Gray Water Pipe Broken

Piperflyer

Well-known member
I had water leaking under the RV, so I opened the belly up and found that the 1-1/2" abs pipe coming from the kitchen sink to the grey water tank had broken.
The pipe broke right at the 90* fitting going into the top of the grey water tank.
I don't have a clue what caused the pipe to break here, as the RV has never been exposed to freezing temps and is only 3 yrs old. I'm going to have to drop the tank to get a new 90* fitting into place on the tank. It's going to take some work to get it fixed, but it has to be done.
Anyone ever heard of this happening to others. I would like to know why, so I can prevent it from happening again
Thanks
 

danemayer

Well-known member
On our floor plan, not necessarily the same as yours, the drain from the kitchen sink takes a turn after going down through the floor. It continues under the floor, horizontally, for a few feet and then takes another turn to go down into the gray #2 tank.

Because there is not a lot of space between the floor and the tank, the factory cut a channel into the laminated floor to make room for the horizontal pipe. I'd guess that my trailer may not be the only one done that way.

All this to say that it's possible the floor is close enough to the drain pipe that tank bounce could put greater than normal stress on the pipe and fittings.
 

Piperflyer

Well-known member
On our floor plan, not necessarily the same as yours, the drain from the kitchen sink takes a turn after going down through the floor. It continues under the floor, horizontally, for a few feet and then takes another turn to go down into the gray #2 tank.

Because there is not a lot of space between the floor and the tank, the factory cut a channel into the laminated floor to make room for the horizontal pipe. I'd guess that my trailer may not be the only one done that way.

All this to say that it's possible the floor is close enough to the drain pipe that tank bounce could put greater than normal stress on the pipe and fittings.

After taking a better look at the break today I tend to agree with you on why the pipe broke. I stuck the broken pipe back together and their is no clearance around the pipe at all. It is touching the bottom & side of the pipe chase. No room for movement when the tank moves and yes the tank can move up & down on the tank support.
Hope one of Heartlands moderators sees this and lets heartland know about it, so future customers don't have to worry about it.
Even though I get it fixed I will still have to worry about it happening again. Thought RVing was suppose to be relaxing....


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