Filling Fresh Water Tank

[Barry Crocker]

I have seen the fix to this in the past but can't find it here.
When filling the fresh water tank on our 2008 3055RL, water fills up the vent line so you can't fill the tank completely. I have been blowing the water back into the tank and that worked for a while but now that doesn't work. I want to permanetly fix the problem.
Has anyone else had this problem or point me to the fix that was posted last year?
Thanks in advance!

 

[ChopperBill]

Although I didnt get much press on this post my tank works better now than I ever thought it would. Holds more than when I bought it and I get out most every drop. I am extremely happy!
Water tank 101

 

[TXBobcat]

When I took my 3400 to Elkhart last year I had the same problem.
What they did was open up the area behind the UDC and pull the vent hose up tighter and reconnect it to the back of the UDC. So far it works great. This way you don't have to drop the bottom cover.

 

[justbob]

water fill

A service man said the best and cheapest fix is to get 10' of white water hose, cut the male end off and run about 6' down the fill line while filling. Air can come back up around the fill line and excape. This saves taking down the belly and rerouting the vent. Store the hose in a plastic bag to keep it clean.

 

[cjbearden]

Barry

We were at RV Capital, Elkhart, IN a couple of weeks ago for several final warranty items. We had them correct the line length to the fresh water tank. About 10' of hose was used which was allowing air into the line and we could only fill about 1/3 of the tank. Even blowing into the line was not allowing any more water in. While there, a friend of ours with a BH was also having same problem and the correction was the same - cut off about 4" of excess hose line. Belly was taken down (spent about 2 hrs working on this one area) to fix the fresh water line and also replace a valve on grey tank #1.

C.J.

 

[DavidIley]

Have 2008 Bighorn 3055. Had the same water tank filling problem.. Took it back to dealer for fix which amounted to shortenening the filler pipe and also tying it up/securing to the ceiling so that there was an even grade from filler opening to tank. Partially solved the problem. Now when I want to fill tank completely, the first third is not a problem. However from there on, I get back-ups which I must allow to settle, then air blows back water for about three more tries before full. Note that I must stand back from filler opening when I hear the blow-back coming. Got wet the first few times.

 

[Peteandsharon]

OK, last year was my first year with the Bighorn and I only had one occasion to fill the fresh water tank and I had some sort of overflow issue. It started to leak at the bottom, just a little down from where I was filling up. I'm assuming it was related to this issue. So.... I'm trying to follow this discussion. What I'm not understanding is how you turn off vents 1-3 in the discussion above. I don't recall any turnoffs for the vents. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks,
Pete

 

[ChopperBill]

OK, last year was my first year with the Bighorn and I only had one occasion to fill the fresh water tank and I had some sort of overflow issue. It started to leak at the bottom, just a little down from where I was filling up. I'm assuming it was related to this issue. So.... I'm trying to follow this discussion. What I'm not understanding is how you turn off vents 1-3 in the discussion above. I don't recall any turnoffs for the vents. Am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks,
Pete

The problem is that they don't come with shut offs. You have to install them. The reason for the shut offs is that your full tank will start to siphon out of the vents while traveling down the road. You will get to your destination with a less than full tank.

 

[rvtech]

Rv Tech

Hi to all!! My name is Joe and would like to help all I can.Just recently
laid off from a local dealer in Hancock county Ohio..I have had a few of these problems on the Heartlands but LOTS more on other makes like Montanas,Keystones etc.But may be able to shed some light on your subject.First off O NOT INSTALL A SHUT OFF VALVE on your vent tube!!
If water is backing up thru the vent tube,there is a problem!!
Most likely there is a kink,bend,or pinch in the vent tube.Most common reason I have found for this happening is that the holding tanks do not fit
perfectly between the frame rails of the coach,there for allowing a side to side movement of the tanks thus causing the,either "fill tube" or the vent tube of the fresh/poto water to cause this problem!!!Best correction I have found for this problem is with the tank empty and belly cover removed,push fresh water tank to one side allowing room for fresh water fill tube and vent tube,which is fairly close to the fill tube,just at a higher
position than fill tube.At his time a brace should be installed inbetween
the frame rail and the fresh water tank,thus not allowing the tank to slide
back against the frame pinching or puttig a kink in any hoses again!!!!!
NOTE:If the vent tube has a kink in the hose,it may be hard to get the kink out.And in this case the hose should be cut at the kink and a tube like item used called a barb.<<<<||>>>> slide the hose on each end & hose clamp! THANKS JOE:FINDLAY,OH.

