Fresh Tank vent hoses

[Scott]

Tanks

I'm not sure what exactly was wrong with your tanks/vent. Your issue is not easy to diagnose over the phone (for Heartland or your dealer).
The "pop" you heard could have been the actual plastic of the tank popping out of shape; or it could have been the tank popping the plywood base it sits on out of shape and possibly cracking it.
Under the Bighorn fresh water tank, there is a plywood base that sits on two angle iron pieces and then there are two 3" steel strap that run accross the bottom of that (crossways). These keep the tank in place should the tank be overfilled to the point where it breaks the plywood.
You mentioned that you were basing your assesment of how much water was in the tank on the sensors/monitor panel. But when the water starts coming out of the vents, that means the tank is getting full and you need to stop. Even if you think it should hold more. Take it in to the dealer and let him (us) figure out if the sensors are bad, or if the vents are mislocated on the tank. And, not knowing if one of the fill lines was kinked or had an issue, I would say don't necessarily trust the tank sensors to be completely accurate. As we have discusson on this forum before, RV tank sensors leave a lot to be desired. I'm sorry, but they always have.
Either way, I'm not sure about closing valves on the vents and then filling the tank up. That's why we don't install valves on the vents. So tanks don't overfill and balloon up.
Either way, we will get you fixed up and back out on the road for more "dry camping", which it appears you are doing.

ST

 

[ChopperBill]

Glad to hear there are some straps going across the tanks. Relieves a lot of anxiety on my behalf. I cinched up a tie down strap between the frames across the bottom of the tank. Will leave it there for added security. I am sure the tank was not much over half full when the first vent started flowing. Now that I picture in my mind how the tank is installed I figure the vent started flowing because my coach is not perfectly level. Off door side is lower. Still I don't see how the tank can be full if water is not coming out of the fill location vent. That is the only vent I have ever seen on most RVs. Will take it to the dealer for inspection when we get back from our week long trip. Forecast is over 100 for the next weeks and we are heading to the cool mountains.

 

[sislv]

Fresh Water Vent Lines On 3055RL

I had installed 3 valves on the three vent lines near the off-door side wheels to help avoid losing water when traveling. After thinking about the pain of getting under the trailer to open the valves when filling the tank or to close the valves for traveling, I decided to do as LOCO had done on I believe his Cyclone. He and others have installed "T" fittings on the fresh water tank vent lines which couples ALL the vent lines together and lead to the single "higher" line vent "Port" between the "Fresh Water Tank Fill Port" and the "City Water Port". This way you don't have any valves to remember to open or close and yet the tank is vented at the four corners. I think the only thing important to remember is NOT to fill the tank to the point where water is coming out of the one vent port. Also I think it would be a good idea to add a steel tube or channel brace across the bottom center of the tank as some have done. I did find that I only had to drop the belly material near the off-door side wheels in order to access the vent lines. It was a little tight work space but I've done worse. All the vent lines were accessable on the left side (facing forward) of the fresh water tank.

Here is the link to some good pictures from Loco:

//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php?t=1443&highlight=vent

As to worrying about overfilling the tank I don't trust the gauge panel. You first have to know how much water your tank has in it in order to use my fill suggestion. Since we can't accurately know with some water in the tank, just completely empty your tank to have a known starting point. I "calculated" how long it takes to fill a one gallon milk jug using our house water supply. It wound up taking 15 seconds/per gallon (or 4 gallons per minute) and I did that three times so it should be fairly accurate (more so I think than the tank indicator). So....if I wanted 60 gallons of water, I would fill for 900 seconds or 15 minutes and you can easily calculate how long to fill for whatever amount of water you want. You could carry a gallon jug with you (even an EMPTY moonshine one) and calculate the flow from any source as long as it's fairly constant. Then you would have a pretty accurate idea of how much water your tank has while filling.

I also cleaned up the water lines and electrical wiring layouts in the water pump area and behind the central vacuum cleaner. I also turned the water pump 90 degrees clockwise which helped dress up the area and give better access (thanks to others for the heads up on this).