Water tank drain valve replacement

[lboyd]

I just purchased a 2003 25' Safari. I know there has been alot of discussion regarding this but how do you replace the fresh water tank drain valve (the cheap plastic one)? I've removed the two screws from the flange but it seems that there must be a clamp on the barbed fitting inside the tank housing. That brings up another question. Is the tank housed in a protective outer shell? Do you access the tank itself from inside the trailer? Do I have to drop the tank from below the trailer?

[woodfox45]

I replaced mine on my 85 . Yours might be different but mine had a access hole in the pan under the tank and it had a hose clamp attached to a hose . Mine may have been replaced before because of the access hole in the pan . Dropping the pan will be a big job . Hope this helps . Les wbcci 14183

[Del Gurney]

lboyd: I had to do mine on a '05 25' Safari: on mine there is access inside and aft of the kitchen on the curb-side. The little door under the cabinet that houses the slide out rack is "openable" but has no handle.....next to the water pump you can barely get to the hose clamp that attaches the little hose to the valve.

So: It takes two people. Unscrew the two screws as you've already done. Using (preferably the smallest human you can find) a screw driver, light and maybe a mirror....undo the hose clamp inside.

Person out side can then pull out the valve (which is screwed to the pan and not the tank) while the inside person ensures that outside person does not yank the hose out of the tank instead of off the hose barb.

Repeat in reverse. It's tight, I enlarged the access inside a little to help

While I was doing this I took the opportunity to clean and inspect the water tank pan/insulation from both a-thwartship ends of the tank (you can see the tank under the bath room sink using a mirror)
Good Luck

[Ridgerunner3]

Originally Posted by Del Gurney

lboyd: I had to do mine on a '05 25' Safari: on mine there is access inside and aft of the kitchen on the curb-side. The little door under the cabinet that houses the slide out rack is "openable" but has no handle.....next to the water pump you can barely get to the hose clamp that attaches the little hose to the valve.

So: It takes two people. Unscrew the two screws as you've already done. Using (preferably the smallest human you can find) a screw driver, light and maybe a mirror....undo the hose clamp inside.

Person out side can then pull out the valve (which is screwed to the pan and not the tank) while the inside person ensures that outside person does not yank the hose out of the tank instead of off the hose barb.

Repeat in reverse. It's tight, I enlarged the access inside a little to help

While I was doing this I took the opportunity to clean and inspect the water tank pan/insulation from both a-thwartship ends of the tank (you can see the tank under the bath room sink using a mirror)
Good Luck

Holy Cow!! Out of curiosity I just looked for the drain hose on my 02 Safari 25. I don't think I know anyone small enough to get into the position it would take to change the drain valve. I am going to start being very careful with the drain valve and hope that I never need to change it out.

[Bluto]

When the time came to change the fresh water drain valve on my previous 87 AS I just unscrewed the 2 screws holding the valve in place, wiggled out the old valve, and pushed the new one in place and used 2 new screws.
It only took a few minutes to actually change it out. It never leaked or caused a problem for the last 15 years that I owned that trailer after that point in time.
Granted, I don't know if there is something different with the new trailers but the valve on my 2010 looks like the same one they used back in 87.
Maybe I was just lucky, or maybe that is all that is needed to change one out.
Take my advise with a grain of salt whenever possible.

[polarlyse]

I just did mine last week. I don't know how much different they are on the different models but mine is a 30'er. It was a bear of a job for my big hands. I had to slit the hose on the tank end to get it off the barb fitting and put a new piece of hose back on. So be forwarned. I got the new valve from Outdoors Mart. ( and got an extra while I was at it ). Had to jack up the trailer and remove the wheel off the rear axle. Just a PITA job on a cold day but glad to have it done.

Good luck with it.