The Great American Gray Tank Novel

[brianjohncook]

Well, I don't know how great this is going to be. I am an American and it is about a gray tank. However, it's actually more of a short story than a novel. But other than that the title works.


My wife, Bobbi, and I picked up our 2018 Solitude 377 MBS on July 27th 2017. The first week we moved out of our house and into the cabin as we call it. Then we started our first trip which is still ongoing.


We had not done this kind of traveling before so everything was new learning. We had done a lot of research but nothing replaces actual experience.


After a while we started noticing "the smell." Surprisingly, we noticed it in the bunk room mostly. We tried everything - making sure the tank valves were closed, trying different tank treatments, learning to flush the black tank more fully when dumping, adding an external Valterra valve and so on.


But "the smell" remained. It wasn't constantly there and it didn't seem to have much of a pattern to when it would appear and when it was not the present. Bobbi, of course, noticed it more than I did. Sometimes I thought it might be related to poor water at a campground. It was puzzling.


Once we were staying at a campground in Texas. We came back from a walk and the fellow in the next site said that he had seen water pouring out of the Coroplast earlier. I checked but I didn't see any evidence of that (it had been raining heavily for several days and the ground was soaked) nor were any of the valves or hoses positioned incorrectly. We didn't know what to make of that other than watch for it. We didn't see it till much later.


During this time I was also trying to figure out how to make the tank gauges report accurately how full they were. They have never reported accurately. We tried ice cubes in the black tank and other treatments. Nothing worked. Then I read about using Calgon as a possible solution. I decided to try it.


Due to Covid-19 we found a camp host position in a Georgia State Park and so we're not traveling about. I decided to try the Calgon anyway and compensate for not traveling by topping off the tanks and letting it sit before dumping. Since gray tank number two, the one for the kitchen, was smaller, I decided to do it first. After the Calgon had been in for a while I topped it off so that water was backed up into the sink let it sit and then dumped out the tank. I was quite happy that the gauge showed that the tank was empty. It looked like something was finally going to work!


Moved on to gray tank number one for the bathroom. I started running water in the shower and in the sink and stayed inside the bathroom to make sure water didn't overflow inside the cabin. I waited and waited. It was taking a really a long time to top off the tank. I shut off the water, went outside, looked under the cabin and, sure enough, water was pouring through the Coroplast onto the ground - just like the fellow in Texas said! Mind you, this was a year and a half later.


Time to investigate. Another campground host, Ricky, helped me to drop the Coroplast. (Truth be told, I helped Ricky.) Then we found the source of "the smell" - wet gross insulation.


So how did it happen? It turns out that the gray tank itself has a crack at the very top just below the support lip of the tank where it sits on a support beam. [See first photo.] See the red arrow on the annotated photo.


The yellow area shows rust on the support beam from the water. The blue area shows the path the water took down the side of the tank and the build up from it. You can see from the buildup it's been happening regularly.


Here's another angle of the water path from the leak. [See second photo.]



Here's a photo [See third photo.] showing the water path to the low point on the tank.


From here the water fell into the insulation and got it wet and smelly. If the flow was a lot, like when there was standing water in the shower basin when we discovered the tank was full while taking a shower, because the gauge couldn't tell us accurately, it would be enough to flow through the hole for the support screw in the Coroplast and onto the ground.


On the other hand, if the flow was minimal, like when we noticed the sink backing up, the leak just put enough water in to keep the insulation damp and smelly.


So there you have it. The source of the odor has been found and identified.


But now what? Nothing to do that day except throw out the old insulation and reattach the Coroplast to keep the critters out.


I talked with a Grand Design Service Manager on Monday. He recommended working out with a dealer to bring it in and get the work done all on one day since we're all timers. He also said that if the dealer took pictures and they verified the crack that Grand Design might participate in the cost of the repair. (Point of order in the timeline: The pictures above were actually taken later. I put them in now to help the flow of the story.)


