5th wheel spec lies. Need the truth...

shawnmuir

Active Member
Ok. I now have some knowledge about my rig. My 5th wheel is a Big Country 3070RE. All the spec I find say tank sizes are 75gal Fresh, 90 Gal total for gray, 45 Gal black. I found out that mine filled to 50 Gal and started the overflow. My HWT is to be a 20 Gal and it’s 10. Is there a place to go to get the truth about what’s installed in a rig? Do I have 2 grey tanks totalling 90 Gal or 1 tank with 2 valves. Is the tank sizes correct? I just don’t know any more.


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NYSUPstater

Well-known member
Call Heartland w/ last 6 of your VIN and they should be able to tell you what you have. Meanwhile, at your docking station, how many levers do you have for your valves?
 

TravelTiger

Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
What year model is your Big Country?

I seem to recall advertising of a “quick recovery” hot water heater that maybe can “produce” 20 gallons of hot water, but the tank may be actually be a 10 gallon tank.

My 2016 Big Country says 65 gallon fresh tank, and 90 gal grey - I know that is two separate 45 gallon tanks.


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Flick

Well-known member
Ok. I now have some knowledge about my rig. My 5th wheel is a Big Country 3070RE. All the spec I find say tank sizes are 75gal Fresh, 90 Gal total for gray, 45 Gal black. I found out that mine filled to 50 Gal and started the overflow. My HWT is to be a 20 Gal and it’s 10. Is there a place to go to get the truth about what’s installed in a rig? Do I have 2 grey tanks totalling 90 Gal or 1 tank with 2 valves. Is the tank sizes correct? I just don’t know any more.


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If it is important to know exactly what your black, gray and fresh water tank volumes are, I would suggest doing the following.
Drain all your tanks completely. Get you an in-line water volume meter, garden hose quality. Turn your water Anderson valve to city water and one by one fill each tank till you notice inside your rig the tank is full. For example, hold the flush valve down to fill your black tank until it’s visibly full. Then see how many gallons you’ve put into the tank according to the meter. Do that on all your tanks including your fresh water tank.
On the hwh, it just doesn’t matter as long as it’s functioning properly. We have a 20 gallon and can run out anyhow but like has been mentioned, they recover fairly fast.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Heartland buys off on the accuracy of model specifications with the following disclaimer on its sales literature:



  • Disclaimer
  • Due to Heartland's commitment to continuous improvement, we reserve the right to make changes to models, including standards; options; materials; components; colors; fabrics; construction; features; etc. without notice or obligation to Heartland Recreational vehicles.

 

danemayer

Well-known member
90 gallon gray capacity is almost certainly two 45 gallon tanks. Easy to determine. Put some water in the galley tank. Put some water in the shower tank. Add food coloring to one of them. Using a clear adapter (that everyone should buy) on your sewer outlet, open one gray dump valve at a time. The food coloring should come out of one or the other.

The fresh tank capacity is a good question. I think Erika is correct that Heartland (always?) counts the capacity of the water heater. So maybe you have a 65 gallon tank and 10 in the water heater. Or maybe a 55 gallon tank with 10 in the water heater where because of quick recovery design, it functions comparably to a 20 gallon capacity. If that's how someone counted fresh tank capacity, I would say they were confused and should have spec'd it based on the actual amount of water. But sometimes people don't understand the things they write about.

If you're on level ground and the tank is level in its mounting (could have slipped), you should be able to fill it completely. If either the rig or tank is off level, you'll lose some capacity. A 65 gallon spec, less 10 for the water heater, less 5 for leveling, could easily turn into 50 gallons.

As many other do, I have an inline garden hose water meter to know how much water goes in my fresh tank. There have in the past been some posts about accuracy of these meters. Some posts claiming they can be extremely inaccurate. You didn't say how you're measuring to determine you have only 50 gallons, but perhaps there's room for examination there.

If you want a more accurate measure, fill the tank and then drain (through the drain valve) into a container of known capacity. Repeat until empty. Then allow for position of the drain, leveling, and typical tank sag that can reduce effective capacity by at least 5-10 gallons.

As far as the spec sheets saying 75 gallons, if you look at the fine print on the last page, you'll find a disclaimer that explains that things may change without notice. So it's also possible the fresh tank size changed in mid-year.

