Holding tanks cover removal

[NO NOIZE]

To clear debris from my valves, I capped off a six foot long garden hose and drilled four 1/8" holes in the cap at 12-3-6-9. I ran the hose into the drain outlet until it hit the valve, opened the valve and turned on the water to spray water into the seal groove's as I worked the hose back and forth and around with a spinning quick connector.

Using the natural curve of the hose allowed me to steer it left into one valve and right into the other one. It worked! I do that about once a year as a regular maintenance now.

Good luck.

[nddstl]

Thanks JMickow for the photos. That was smart thinking to notice they weren't connected.

[nddstl]

Thanks No Noize, Maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe the plumbing and valves are in a slightly different setup but I can't get a clean out hose into the valve.

[NO NOIZE]

Originally Posted by nddstl

Thanks No Noize, Maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe the plumbing and valves are in a slightly different setup but I can't get a clean out hose into the valve.

You are getting lots of expert advice on this thread so far. I have been saving this info for future reference in case I am ever faced with valve replacement. The link to the pics and parts from ORMD was new to me and very informative, I purchase from them all the time.

I often easily figure out complicated problems, but the simple things are out of vision sometimes. My better half always makes fun of me by saying "The obvious eludes me". So here is my obvious suggestion.

Get down on your hands and knees, take the dump cap off and shine a really strong flashlight in there. You will see the plumbing sweeps on the left and right that you may choose to attempt a spray of water into. Then you can actually insert a spray device of your choosing into those openings if you want to try it.

Since it is all black inside it is really hard to see, might be better to look in there after the sun goes down.

My first experience with this happened to me at a campground when the black tank valve would not close by about 1/4". Since I had access to a large dump station platform that could be used by not making a big mess, I hooked up my short dump hose, opened the black valve and inserted a garden hose with the water on all the way into the dump hose with the end over the sewer opening.

Fortunately the obstruction was dislodged and we were able to continue our trip. It was not pretty, but got the job done and I was able to rinse the area so I left no mess for someone else. I now carry that spare gate valve mentioned above in case of problems away from home develop in the future.

Please keep this thread going so the rest of us may learn from your experience.

Good luck!

[nddstl]

Update:

JStetson: Shut off valve and enzyme arrived last night. Ill let the tank soak and valve soak for about a week and provide an update. Thanks again for this.

After that process is finished Ill see if the black tank is water tight. If so Ill add the vegetable oil as Sandlapper suggested.

No Noize: I did what you suggested and can clearly see where the Y in the plumbing is located. (smart suggestion) After dumping the enzyme I am going to us a light so I can guide the clean out hose to the black tank shut off valve (with the valve closed), make a mark on the hose for reference and then open the black tank valve and turn the hose on. That way I will know how far the valve is from the opening and can feed the hose in an extra inch or two to make sure the water is spraying inside the valve body.

[NO NOIZE]

[QUOTE/]After dumping the enzyme I am going to us a light so I can guide the clean out hose to the black tank shut off valve (with the valve closed), make a mark on the hose for reference and then open the black tank valve and turn the hose on. That way I will know how far the valve is from the opening and can feed the hose in an extra inch or two to make sure the water is spraying inside the valve body.[/QUOTE]

That is exactly what I did, I made a mark on the hose for both valves. Also, since there is no way to rinse the grey tank, I insert the hose in a few extra feet to give it a good rinse.

To help cut down on all the splash back, I got one of these https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and cut out the hose attachment large enough for the garden hose to be inserted.

I attach the Valterra Hydroflush to the Airstream dump outlet connection, then I attach the the dump hose to the Hydroflush, then insert the garden hose into the hole I cut into the Hydroflush. This method catches 99% of the backsplash and everything goes right down the dump hose.

I also used this camera httphttps://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B081ZZS13W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1://
to inspect the valve before and after rinsing.

Lastly, a trick I learned to attempt to prevent debris from sticking on the black valve seal after dumping at the campground, is as follows:

Black tank should be at least 3/4 full, grey tank should be at least 1/2 full.