I did find a Service Manager at a dealership that was willing to work with us. However he wanted us to bring in the cabin so he could check out the size of the tank before he ordered it. He said it would take likely several months to get the tank. Then we would have to bring the cabin back for them to install it.


The Service Manager at the dealership, to his credit, did suggest that it might be possible to patch the tank in place with ABS cement as an option.


Hmmm, I let that information percolate for a while. I viewed YouTube videos on repairing the crack. I also considered that we could manage the tank by either A) leaving the gray tank valves open, and not the black tank valve, if we had a sewer connection or B) counting showers and using the blue honey wagon more frequently if no sewer connection.


In the end, we decided to (I know, the suspense is killing you [emoji6]) patch and manage the tank going forward. Going to a dealer with the expectation of getting work done on the same day seemed like a stretch. Doing it twice seemed like an impossibility!


We gathered the supplies: the ABS cement kit, a piece of screen, new fresh odor-free insulation and was ready to go. Ricky and I dropped the Coroplast and discovered hydraulic fluid on the Coroplast. Arrgghh!


Looks like a defective line. [See fourth photo.] Of course, it runs from the front all the way to either the back jack or the back slide out. We would have had to drop the back Coroplast to tell for sure. However we didn't have the time because rain was coming.


On the other hand, this really is a blessing. What are the chances that the hydraulic line would start leaking at the time that we were opening up the Coroplast anyway? It could have happened while boondocking. There is also another very big blessing in all this - it could have been the black tank leaking!


We did what we could. I patched the tank by using the cleaner in the ABS kit on the affected area of the tank, putting down a layer of ABS cement, placing a piece of screen over that layer of cement, and then adding another layer of ABS cement over the screen. Then we reattached the Coroplast.


Now I have to figure out how to replace the hydraulic line. Maybe there's going to be a trip to the dealer after all. Not sure I want to mess with hydraulic lines.


I have emailed the Grand Design Service Manager pictures of the hydraulic line. Hope to talk with him next week.


Have to remember that the most important thing is that "the smell" has been eliminated! [emoji3526]


New Related Topic: Draining(?) the Black Tank

(I know there's another thread about why it's so difficult to drain the black tank completely. Maybe this section should go there. But it is related to this story. But double posting. Somebody decide!)


Here's what our tanks look like. [See fifth photo.] As you can see, they have humps on either side of the support beam (red and purple arrows) that prevent all the contents from flowing out. The black tank is the farther one away. Note the drain outlet and sewer hose on the left side of the picture (yellow circle). The hump on the right of the support beam (purple arrow) will not drain completely. It seems to me that liquids could drain more easily while solids could accumulate in the humps. The gray tank for the bathroom is in the foreground and has its own humps.


2018 Solitude 377MBS #J1109394
2017 Chevy Silverado Duramax

[brianjohncook]

I've noticed that if I select the three vertical dots on the top right and then select Web View the photos appear.

2018 Solitude 377MBS #J1109394
2017 Chevy Silverado Duramax

[geotex1]

You will undoubtedly need a new hydraulic hose made. The orange hose is non-standard ID/OD combination, but it's no problem. Any shop making hydraulic hoses can make you what you need while you wait. Otherwise, it will be a wait from GD parts...

[notlostatall]

I had the exact same issue on the exact same place on my 2017 Solitude. New tank on order...

[zinman]

geotex1 is giving good advice on having a hydraulic replacement hose made for your rig rather than wait on GD. Seriously consider upgrading the hose though. As I recall the pressure is 3000psi or less where as a new hose can be had that will take up to 6000psi. The OEM hoses are pretty weak in a couple areas and lack adequate reinforcement (think steel braid or spiral wound wire). If you do a search on this or other RV websites for this particular problem you will be surprised at the failure/leak frequency of the OEM hoses. I had the same problem as you on my last 5er and solved it by trading the unit in after one year (there were way more problems than a single hose but that's a whole other story).