Help! My Fresh Water Tank Doesn't Like Water!

[funntheson]

When I try fill the fresh water tank, it rejects the water. I have tried some different things. Most recently, I paid about $25 for a valve that screws onto the opening, and has about a 7" clear plastic tube attached. That didn't work, so I purchased more tubing and tried to go further into the tank. No luck. The only thing that somewhat worked was to put a tube about 3-4 feet into the opening, then blow the water out. Then I am able to slowly put water in the tank.

Is there a more permanent fix for this problem? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Fortunately, we don't dry camp much, so we just need some water for travel days.

Thanks.
Larry

 

[JohnDar]

When I tried to fill my tank last summer (just for a reserve), I had the same problem. Behind the UDC, the fill line drooped and when it filled with water, it would act like a dam and not let more pass, just spit back out. Solution was to take a section of water hose about 5 feet long and stuff it down the filler and connect the water hose to that.

Since it's not really a closed system, unless you can force the water (pressure) to get past a droop in the line, it will not flow. But once it does, it will aspirate the incoming water down to the tank (unless there's another droop further down). If you've ever had to massage the stinky slinky, it's a similar phenomena.

At least that's my semi-SWAG on the matter.

 

[danemayer]

Possible causes:

1. Standing water in the vent hose. Try putting a short piece of hose against the vent and blow to clear the line
2. Low spot in the gravity fill hose routing as John mentioned. If you open the basement wall, you may be able to straighten it.
3. Kink or other restriction in the gravity fill hose - might have to drop the underbelly to look for this and fix it.

I've had problems come and go with the fresh fill. Haven't looked in the underbelly yet, but will get to that this Fall.

If I run water at a slow enough rate, I can usually get it to fill - but it's annoying and takes forever. As a workaround, I added a tee into the pex line between the fresh tank and water pump along with a valve and now fill it by running water backwards through the system, into the tank. I meter the water going in so I don't overfill the tank and cause damage.

 

[bighorn3370]

I have had good luck with blowing compressed air into the breather tube. Ernie

 

[Duramax1]

My filling problem was the result of there being kink in the vent hose.

You can either blow air into the inlet to clear the line each time you fill up or you can get behind the UDC and see if you can take the kink out of the line.

 

[jnbhobe]

I fixed it the right way right off the bat. Took out any extra fill line and fastened the vent line up to the bottom of the floor. I never have a problem filling the fresh water tank, just put the hose in and turn it on wide open.

 

[JohnDar]

Possible causes:

1. Standing water in the vent hose. Try putting a short piece of hose against the vent and blow to clear the line
2. Low spot in the gravity fill hose routing as John mentioned. If you open the basement wall, you may be able to straighten it.
3. Kink or other restriction in the gravity fill hose - might have to drop the underbelly to look for this and fix it.

I've had problems come and go with the fresh fill. Haven't looked in the underbelly yet, but will get to that this Fall.

If I run water at a slow enough rate, I can usually get it to fill - but it's annoying and takes forever. As a workaround, I added a tee into the pex line between the fresh tank and water pump along with a valve and now fill it by running water backwards through the system, into the tank. I meter the water going in so I don't overfill the tank and cause damage.

Even though we always are on city water, I like that idea of using the water pump line to back fill the tank. Something to consider, if you are on a seasonal site like us is what do you do in the middle of the night when a storm knocks out the CG electrical system (which runs the pumps for their water distribution system) and you don't want to swim to the public restrooms. Having water in the tank will allow you to use your own "facilities," so long as your battery is still up to running the pump.

 

[hoefler]

I have installed a Tee fitting in the city water line and one in the supply line from the tank to the pump. Connected the 2 together with a valve in the middle. Now I can fill the fresh water tank from the city water connection through my whole house filter, with out any issues.

 

[Doubleringer]

My friend and I have the same model Bighorn and both had the same problem. We took off the panel inside the bay behind the water inlets and found that the inlet water line had a low area. We disconnected the line, straightened it out and this corrected the problem. We also use the special hose adapter 12" long bought at Camping World, no more water fill issues.

 

[Peteandsharon]

When I first got my Bighorn I had a couple issues with the fresh water tank. One was leaking where the inlet hose was connected to the tank and the other was excess inlet hose which caused a problem similar to yours. It took a couple of trips to the dealer to fix the leak but they replaced the excessively long inlet hose with a shorter one and that seemed to help that problem.

 

[ILH]

I have a slightly different problem with my tank. I've attempted to fill my tank twice - both times the water began to leak out on the other side of the RV (near the stairs) instead of the overflow valve). I'm assuming that the overflow tube is probably not properly connected. Its on my list for the dealer to look at.

 

[hofferinthelab]

I did the same thing with the hose as JohnDar and that worked well for me. I just discovered a leak coming down the drain line and don't know if I pushed the hose in too far and have loosened the fitting going into the tank. I tried to lower the bottom piece around the tank drain but with all the ducting and wiring I couldn't tell where the leak is. I could see the level probe locations but think I may have to cut the bottom piece on one of the cross members to access the the tank and then make a patch over this and seal it afterwords. Has anyone had to cut open the sealed bottom piece to access the tank?

 

[ross0547]

Hi Everyone! WE have had the same problem with our Heartland 5th Wheel; took it back to have the hose shortened at the dealers, which solved the problem for a while; last week it wouldn't fill beyond 1/3, all the same symptoms of the others on this site. I solved the problem easily by filling the FW tank FROM THE DRAIN VALVE! Simply get one ft. of clean garden hose, attach a female hose fitting to one end, and attach the other to the drain. Open the drain valve, the cold water taps and the fill cap, after by-passing the HW heater. Once you see a trickle from the taps, turn them off...
It may have solved any air-lock or kink in the system since I heard gurgling right away. Either way, the guage now shows full, and we're ready to go!!
Good Luck!
Ross

 

[JohnDar]

I did the same thing with the hose as JohnDar and that worked well for me. I just discovered a leak coming down the drain line and don't know if I pushed the hose in too far and have loosened the fitting going into the tank. I tried to lower the bottom piece around the tank drain but with all the ducting and wiring I couldn't tell where the leak is. I could see the level probe locations but think I may have to cut the bottom piece on one of the cross members to access the the tank and then make a patch over this and seal it afterwords. Has anyone had to cut open the sealed bottom piece to access the tank?

I've made some flaps in the coroplast when installing my rear Ground Control jacks, so I could get a wrench in there. When you do make an opening, only cut three sides of it. Or, if near the edge, just two, so that it's a flap and not a cut-out. Then use Gorilla Tape to seal it back up, after cleaning off any dust and dirt from the surface.