But frankly, after all is said and done, you have whatever capacity you have. If you want more fresh water capacity, you might look into portable bladders that fit into the bed of your tow vehicle.
 

shawnmuir

Active Member
Call Heartland w/ last 6 of your VIN and they should be able to tell you what you have. Meanwhile, at your docking station, how many levers do you have for your valves?

I have 2 for grey (Tank1, Tank2) and 1 for Black, the reason why I’m curious is that I emptied both tanks last night and then added some water to Tank2. When I pulled tank1 water drained out so I thought maybe they put in 2 valves for 1 90gal tank but that’s a good idea I’ll call Heartland. Trying to learn everything there is to rig.


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CDN

B and B
Hello,

I found the tank gauges were backward. I swapped them and all is well. Sometimes swapping the sticker at the docking station works too.
 

shawnmuir

Active Member
90 gallon gray capacity is almost certainly two 45 gallon tanks. Easy to determine. Put some water in the galley tank. Put some water in the shower tank. Add food coloring to one of them. Using a clear adapter (that everyone should buy) on your sewer outlet, open one gray dump valve at a time. The food coloring should come out of one or the other.

The fresh tank capacity is a good question. I think Erika is correct that Heartland (always?) counts the capacity of the water heater. So maybe you have a 65 gallon tank and 10 in the water heater. Or maybe a 55 gallon tank with 10 in the water heater where because of quick recovery design, it functions comparably to a 20 gallon capacity. If that's how someone counted fresh tank capacity, I would say they were confused and should have spec'd it based on the actual amount of water. But sometimes people don't understand the things they write about.

If you're on level ground and the tank is level in its mounting (could have slipped), you should be able to fill it completely. If either the rig or tank is off level, you'll lose some capacity. A 65 gallon spec, less 10 for the water heater, less 5 for leveling, could easily turn into 50 gallons.

As many other do, I have an inline garden hose water meter to know how much water goes in my fresh tank. There have in the past been some posts about accuracy of these meters. Some posts claiming they can be extremely inaccurate. You didn't say how you're measuring to determine you have only 50 gallons, but perhaps there's room for examination there.

If you want a more accurate measure, fill the tank and then drain (through the drain valve) into a container of known capacity. Repeat until empty. Then allow for position of the drain, leveling, and typical tank sag that can reduce effective capacity by at least 5-10 gallons.

As far as the spec sheets saying 75 gallons, if you look at the fine print on the last page, you'll find a disclaimer that explains that things may change without notice. So it's also possible the fresh tank size changed in mid-year.

But frankly, after all is said and done, you have whatever capacity you have. If you want more fresh water capacity, you might look into portable bladders that fit into the bed of your tow vehicle.

That’s great information. I did use a water counter as I wanted to know how fast 10 Gal of water fills incase I don’t have the meter and the water came out of the over flow at 52 so I assume it’s 50. I am level. On the hot water tank the model is a 10gal so that much I know. I will call heartland to see if they have any info for me from my vin number.


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shawnmuir

Active Member
If it is important to know exactly what your black, gray and fresh water tank volumes are, I would suggest doing the following.
Drain all your tanks completely. Get you an in-line water volume meter, garden hose quality. Turn your water Anderson valve to city water and one by one fill each tank till you notice inside your rig the tank is full. For example, hold the flush valve down to fill your black tank until it’s visibly full. Then see how many gallons you’ve put into the tank according to the meter. Do that on all your tanks including your fresh water tank.
On the hwh, it just doesn’t matter as long as it’s functioning properly. We have a 20 gallon and can run out anyhow but like has been mentioned, they recover fairly fast.

I use a water meter but I didn’t think you could flush the grey water with the tank flush connection. Is that not just for the black?


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shawnmuir

Active Member
What year model is your Big Country?

I seem to recall advertising of a “quick recovery” hot water heater that maybe can “produce” 20 gallons of hot water, but the tank may be actually be a 10 gallon tank.

My 2016 Big Country says 65 gallon fresh tank, and 90 gal grey - I know that is two separate 45 gallon tanks.


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Mine is a 2014 3070RE


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LBR

Well-known member
I use a water meter but I didn’t think you could flush the grey water with the tank flush connection. Is that not just for the black?


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Correct that the UDC flush connection is black only.

You can fill the grays up with a garden hose in the sinks/tub, or get the twist on sewer connector that has a female hose connection and fill tanks "from the bottom up", then let the water woosh out to periodically clean them.

The 20 gallon number that is used for the hot water heater is their approximation of how many gallons it can heat continuously in one hour, and **not** the capacity, I believe.
 
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