Gray tank leak?

[legrosen1]

We are new full-timers who purchased a '17 LM Charleston (manufacture date 8/23/16) at the Hershey show in Sep 16, and have been traveling since the beginning of October.

I had been diligent in draining the tanks regularly, sometimes getting the hint when the vanity sink or shower drain began to back up, or hearing the shower "burp".

Then about six weeks ago, in mid-January while we were in FLA, I went outside while my better-half was doing a load of laundry and I saw water spilling out from the underside of the rig; I immediately ran around the other side and opened the gray tanks to release the buildup. I looked under the rig and saw an enormous bulge in the underbelly cover, which subsided over time. Unfortunately, this happened one more time while the in-laws were visiting (we were using much more water than usual).

In both of these incidents the bathroom drains did not back up or burp. Is there an additional overflow outlet that will release water into the underbelly? Or is there a disconnect between the drain piping and gray tank 1?

An additional note, I had the rig in for warranty work at Camping World of Tampa and I asked them to check out the possibility of a leak; the drilled a hole in the underbelly covering and said there was nothing to be concerned about. Beware!

 

[jimtoo]

You cannot rely on the gray tank to burp, usually first thing is the shower backs up a little. But it sounds like your vent to the roof maybe leaking at the top of the tank where it connects. If this is the case your lucky that it leaks, because the next thing that might happen is the tank would overflow at the roof vent and then you would have water in the ceiling. If your doing washing I would open the tank drain. Drain after 3,,4 showers also.

Usually the only tank that burps is the black tank and if it burps on the wife while she is setting,,, You will know about it.

 

[danemayer]

Hi legrosen1,

Drilling holes in the coroplast does raise the question of whether the tech drilled through the tank. But if he had, you'd have continuous leaking. And when you dumped the gray #1 tank, you'd probably get almost no output.

Unless you're camping in sub-freezing weather, there's no reason you can't run with your gray #1 tank valve open. I do that all summer, allowing the flexible drain hose to hang down at the outlet, creating a p-trap that blocks vapors and anything else from backing up into the trailer. I dump the black tank weekly and close the gray 2 days ahead of time so there's water in the gray tank to clean out the sewer hose after dumping the black tank.

I also have asked DW to let me know when she's using the washing machine, and how many loads, so if I have the gray #1 valve closed, I don't get a surprise.

 

[goldeye]

I had a problem with the vent pipe attachment point to the grey tank allowing water to get into the underbelly. When the tank was near full, water would leak out of the vent pipe attachment fitting. The tank was replaced due to the broken fitting damaging the grey tank. A flex fitting was added to a section of the vent pipe to allow for expansion of the grey tank without causing any damage to this tank. I have a 2015TS Big Country fixed in AZ Feb. 2016

Good luck
goldeye