PSA: A plunger can help.

HA

Harlech

Guest
Well we ran into an issue last night on our 369RL with the toilet getting clogged. Seems the black tank is located up under the bedroom so there is a 90 degree bend under the toilet and a pipe that seems to be at least 3 to 4' long runs over to the tank, this is where solids can bite you if you are not careful. Unfortunately a circumstance where there wasn't enough water used to move solid waste caused the toilet to clog. Naturally I thought this unit, like others, would dump straight down into the tank. I was wrong. I even ran a 6' toilet snake down the line with no luck. Needless to say I was stumped. Finally broke down and just tried a plunger and it worked.

This will also effect how I do things when I dump my black tank. From now on during that process I will be using the shower head to fill the bowl up completely a few times to help flush the pipe free of any stuck debris.

Hope this saves someone else some headaches!

-Kyle
 
Or, you can use the foot flush lever to fill the bowl without actually moving the flapper.

They are 2 stage flush levers...
 
huntr70 said:
Or, you can use the foot flush lever to fill the bowl without actually moving the flapper.

They are 2 stage flush levers...
Click to expand...

Mine doesn't work that way. By the time you have water flowing the valve is cracked enough that you lose more than you can put in, not from lack of trying. I wonder if there is some adjustment that can be done to allow it to work in the way you describe or if your 320RS has a different throne.
 
Harlech said:
Mine doesn't work that way. By the time you have water flowing the valve is cracked enough that you lose more than you can put in, not from lack of trying. I wonder if there is some adjustment that can be done to allow it to work in the way you describe or if your 320RS has a different throne.
Click to expand...

If you have the Thetford Aqua Magic style II, you should be able to fill the bowl with water without the ball flap opening. No adjustments. The pedal may be damaged or installed incorrectly.
 
Hmmmmm....clogged toilet. The clog seems to be at the end of the toilet down pipe to it's entrance to the black tank. ALL DAY we poured at least 30 pot fulls of boiling water down the toilet....nothing. Got a plumbers plunger -- no luck. Used a hand auger from WalMart -- no joy. Used a 6 ft piece of hose hooked up to park water pressure and got it unclogged. Let the hose and water run several minutes down the toilet and the black tank with an open black tank valve. Problem solved, right? It did the same thing yesterday morning. Used the hose again and got it unstopped Really let the water run and thought all good. Got up this morning and it got clogged again. It seems solids are getting stuck somewhere near the end of the run into the black tank. Liquids seem fine. Any idea what this could be? If it was the dreaded black pyramid wouldn't the gallons of boiling hot water have taken care of that? The curved toilet pipe into the black tank is starting to get on my nerves.
 
Dean,

This is exactly what was happening to me, would act like it was flowing again and then it would clog off. I had to use the hand auger and really get in there and ended up finding a pretty solid clogged area that was the culprit. This was 5 months ago and I haven't had a problem since and we are still full timing. I will say that I think I had almost 11 foot of auger out before I was into the tank, the run from the toilet to the black tank is LONG! I double flush everything now and solids don't go down the hole until the bowl is halfway filled.

Throw on your rubber gloves and get it augered out and it should be fine. Let me know how it goes!
 
This issue has been a problem on every RV I've ever owned. Through the years, we finally came up with a method that works for us. We have a rule we follow. If you flush anything other than liquid, you must completely fill the bowl before flushing. If we still have a blockage occur, we use the tool below to clear it.

http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/flexible-tank-wand/14497

The pictures don't really show how it works. You hook up a garden hose and it puts out a stream of water to flush away any solids that have collected.
 
Thanks Jim and Kyle. Been working on the danged thing. Will get the flexible wand. Hand snake does no good. I believe that the pyramid has formed just below the inlet from the toilet in the bottom of the black tank. What I have read and have been told is that the tank has to pressure washed -- no amount of hot water will dissolve it as it is like concrete.
 
We affectionately call that the TP TeePee. ;). That is exactly what used to happen to us.
 
This may be an obvious and unnecessary response but I've successfully avoided this issue by always having at least a half tank of fresh water to start and usually 2/3rds. And maybe this will come back to haunt me but this success even comes with us using regular TP. No super thin useless RV TP for us. My RV friends always make fun of me because I flush out our black tank for a good 15 - 30 minutes before I close the valve and fill the tank.

Anyway, works for me :)
 
We are also firm believers in the no TP rule. Learned this a long time ago on our boat.

Does anybody know the dimensions of this 43 gallon tank ? From the pictures posted a while ago of one of the grey tanks, I would expect the black tank to be similar . . . long and flat with a height of less than 6". It wouldn't take much slope to the entire rig to have all the solids drying at one end with all the liquids at the other, of a recently emptied tank.

A full bowl of water is a little over a gallon. In theory, 43 full bowls can go into the tank. Even if the black tank suffers from the same vent installation as the grey tanks that limits it's capacity to 2/3, that is still 30 full bowls.

Our tank gauge is essentially useless at measuring anything, so we go by "calculation". We put at least 6 to 8 full bowls of water into an emptied tank, to make sure that what comes next has liquid to land in.

No problems so far . . .

Rob
 
Thanks all...still clogs -- on list to have tanks pressure washed. Top and bottom of all 3 tanks. $175 stupid tax. BTW the good natured and friendly Canucks next door say they use regular 2 ply TP but the trick is "mo agua"
 
Those Canucks . . . They're everywhere and have an opinion on everything :D.

Rob
 
LOL....this guy is from Ontario too. I really like talking to him...he has been full timing for 15 years and has a lot of experience. We are in Kerrville, TX and the park is about half Americans and half Canadians. Of those Americans, about half are Texans. So....when we all get together for drinks, it is sooo funny to hear all the accents around the fire.
 
I am unsure what to do next. We use RV paper and lots of water but I am having a clog issue. We have the built in black tank sprayer thingy and some water is coming out but no paper and other goodies. I am wondering if I keep the sprayer on it would fill up the tank and the pressure would build and flush stuff out. With the flapper closed in the toilet if pressure build up would do the job. :confused:
 
Maybe try a squirter/washer from the top... several kinds at Camping World etc.
 
Jeff,

"Pressure" is not the answer. In fact several have dropped their black tanks, maybe because they deformed the tanks with too much water and then pressure ? This pyramid/blockage has to soak. Water is your friend on this. Fill the tank to 75% and let it soak. Everything in there dissolves in water . . . it just takes time.

Rob
 
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