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rtaylor0830's avatar
rtaylor0830
Explorer
Aug 12, 2014

Need advice help please made cardinal mistake

I made the cardinal mistake by turning on black tank flush with valve closed and walking away. I came back to water running out of bottom of camper. I cut some holes out of the insulation to get the water out. My question is there was Somme water around the toilet but not as much as I would have expected so where did all the water in the underbelly come from. I put about a quarter tank of water back in the black tank and see no water dripping anywhere underneath. Any ideas and is there any thing else I need to do.
  • I pulled the bottom out and there are no leaks and everything works fine when I use the toilet and the tank flush guess I was lucky but on a side note my keystone cougar is suppose to have a polar package and there is no insulation besides the underbelly material and a thin layer of bubble wrap
  • It sounds like you really have a mess (pun intended) on your hands. If you have broken seals, valves, seals or tank and you probably should drop the bottom cover and replace the it and the insulation. It probably needs to be taken care of by someone that knows what they are doing.
    I think I would turn it over to my insurance.
  • If the roof vent is installed properly there will be very little pressure in the black tank. The leak the OP experienced came from poor installation, design or faulty materials.
  • Merrykalia wrote:
    I did the same thing and when I came back, sewer water was running down my awning!! I washed and cleaned and washed some more and finally got rid of the smell.....until it rained again!


    I was at a CG once where someone was deliberately flushing their black tank out the top vent... said it did wonders for washing the top of their rig. Apparently, they flushed the black tank as normal, added detergent to it, then let it go out the top vent.

    I am actually amazed that the toilet or other plumbing didn't crack or leak with ten feet of head pressure on it.
  • I would check were the rinse tank hose connects to the black tank. The hose may have blown off or the fiting at the black tank cracked.
  • I did the same thing and when I came back, sewer water was running down my awning!! I washed and cleaned and washed some more and finally got rid of the smell.....until it rained again!
  • The pressure of over fillng the tank without any valve or the toilet being opened most likely cuased something to give. Like said before check all sealed openings around the tank.

    Many times around the top entrance into the tank, the tank itself may split, or the flange on top of the tank sealing the toliet will break and leak. Remove your underbelly and all installation and determine were the leak came from and repair. if it is on the top of the tank which meets the floor of the toliet, you will have no choice but to drop the tank.

    Whatever the cause, you must remove anything underneath and sanitze. Insulation must be scraped.
  • If your plumbing was intact the water should have come out of the roof vent. Either it broke during the filling or, most likely, was never right.
  • X2 above, and replace the insulation, don't try cleaning it. Insulation = cheap.
  • Couple of places......

    When you overfilled the water leaked:
    out around toilet floor flange seal...could have drained down into underbelly
    out the top of tank around the toilet drain line
    out top of tank around vent line

    You NEED to remove some sections of that underbelly and:
    inspect tank/fittings
    remove that insulation
    dry it out and possibly spray it down with bleach solution

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