank, then I guess we would never have had this happen. For now, we will probably keep all our tanks closed and monitor better. It sure would help if the sensors worked!! I was just about to get the tanks professionally cleaned in hopes that it might help the sensors, when we noticed the fluid in the underbelly, and thinking we had a leak in one of the tanks or a fitting, we cancelled it. Didn't want the high pressure to blow out the tanks or add more water to the problem!

[jim1521]

I wouldn't spend any money trying to get the tank gauges to work. They don't. Just make it a point to dump your tanks every 3 days - whether they need it or not.

Glad you got it all figured out.

[Aridon]

You don't have to always keep the grey open. It's more convenient, there is no technical reason to do so.

[terryannbautz]

Well folks, our leak happened again so now we are really stumped...As I mentioned in an update, we tested each tank separately by filling them up with 30 gallons of water, and no leak. We surmised that the one time we overflowed the kitchen sink, perhaps it backed up into the underbelly and we have been dragging around water ever since.

Well here is the latest. After testing all the tanks in mid-November, we decided to leave open the gray tank valves and closed the black. No leaks. On November 20 we dumped all tanks, closed up and drove about 260 miles to the Houston area. On Sunday, Nov. 24 I dumped the two gray and one black tanks, then closed up all three. Three days later, Wednesday, Nov. 27, I am outside doing something, and all of a sudden water came GUSHING out of the underbelly (where the RV tech luckily cut two flaps). I was not running any water anywhere, so it was strange that suddenly it would GUSH, not drip, out of the underbelly! The water was clear, but did smell. We are now leaving the gray tanks open as do not want this happening again at this campground!

Is this a valve problem? We can't test this again until we move back to our other campsite on January 19, but would love some ideas!

[tamrick]

Were you hooked up to city water? Maybe there is a freshwater plumbing leak. You mention you were "not running" water but was it connected? Need more details on the particulars of your connections prior to the leak.