• Dump black tank first, leave black tank valve open

• Lift the middle of the dump hose about six inches above the outlet on the Airstream

• Open the grey valve all the way, wait for about three or four seconds and then close the black valve.

• This forces two or three gallons of grey water back into the black tank, hopefully dislodging any debris that just happened to hang on the seal.

That's all there is to it Best of luck with your issue.

[NO NOIZE]

I am sure everyone has noticed that sometimes the force to open or close the valves is sometimes more than seems reasonable and causes some concern that the handle or shaft may break.

On SOB RV's that have exposed valves I have actually added Zerk fittings so I could grease the valve body and that was a game changer. After greasing the valves they worked with just one finger for years after.

Since you have no access to the valves with the Airstream, I came up with an idea that works extremely well.

Sometimes when the dump tanks are empty, open both valves and spray a stream of a rubber preservative like 303:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Into the dump outlet pipe so it reaches the valve body and seal. You may have to put the 303 into a different spray bottle that has a really good long spray stream to accomplish this.

While spraying the preservative / lubricant into the dump outlet, try to get it into the left and right plumbing sweeps so the stream gets on the valve. As you do this, work the valve open and closed several times. You will be surprised that the valve will open and close super easy for several weeks after this.

[nddstl]

Update:
First off, thank you all for your ideas. I tried them and unfortunately after letting the tank soak with enzyme for a week, reverse flushing, using a clean out hose and lubricating the valve with vegetable oil the tank would not hold water. After filling with clean water it dripped at about 1 drop/second.
Last night I made some ramps to give me some working room and tonight I'll crawl under and make a game plan on how to proceed.

[nddstl]

Conclusion:
Thanks again for all the help and suggestions. I finished this past weekend and below are a few highlights.
1. If you are going to work under the trailer its very helpful to pull it up on ramps of some sort. I raised it 5" and that really helped with elbow room.
2. I tried dropping the whole covering. All the bolts came out easy but for some reason I could not get the thing to come down.
3. As others have said, I drilled a small hold (very shallow, take extreme care not to puncture the tanks) and then used snips to open it up. It's not a clean cut so afterwards I used a die grinder with a cutoff wheel to make a nice rectangle.
4. I went ahead and made two holes and replaced both valves at the same time. The valves are tight to remove and reinstall so on the grey water side I ended up loosening the flexible Fernco coupling which gave more wiggle room to get the valves out and back in.
5. The replacement valves are easy enough to find but the pain comes when trying to hook them up to the old pull handles. The valve shaft is threaded and the pull handles are not threaded. When you take it apart you will see they were originally connected with a rivet. I ended up threading the old pull handle so it would match.
6. To cover everything back up I ended up purchasing a piece of 18ga galvanized sheet metal and riveting it over the hole. Lowes/Home Depot did not have thick enough metal so I had to go to a local metal store. Take special care when drilling into the cover attached to the trailer. The holding tanks are right above the cover, it would be very easy to drill into one of the tanks. Put a piece of scrap plywood between the cover and the tank as a backer when drilling.
7. After all the rivets were installed I caulked around the edge of the new sheet metal with Sikaflex 221.

The local dealer gave me a rough quote of $2,000 and it ended up costing me about $100. It was a big savings but took me about 10 hours.

I'm happy to answer any questions. You can PM me or reply to this thread.

[GCinSC2]

Well done. Yes it is a bit of a project but now any future repairs are much easier with panel.

[NO NOIZE]

Great job, thank you for posting the resolution and details.

[mgblake13]

I want to thank everyone who posted here. I have a similar problem. The dump valves to both my black and grey are working fine because I only have problems when dumping. There must be a rupture somewhere downstream of the valves and before where I connect my sewer hose. Sadly inside my tank cover must be quite messy because it happened during my last trip so I had to use a bucket to catch the stream coming out of the various drain holes. I am going to cut an access panel as described in the posts above and see where the rupture is. I am assuming the piping is similar to household sewer plumbing. If anyone has suggestions on the piping repair I would greatly appreciate it.