 

[Peteandsharon]

Understanding that kinks in the vent or fill tube is a problem in itself, I spoke to my dealer about the general problem of completely filling the fresh water tank. She suggested that an easy way to get around this is to slightly open a hot water faucet while you are filling (after it has filled a little bit). Not wide open, apparently, but maybe just a little more than some people do to keep pipes from freezing in a house. This will pull water into the hot water tank as your filling, for one thing but also relieve some of the air backup. I dunno what to make of this but she said that some people have been getting good results from this. Anybody do this with good results?

 

[geeksrus]

A service man said the best and cheapest fix is to get 10' of white water hose, cut the male end off and run about 6' down the fill line while filling. Air can come back up around the fill line and excape. This saves taking down the belly and rerouting the vent. Store the hose in a plastic bag to keep it clean.

Run it down 6 feet or 6 inches?????

Eh!

 

[justbob]

I opened up behinde the docking station and found that the fill line had a low place in it that allowed water to stay in, Tied this area up with cable ties so water will not stay in it and now it fills great.None I tried to push a smaller hose down but it would'nt go about 18" and it did help. Tieing up is the best.

 

[RVerFulltime]

Filling Hose

Run it down 6 feet or 6 inches?????

Eh!

I do not want to go into the fluid dynamic problems of why so many people have problems with filling the fresh water tank at the Universal Docking Station (UDS). I like the UDS, but Heartland's design of running approximately nine feet of water filling hose from the UDS to the fresh water tank does not work well if it is not properly angled. Which it is NOT!

After the very first fill of the fresh water tank, I took part of the belly down to look at the filling hose issue. At that point I decided that I was not going to deal with a headache of trying to fight to fill the water tank everytime. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a 10' white RV water hose for approximately $7. Then I cut off approximately 4" off the end. I pushed the entire hose into Heartland's filling hose. This now creates an extra breathing area between the white hose and the filling hose plus the normal breather tube Heartland installs. I now fill the fresh water tank at a decent speed (about 3 gallons/minute) and the entire tank fills.

So...For $7, I eliminated the fresh water tank filling problems that Heartland has designed into their RVs.

 

[Uncle Rog]

Filling the tank was never a problem for us, getting full use was.
Brilliant solution..........

 

[Timbo]

I have had my 2009 Heartland in the shop for the fifth tme for the filling problem. Each tme they fix it, it works fine for a couple of days and then I can't fill it at even a drip at a time before it runs out of the fill tube. I have read some good ideas on this post so I will get another white hose and see how far I can insert it down the tube.

 

[rjr6150]

Been having the same filling problem as everyone else but also noticed last time we filled to 2/3 when i arrived at a Wally World water was down to 1/3 guessing I'm having a siphon problem somewhere. Any ideas?

 

[ChopperBill]

Been having the same filling problem as everyone else but also noticed last time we filled to 2/3 when i arrived at a Wally World water was down to 1/3 guessing I'm having a siphon problem somewhere. Any ideas?

Yes it is coming out of one of the vents. When you travel down the road water sloshes around and starts siphoning out of the vent hose. That is the reason for putting shut off valves on the end of the hoses. Shut them off after you fill your tank.

 

[phranc]

I've had mine self siphon a few times and the cure for me was to run Kitchen faucets on the pump for a couple of minutes... ( hot and cold ). this breaks the siphon action..
basically what Peteandsharon said..

 

[hobie17j]

I bypased the whole system of the gravity fill.... I have put two tees in the system from the city water fill....one is in the city water fill going to a new valve I installed in the UDS so I can bypass the city fill to the pump pickup line from the tank. I put the second tee in the pickup line before the pump so I can backfill the tank with city pressure. I open the gravity for a vent and it takes me about 8 min to fill the tank.

 

[Speedy]

I am curious about this vent lines that are mentioned; do they protrude through the coroplastic? I'm under the impression that the fresh tank was vented through the small tube between the gravity and city connections.

I'm having the same issues and will try the shortening of the fill tube first.