Disapearing black water.

ChopperBill

Well-known member
We were dry camping in AZ and had to use "blue boys" to empty the tanks. I emptied the black tank and put in about 6 gallons to rinse it out. But nothing came out. If it came out at the first time how come it would come out the second? :confused: Then before we started home I emptied the tank at the dump station and filled it a few times with the sani-flush and it would flow real good but at the end it slowed to a trickle about the size of a garden hose and took at least 10 minutes for the rest to come out. Why at the end does it come out so slow? It makes no sense to me at all.
 

HappyKayakers

Well-known member
Hey Chopper,
My gray 1 tank is like that, just empties as a trickle and takes a long time. Maybe it has something to do with the tilt of the individual tanks and exit pipes like I've seen in other posts.
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
When my dealer put the fresh tank brace in and had the bottom off they found the holding tank drains going up hill and spent a good deal of time redoing those. Could be the black is still going up hill some what. Will take it back in for that and also to see why I can put 20 GALLONS of fresh waterer in and get nothing out. :confused:
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
Chopper, hope you enjoyed Parker, AZ. I am only 3 hrs away from there, almost made a run out just to say Hey. No idea what your problem is with the drain, uphill? maybe. There is also a bar / restaurant called Badnochs in town that has caused several problems of sorts with plumbing, normally causing rapid elimination, not slower. Drive safe....
 

SmokeyBare

Well-known member
Some times a few of the solids <YUCK> get lodged in the plumbing of the black tank drain. Maybe in the Pipe or the opening of the tank or even at the valve.

An Enzyme may help break down the solids.... so they flow a little smoother.

When I am hooked up to a Drain.... I will empty the black tank first.... using the sani-flush.... with that flowing clear... I open both gray water valves.... let that back up into the Black water tank.... then closing those so the black tank drains again.... a few timed doing this... I am always amazed at the " Stuff " that still comes pouring out.

I have also tried used Dawn Liquid Dish soap and a black water tank part full of fresh water along with a bag or two of Ice Cubes... I did this to clean off the Tank Level sensors that always seem to show FULL. It Worked ! Of course this is after emptying the Solids from the Black Tank.... and driving down the Hwy for a few Long Miles and let the swishing soap and Ice Cubes clean those Sensors.
 

nscaler2

Well-known member
ChopperBill said:
We were dry camping in AZ and had to use "blue boys" to empty the tanks. I emptied the black tank and put in about 6 gallons to rinse it out. But nothing came out. If it came out at the first time how come it would come out the second? :confused: Then before we started home I emptied the tank at the dump station and filled it a few times with the sani-flush and it would flow real good but at the end it slowed to a trickle about the size of a garden hose and took at least 10 minutes for the rest to come out. Why at the end does it come out so slow? It makes no sense to me at all.

That was one of the reasons that we took our 3055 in to the dealer last fall, only it was because our grey tanks were real slow to finish draining. Come to find out ALL of our tanks were sagging, the drains to be uphill. They said they braced up all the tanks. Don't really know if the fix worked because it was the last thing we had done before putting the thing in storage for the winter. I guess that we wil find out this coming spring. The bottom line here is that we all seem to have the uphill drain problems. Wonder how something like this could get past Heartland?:confused:
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
nscaler2 said:
That was one of the reasons that we took our 3055 in to the dealer last fall, only it was because our grey tanks were real slow to finish draining. Come to find out ALL of our tanks were sagging, the drains to be uphill. They said they braced up all the tanks. Don't really know if the fix worked because it was the last thing we had done before putting the thing in storage for the winter. I guess that we wil find out this coming spring. The bottom line here is that we all seem to have the uphill drain problems. Wonder how something like this could get past Heartland?:confused:

Yes, one of the main reasons we went with the Bighorn was the size of the fresh water and the holding tanks. So far they have been a BIG PITA. Fresh tank falling out of the mounts! :confused: Putting 20 gallons in the fresh tank and nothing coming out? :confused: Not being able to completely drain the black tank? :confused: If we weren't level I might be able to see why, but we leveled it as close as it could be possible!
It seems that I read some where on this forum that the black tank should be braced as well as the fresh tank. I am thinking now that the black tank is sagging when it gets full and when you go to empty it that it slowly starts to flatten out and that is why it is slow to drain. Non of this would show up for the regular camp ground folks but for us dry campers it is a real issue. Like I said one of the main reasons we went with the Bighorn was tank capacity. Guess its back to the dealer again.
 
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