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Rick_Y's avatar
Rick_Y
Explorer
Jul 15, 2014

Man-made Waterfall!

A few days ago as I was roaming the forums, I read a thread in which different posters commented about turning off the city water supply if they were going to be away from the RV. That had not been a practice of mine in the past but the stories told by others made me think that it wouldn't be a bad thing to do and, really, it wasn't much of an effort to do.

Forward to yesterday when we took the MH out to the campgrounds and set it up for the week, including hooking up water. We were planning on leaving to go get some fresh food supplies and maybe do some minor shopping. I remembered the thread and decided that we would turn off the city water. As we were about ready I called to my wife, who was near the end of the RV, and told her to turn off the water. Later questioning revealed that she thought I had said that I had turned the water off. Not so. :{

About half an hour after we left the campgrounds we received a phone call from the campground management that another camper had noticed a water leak from our RV and had turned the water off. Naturally that concerned us because we really, really, didn't need a hard to find broken pipe problem. Well, we returned and found a minor lake around the RV. Very little water was INSIDE the RV, just a very minor bit around the base of the toilet. Well, I turned the water back on to see if by doing so I could locate the leak. When I did, we immediately found ourselves facing a waterfall from the roof of the MH. ??? My wife climbed up and said, "It's coming out of some pipe up here!" I knew the only possible pipe would be the vent pipe. Why would water come out of it? Well, it was the black tank vent pipe and I knew it had had only about 3 to 5 gallons in it so where would more come from? Unless, of course, the sani-flush valve had been left open last time and the black tank gate was closed, then oh, oh! I ran to the water bay, pulled the black tank gate open and the waterfall stopped! I then checked the sani-flush and sure enough the valve was wide open.

Moral, when you read good advice here on the forum, take advantage of someone else's learning curve and don't re-invent the wheel yourself!

At least my tank had been previously scrubbed clean and not yet been used! :)
  • Here is another thing that can cause a problem. Many use those hose splitters (Y type). After a lot of use and especially where there is hard water, lime crystals form inside the adapter. When the valve is closed, it really is not closed. Since the deposits make the valve leak.

    Now, if you use that Y adapter to direct water into your black tank flush you could have a problem. You think the butterfly is closed but it continues to unknowingly feed water into your closed black tank. And it always happens that the black tank contents starts to flow very slowly out the roof vent at about 2:00AM. It happens so slowly that you don't hear it. And when you walk out to your campsite early in the morning, you get a real shock.

    And oh...your neighbors won't knock on your door to tell you. Because they don't want to walk thru 6" of black tank sludge.

    Didn't happen to me. But I have seen it happen to others.

    Keep those adapters clean.
  • bshpilot wrote:
    we shut the water supply off to our sticks & bricks house too when we leave for an extended period of time too.

    +1
  • we shut the water supply off to our sticks & bricks house too when we leave for an extended period of time too.
  • Friends of ours were away for the winter and turned off the water, lucky them.
    Turns out the tank on the brand new toilet cracked open spilling water on the floor. Had the water not been turned off who knows what could have happened with the tank flowing non stop.
  • It is a sound practice. I have seen the results in a friends camper
  • Last time out I waashed the lower side of the RV, Driver's side good. Was filling the fresh water tank and got distracted inside. It hit me in a bit. I went our and water was comming out of the gravity fill at a good rate. Turned off the ater, opend the low point drain and water continued for a good bit. It musthave swelled the tank considerable. I checked underneath later and tank is strapped in tight so all is well.
    Left the gray water tank closed while wife used the clothes washer. That's a no no. Came back and wife found the shower pan full. I had to hit the stairs and out and open the gray tank fast. Did no damage but a few more minutes would have floode us good. Always reminding others and who gets hit me, or maybe it was my wife's fault. :)
  • we also turn off the "city" water supply off when we leave camp for any extended amount of time.

    when dry camping we also do not leave the water pump on (since it too could continuously pump water if a water line or something else breaks.

    if you're in your coach (dry camping) & have the water pump on & you hear the pump run (even though no one is using water) then you may have a leak (since the pump should only run when water is demanded).
  • WOW. sorry you had a waterfall experience. My routine is to fill the water tank, shut off the water and then use the water out of the tank.