So I had a fun issue while fishing in Canada a couple of weeks ago! Mid week were eating lunch at camp and my wife comes out and says the trailer smells like sewage. My first thought is the automatic vent failed ( gray tanks can smell as bad as black tanks especially the kitchen tank) so without any parts on hand I wrap a plastic bag around the vent and hoped that would tie me over until we got home and replaced it. Well it didn't go away so I started looking around. When I went around to the right side I noticed a stream of water running out from the underbelly. Crap, figured one of the tanks or plumbing had failed and leaked into the underbelly. Check the black tank level and sure enough it was registering almost empty and I know it was over half full that morning. I use a see level system so I had a good idea on how much was in the tanks.
Crap Literally!
Luckily the camp had a cabin open so we moved out of the RV and into the cabin or I figured the trip was over. Not a lot of parts availability around up there, at least where we were.
Next day once the water had stopped dripping and not wanting to leave the black tank soaked insulation in the unit for the rest of the week I decided to drop the underbelly and at least get the insulation out and let it air out. Went to a small lumber yard/hardware store in town and bought a blue plastic tarp and some bleach. Laid the tarp under the drop frame area (luckily where the tanks are) and dropped the whole drop frame underbelly. Pulled out the tarp from underneath, slid out the coroplast leaving remaining water and insulation in the tarp and wrapped it up and tied it off so nothing more was leaking onto the ground. Camp was great, they came and picked up the tarp for disposal.
Upon investigation found that the bottom OEM tank sensor was missing the screw and at the liquid had leaked out. Grabbed another tarp to lay on the ground to see what I could fix. So I found a small bolt that threaded into the plastic and that stopped the leak so I could at least move back in. While under the unit found the bottom sensor on the bathroom gray tank was in the same condition! That one was still attached to the wire and looked to be fully corroded. (the Black one I never found, didn't feel like digging through the insulation to find it
).
This past weekend I jacked up the unit as high as I could and got to a more permanent repair. I figured that I would probably need to do something with all the sensors, they were all probably going to go bad at some point. My plan was to replace all the screws with stainless screws. Well most of the screws would not come out, they just spun. I found out that there is a metal insert in the plastic fitting that about 1/2" long machine screws thread into. I figure the metal insert in the plastic was loose and not allowing the screw to back out. That also meant I couldn't really drill them out. On the couple I did get out, they looked perfectly fine, no sign of corrosion at all. I tried using a flat bar to pry them out but that also was a no go. I put as much pressure as I was comfortable on a pry bar but they were not budging and I didn't want to crack or break the tank. So I put some lexel into holes where everything was missing and installed a stainless screw. On the others, I mushed in some lexel around the crew heads as best as I could then basically covered all the screws with a "cap" of lexel. Even if the rest do eventually corrode away the lexel cap should hold. Reinsulated and put the underbelly back up (disinfected of course).
I did all the waste tanks as they were all around the same area. Didn't do the fresh water as that's over the axels and with MorRyde IS getting that the underbelly down isn't as easy. I figure it they go bad I deal with that then. The kitchen gray tank sensors all looked fine but I covered them anyway. Fingers crossed that its a permanent fix!
Edit: On a good note at least we had some good fishing! My son (and dad) with a nice small mouth.
Crap Literally!
Luckily the camp had a cabin open so we moved out of the RV and into the cabin or I figured the trip was over. Not a lot of parts availability around up there, at least where we were.
Next day once the water had stopped dripping and not wanting to leave the black tank soaked insulation in the unit for the rest of the week I decided to drop the underbelly and at least get the insulation out and let it air out. Went to a small lumber yard/hardware store in town and bought a blue plastic tarp and some bleach. Laid the tarp under the drop frame area (luckily where the tanks are) and dropped the whole drop frame underbelly. Pulled out the tarp from underneath, slid out the coroplast leaving remaining water and insulation in the tarp and wrapped it up and tied it off so nothing more was leaking onto the ground. Camp was great, they came and picked up the tarp for disposal.
Upon investigation found that the bottom OEM tank sensor was missing the screw and at the liquid had leaked out. Grabbed another tarp to lay on the ground to see what I could fix. So I found a small bolt that threaded into the plastic and that stopped the leak so I could at least move back in. While under the unit found the bottom sensor on the bathroom gray tank was in the same condition! That one was still attached to the wire and looked to be fully corroded. (the Black one I never found, didn't feel like digging through the insulation to find it
). This past weekend I jacked up the unit as high as I could and got to a more permanent repair. I figured that I would probably need to do something with all the sensors, they were all probably going to go bad at some point. My plan was to replace all the screws with stainless screws. Well most of the screws would not come out, they just spun. I found out that there is a metal insert in the plastic fitting that about 1/2" long machine screws thread into. I figure the metal insert in the plastic was loose and not allowing the screw to back out. That also meant I couldn't really drill them out. On the couple I did get out, they looked perfectly fine, no sign of corrosion at all. I tried using a flat bar to pry them out but that also was a no go. I put as much pressure as I was comfortable on a pry bar but they were not budging and I didn't want to crack or break the tank. So I put some lexel into holes where everything was missing and installed a stainless screw. On the others, I mushed in some lexel around the crew heads as best as I could then basically covered all the screws with a "cap" of lexel. Even if the rest do eventually corrode away the lexel cap should hold. Reinsulated and put the underbelly back up (disinfected of course).
I did all the waste tanks as they were all around the same area. Didn't do the fresh water as that's over the axels and with MorRyde IS getting that the underbelly down isn't as easy. I figure it they go bad I deal with that then. The kitchen gray tank sensors all looked fine but I covered them anyway. Fingers crossed that its a permanent fix!
Edit: On a good note at least we had some good fishing! My son (and dad) with a nice small mouth.
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