Having trouble with remote operated black tank valve

Imaroadrunnr wrote:
If you want to keep from making a mess when you remove the cap try installing a "termination valve". I met a guy at an RV park and he had one on his rig which enables you to take the cap off and put the sewer hose on without making a mess. I know that my valves need some R&R as they are getting difficult to operate and when I open the termination valve there's a lot of "stuff" that comes out that has leaked past one of three valves. I'll put valve maintenance on my list before I go to Quartzsite next month. Work, work, work.
Oh, I forgot to thank the list for giving me the courage to mount my toolbox between my 60 gallon aux. fuel tank and the hitch. Actually the corners of the toolbox didn't clear the inside of the fenders so I made some 2" spacers to raise the box and all is well now and nothing protrudes above the rails. I'm a happy camper.
Stan Mitchell
'05 3500 Ram CTD Dually
4 WD 6 Speed (61K Miles)
'01 Cedar Creek 34ft. (may buy a new one in Quartzsite)

X2. These compensate for a lot of sins.

If you want to keep from making a mess when you remove the cap try installing a "termination valve". I met a guy at an RV park and he had one on his rig which enables you to take the cap off and put the sewer hose on without making a mess. I know that my valves need some R&R as they are getting difficult to operate and when I open the termination valve there's a lot of "stuff" that comes out that has leaked past one of three valves. I'll put valve maintenance on my list before I go to Quartzsite next month. Work, work, work.
Oh, I forgot to thank the list for giving me the courage to mount my toolbox between my 60 gallon aux. fuel tank and the hitch. Actually the corners of the toolbox didn't clear the inside of the fenders so I made some 2" spacers to raise the box and all is well now and nothing protrudes above the rails. I'm a happy camper.
Stan Mitchell
'05 3500 Ram CTD Dually
4 WD 6 Speed (61K Miles)
'01 Cedar Creek 34ft. (may buy a new one in Quartzsite)

More food for thought. I have a 2012 Winnebago Raven with 2 grey and 1 black tank. After 2 years kitchen grey would not close 100% so hooking up at campsite would give you a bit of mess when you remove the cap. Brought it in for service and they lubed up the cable and all was good. Two months ago same thing, same tank. Brought it back. Had to drop the underbelly cover and replace the valve. Cause was sloppy manufacturing. In the assembly of the unit they had drilled out the drain hole for the tank and let the resulting donut fall into the tank. It got partially lodged in the open valve at some point causing distortion and deterioration of the seal requiring the valve to be replaced. Bill had higher labor hours on it for this than the primary reason I had brought the unit in for which was a failed slide motor(slide motor failed because wife kept on trying to retract slide without making sure obstacles were clear. Multiple attempts caused a shift in square resulting in greater load)

Caught you too late. I would not have bought the electric valves.

Got them. Had nothing but problems with them. In fairness to Drainmaster (the type I assume you have bought), mine, the black anyway were never mounted properly. Impossible to do because of basement floor. I have had to change out my black tank valve 3 times. No problem with the grey. A very difficult & not very pleasant job to do.

Follow instructions for angle of mounting & you may be OK. Mine has to be mounted at 90deg instead of at or near 0deg.

Great when it all works. No getting the hose out from some storage container then rinsing & putting it back afterwards. Dumping can be a very fast relatively clean proceedure compared to the manual valve system however be warned if the Drainmaster is not installed correctly.

Having done this before, it isn't too bad. There are two tanks running longitudinally in the dropped frame section. The galley tank is (usually) aft and running crosswise. The galley tank uses the smaller drain pipe, the black and shower tanks use a 3" drain pipe. My black tank is on the street side. But yours could be on the curb side - who knows what all Montana is capable of. Check in the passthru basement storage area and see where the toilet down pipe goes.

Both the gray and black tank valves ae at the rear part of the dropped frame. You only need to remove the screws holding the aft portion of the coroplast underbelly cover on the dropped portion of the frame to access them.

Flush the tank numerous times before doing anything. Drop the front end below level to prevent any leakage back through the opening once you remove the gate valve. The valve is easy to remove but difficult to re-install with the seals positioned properly. I cut the 3" pipe downstream of the "Y" and removed about 1" of pipe. This allows some slop to move the waste pipe and properly position the gate valve and the seals back into the tank fittings. Get a 3" No Hub plumbing fitting to bridge the cut drain pipe. This also allows some flexing once everything is back together and may avoid the tanks cracking somewhere down the road.

This is a common problem on all years of Montanas (and other brands). Between the inexpensive OEM valves, the tight fit of the plumbing which affects the seals and debris being caught where the valve blade closes that often results in a deformed seal, it is just a matter of time before they fail.

P.S. Much discussion and advice on this subject, and many, many topics can be found at the free to join Montana Owners Club forum. www.montanaowners.com

Just curious, is the problem in the valves or the cables ?

Thanks for the help guys, I ripped off the bandaid today and bought 2 3" electronic valves. I just don't want to deal with the cables in the future. I also bought 2 bottles of the valve line and will be using them religiously from here on out.

one_strange_texan wrote:
I have had a similar problem with the black tank valve on my 2015 Montana 3402RL - stuck in open position after being difficult to operate for a while now. Though it is a work in progress, I have got it moving again with a combination of Thetford RV Drain Valve Lubricant and silicone spray on the exposed shaft. You might want to consider this before getting into the underbelly. Looking at the posts on this thread, this seems to be an underlying trend for recent Montanas with cable drain valves. Are you listening Keystone?(snipped)

Sure we hear you. Do we care? Nah...

Bubba R.
VP Keystone Customer Service

rkroll wrote:
Both of my remote cable operated valves are currently stuck partially open, I suppose I am going to have to pull the belly off just to find out what size they are. But I will order 2 3" ahead of time. Thanks for your help. If anyone has info on the electronic valves please let me know

First, I have no personal experience with electronic valves. I have read several peoples threads, on this forum, of their displeasure with the electronic valves. In these cases E-valves were replaced several times under warranty, but never continued to work as designed.

I would rather deal with manual operated valves, due to at least having some control (push/pull harder).

Jerry

I have had a similar problem with the black tank valve on my 2015 Montana 3402RL - stuck in open position after being difficult to operate for a while now. Though it is a work in progress, I have got it moving again with a combination of Thetford RV Drain Valve Lubricant and silicone spray on the exposed shaft. You might want to consider this before getting into the underbelly. Looking at the posts on this thread, this seems to be an underlying trend for recent Montanas with cable drain valves. Are you listening Keystone?

The drain valve lubricant, generously applied per label directions, was what mainly did the trick. I ordered it from Amazon and used a good bit freeing up that one valve. I believe the intended usage is routine smaller amounts for preventative maintenance. I now have ordered and received 2 more bottles and intend to keep periodically applying it.