3950 Water Tank

htneighbors

Unbelievably Blessed!
Not wanting to 'Beat a Dead Horse' - I've read many posts about the vent/siphon issues, dating back a year or so. I do recall reading a post from a Heartland employee, (Brian, maybe?) - that they had engineering taking all the owner's input regarding this and take a look at this.

Since I will be picking up my '09 3950 in about a week (NoneNoneNoneWHOO-HOONoneNoneNone) - it's on the Dealer's lot, they are making modsNone - I have a question. :D Yes, I'm getting pretty anxious! :D Can't wait!!:D

Has anything been done to this particular model about the - vent tube/fill speed/siphoning while driving/etc...- issue? If not, no problem, I can make an 'owner modification'. I'd just like to know up front. Thanks. And thanks to you, Jim, for this forum.
 

Loco

Well-known member
I do not have your model but unless heartland has changed their tune you still have the vent lines just turned down through the under cover. They told me 2 years ago they would not hook them up like I did mine because they said someone would blow the tank up filling and push the floor up inside. I can tell you that the fix I did works great and have NO troubles with it. I can carry and Do 112 gals of fresh water and never lose a drop! You MUST remember NEVER FILL FASTER THAN THE TANK CAN VENT! Also you must have no low places in the vent lines. I would never leave it the way the factory made it or put valves on the vents.My fix is prof it works if you vent up to the vent next to the fill hole.
 

htneighbors

Unbelievably Blessed!
Cyclone 3950

Thanks, Loco. I've read alot of your modifications and repairs and I appreciate your keeping us informed about them. Like you, I can do just about anything I need to to fix/modify things, and always tend to make things stronger, better, or more heavy duty than they need - so as not to ever have it become an issue again.

I guess I'll either have to see if the factory chimes in with an answer on this or just wait til I pick it up. I'd just like to know whether they took care of this issue or if I will need to right out of the box. No biggie - it's just that I'll be staying in my Cyclone @ 3 weeks out of the month as soon as I get it from the dealer and am able! Can't wait! :cool: :D
 

noconwud

Member
water tanks

We have a 3210 and have not had a venting problem, but has anyone had a problem with the water tank filling and over filling when you are hooked to city water?? Mine does!! I have traced it out and find that the city water back feeds thru the water pump and then into the tank--very slow, but after a couple days, the tank starts to over flow! Either it is not plumbed right or there needs to be a check valve in that line.:confused:
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
We have a 3210 and have not had a venting problem, but has anyone had a problem with the water tank filling and over filling when you are hooked to city water?? Mine does!! I have traced it out and find that the city water back feeds thru the water pump and then into the tank--very slow, but after a couple days, the tank starts to over flow! Either it is not plumbed right or there needs to be a check valve in that line.:confused:

I have never heard of this. You need to get this looked at right away. Please make a service appointment with your dealer or an authorized service center.
 
nonconwud,

Just like fire engines with water tanks on board which hook up to a fire hydrant for more water... RV systems are similar. There is an inline "flapper valve" (not the techical term) which is in essence a backflow device that prevent this from happening.

Without getting into the specifics on "water hammer", your flapper valve may be damaged. Typically this can happen from over presurization from the city water supply. These devices may be plastic or silicon and can be damaged.

Although I do not know where yours is located. You may want to start you search with that.

Good Luck and Rock On...
 

L'l John

Well-known member
We have a 3210 and have not had a venting problem, but has anyone had a problem with the water tank filling and over filling when you are hooked to city water?? Mine does!! I have traced it out and find that the city water back feeds thru the water pump and then into the tank--very slow, but after a couple days, the tank starts to over flow! Either it is not plumbed right or there needs to be a check valve in that line.:confused:


I had the same problem.
While at the in Indiana last year, Recreational Specialties replaced the water pump, which was allowing water to slowly leak into the fresh water holding tank. Problem fixed.
 

PUG

Pug
I have a new 3950 and have water tank filling problems. Up to lately I have been using city water from parks so I did not know the tank would not fill up. Trying to fill, it would only go to 2/3rds on the panel and timing the water in it was only putting in about 4-50 gallong. I had a trip planned for four days of dry camping and did not have time to take the unit to a dealer so I dug into the underbelly after reading some of the posts about venting. After removing the underbelly, I traced all the fill, vent, and outlet lines. I was happy to see that the fill and vents on the tanks appeared to be plumbed correctly as I would hope. This unit has two tanks for fresh water and are clear so you can see the water inside. The tanks are connected together to balance out the water when filling. The first tank has one vent at the top and the second has two vents and are tied together and kept high and routed back up to the vent in the utility area. When watching the tanks and trying to fill the tanks it got about half full and stopped filling and was running water back out of the fill hole. I had a neighbor hold the fill hose tightly against the filling hole and after a few seconds the vent hold squirted water out and then gushed a big rush of air. After that the filling hole started tanking on more water and filled the tanks to the top as I could see underneath and the guages said they were full also. It appears there is some kind of a water venting problem but can be cured by forcing water in until the vent gushes water. While I was under the unit and the tanks were full of water, I noticed that the two tanks did not look quite right. The tanks are mounted on separate cross members (one on each side of tank) and the tank sets on a piece of plywood. There is a metal strap in the center of each tank apparently to keep the cross members from separating and dropping the tanks down when full of water. The plywood was bowing down quite a bit (about 4 inches) and it didn't look right to me. I have a small welder so I cut two more straps per tank and welded them below the plywood connecting the cross members together. I refilled the tanks and now there is no bowing of the plywood. Looks a lot better to me now as I was very uncomfortable with the factory installation. I am going to fill the tanks again and see if I still have the water plug but anticipate I can just blow the water out as before.
 

PUG

Pug
filling tanks again

After I had filled the tanks with water, I turned the drain open under the trl to drain it out to clean up some water taste. I went out again and put the hose in it to fill it to rinse it again. As before it filled about half way (2/3) on the guage and started pushing water back out the fill spout. This time instead of pushing water in with the hose, I took a small piece of rubber hose and held it over the drain screen in the utility area. Holding the hose tightly over the screen, I blew in it and I could hear and feel it blow a bit of water out of the vent hose into the water tank. After that it went gush and would fill with water to the top. This is easier than forcing the water in with the hose. The venting should have at least one line that goes straight up a couple of feet to vent the tanks but maybe there is something in the plumbing code for rv's that won't let the factory to the obvious thing. It isn't a big deal to give it a blow of air but I still shouldn't have to. The factory needs to come up with a fix.
I decided to flush the tank one more time to clean up the taste and later noticed it only drained about half out and then was just petering a little out. I again to my little hose and positioned it over the vent screen and blew. This again blew water out of the vent line back into the tank and it of course let the tank drain out completely. I am going to do a little looking to see if I can run a vent line up inside into a spot high enough to let it vent propertly.
 
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