Fresh Water Drain - repair help needed

Nayther is correct, the tank fitting is spin welded into polyethylene holding tanks and fresh water tanks. .

A friend of mine just had to replace the exact same tank fitting. He got a kit/adapter that fits on a router and then on to a new tank fitting. The router is started and spun up till the plastic melts and then its sealed very well and permanently fixed.

Iirr, there were some expensive drive tools for this that are designed for manufacturing companies, and then there are some much less expensive spin drive tools for the one time users. Some can be used in a high speed drill.
Might even be able to put something together from pvc fittings/and pvc flat cap, with a long bolt in the center for the drill chuck, that will let you spin it...? Just thinking out loud.
My buddy said it didn't take much at all to melt the new fitting in real tight...

Ozlander wrote:
Never seen a fresh water tank with a valve like that.

I believe it is the factory assembly from Forest River? It is a 2008 and we bought it in 2009 so I doubt the original owner changed anything, but I could be wrong?

nayther wrote:

ThomasFour wrote:
Thanks Dick. I ordered the Duluth Trading extreme tape. Good stuff to have around anyway. Did some poking around today and pried back the broken collar a little bit. It is female threaded and plastic welded to the bottom of the tank. No easy way to replace it. I'm going with the Extreme tape as a hopefully more permanent fix....

yes the threaded piece is thermal welded to the tank then a slip/thread adapter is screwed into the first piece and everything else is PVC glued. In order to remove the slip/thread adapter you need to cut the pipe and unscrew it, then you can use a coupling and reglue or just replace it all, PVC is cheap and easy to work with. The drain valves are flanged so can be reused. If the fitting at the tank is the one leaking it was probably over tightened and cracked, not much you can do for that, special machine is needed to weld to the plastic.

Your assessment seems exactly correct as far as the way its put together. I would rather replace the broken part but doing that in this case would be a huge job.

As far as how it happened - in addition to what you pointed out - I also considered that a piece of road debris (rock) could have it it at some point and cracked it??

Never seen a fresh water tank with a valve like that.

ThomasFour wrote:
Thanks Dick. I ordered the Duluth Trading extreme tape. Good stuff to have around anyway. Did some poking around today and pried back the broken collar a little bit. It is female threaded and plastic welded to the bottom of the tank. No easy way to replace it. I'm going with the Extreme tape as a hopefully more permanent fix....

yes the threaded piece is thermal welded to the tank then a slip/thread adapter is screwed into the first piece and everything else is PVC glued. In order to remove the slip/thread adapter you need to cut the pipe and unscrew it, then you can use a coupling and reglue or just replace it all, PVC is cheap and easy to work with. The drain valves are flanged so can be reused. If the fitting at the tank is the one leaking it was probably over tightened and cracked, not much you can do for that, special machine is needed to weld to the plastic.

Thanks Dick. I ordered the Duluth Trading extreme tape. Good stuff to have around anyway. Did some poking around today and pried back the broken collar a little bit. It is female threaded and plastic welded to the bottom of the tank. No easy way to replace it. I'm going with the Extreme tape as a hopefully more permanent fix....

I'm pretty sure the lower nuts just unscrew to allow the drain pipe to be removed then the upper nut unscrews BUT I'm not sure how the pipes connect to the tank bottom. Hopefully, the bottom could have a discharge pipe permanently attached to the tank.
I've had success plugging holes with JB Welds `Water Weld' which is an epoxy putty that is molded around the leak area and allowed to harden. Or Duluth Trading has an Extreme Tape sticks to itself and can be wrapped around to seal the leak.

Here is a wider angle photo of the entire assembly.