We've had our TT for 4 seasons now, we mostly use it for long weekend getaway and an occasional trip to far away places. We love it! Except for one issue we discovered on our first week long trip. We were introduced to a horrible black tank smell. I flushed the tank, added chemicals, etc... it helped, but anytime we take a trip longer than a few days it comes back. Before our season starts this year I decided to figure out what was causing it and fix it. My first task, check the roof vent. I figured while I was up there I would go ahead and put a new vent cap on, one that is supposed to allow better venting. When I pulled the existing vent cap off I immediately found the problem. The vent pipe didn't come through the cap, it was off to one side, over half the vent pipe was blocked by the cap mounting structure. I was also able to see into the camper ceiling area via a rather large hole next to where the pipe came through. I pulled the entire cap, sealed the hole around the vent pipe, installed the new cap and sealed everything up good. This season should be free of the odor!

Great work. When I first read the topic line I thought it was Lynyrd Skynyrd's song by Ronnie Van Zanthttps://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=song+that+smell+artist+lynyrd+skynyrd;)

I've heard of the vent pipe falling down to where the bottom of it is sitting on the bottom of the tank.I wonder if maybe yours fell down a little ways ?Dusty

Dusty R wrote:I've heard of the vent pipe falling down to where the bottom of it is sitting on the bottom of the tank.I wonder if maybe yours fell down a little ways ?DustyI thought that too, and tried pulling up on it, wouldn't move. It was pretty obvious the guy who installed the vent cap just put it on "close enough" and called it a day. I am gonna go ahead and order another vent cap for the gray vent and install it too.

Horsedoc wrote:Great work. When I first read the topic line I thought it was Lynyrd Skynyrd's song by Ronnie Van Zanthttps://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=song+that+smell+artist+lynyrd+skynyrd;)LOL, you caught my play on words! Love me some Skynyrd!

losingit wrote:Horsedoc wrote:Great work. When I first read the topic line I thought it was Lynyrd Skynyrd's song by Ronnie Van Zanthttps://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=song+that+smell+artist+lynyrd+skynyrd;)LOL, you caught my play on words! Love me some Skynyrd!EXACTLY the first thing I thought of too!

ew, that smell... | Good Sam Community

losingit
Explorer
Apr 07, 2017
Wanted to post an update to this fix. We just returned from our first longer trip and I have to say this was a successful fix. We had ZERO odors from gray or black tanks. I can't say for certain that it was just the new vents that were the fix, as we also had some holes in the roof that were plugged when I installed the new vents. Regardless, we are super happy with the results. This and our new memory foam mattress make us very happy campers!
losingit
Explorer
Feb 27, 2017
So went ahead and did the gray tank vent this weekend. Found the same issue, not as bad, as I had with the black tank vent, I snapped a few pics this time to show you what I was dealing with. The picture in the link below doesn't really show the bigger issue, which is I could see inside the camper from the roof once I took the cap off, it was the same with the black tank vent. Also, I know I need to clean up the roof, it's on my list of to dos before the season.

This camping season should be a much better experience for our noses :)!

Gray Vent
allen8106
Explorer
Feb 16, 2017
naturist wrote:
Quality build, yup.

First time I used the shower in our brand new TT, I got water on the bathroom floor. Turns out the guy who installed the trap under the shower floor didn't bother to tighten the rings that seal the pipe. Took me 5 minutes to fix (including the time to remove the access door). But he saved probably 30 seconds on the initial job.

We had the same issue with our Jayco. Every single threaded ABS pipe connection was loose and got water where it shouldn't have been. Fortunately it wasn't a lot of water.
losingit
Explorer
Feb 15, 2017
CAJW wrote:
Don't discount your gray tank as the possible culprit for odors. We religiously flushed/ treated our black tank, but after about 3 years on our new rig, we started smelling the "ew!". We now treat both tanks with the Dawn/Calgon mixture and installed these new vent caps, which has solved the issue.

360 vent

Oh, and Skynyrd is the best! Saw them in 1977 sandwiched in between Black Sabbath and Rod Stewart ( with the Tower of Power brass section), awesome show. Skynyrd playing Freebird for 30 minutes stole the show! And yes, my ears are still ringing......

That is my next project on the roof (grey vent). The vent cap you linked to is the exact one I installed.
losingit
Explorer
Feb 15, 2017
Almot wrote:
A picture would've been nice.

The way it is, it can be understood as the pipe was venting to the inside because it was not centered in the vent flange? Then it was also set too low, because the pipe should go through the roof flange - not through the "cap", and centering it in the hole would still leave it venting into the roof interior space.

The list of things to fix in my trailer was a mile long, and some still remain to be fixed. Some things were so darn stupid by design that were impossible to fix, unfortunately.

Ya, I really should have taken a picture of it, your description is spot on though. I didn't have my phone or a camera with me and I hate climbing up and down the ladder. When I do my grey water vent I will be better prepared to document the findings.
dewey02
Explorer II
Feb 14, 2017
CAJW wrote:
Oh, and Skynyrd is the best! Saw them in 1977 sandwiched in between Black Sabbath and Rod Stewart ( with the Tower of Power brass section), awesome show. Skynyrd playing Freebird for 30 minutes stole the show! And yes, my ears are still ringing......

Then you saw the full, real band, before the ill-fated airplane crash.
Lucky guy!
CAJW
Explorer
Feb 14, 2017
Don't discount your gray tank as the possible culprit for odors. We religiously flushed/ treated our black tank, but after about 3 years on our new rig, we started smelling the "ew!". We now treat both tanks with the Dawn/Calgon mixture and installed these new vent caps, which has solved the issue.

360 vent

Oh, and Skynyrd is the best! Saw them in 1977 sandwiched in between Black Sabbath and Rod Stewart ( with the Tower of Power brass section), awesome show. Skynyrd playing Freebird for 30 minutes stole the show! And yes, my ears are still ringing......
Almot
Explorer III
Feb 13, 2017
A picture would've been nice.

The way it is, it can be understood as the pipe was venting to the inside because it was not centered in the vent flange? Then it was also set too low, because the pipe should go through the roof flange - not through the "cap", and centering it in the hole would still leave it venting into the roof interior space.

The list of things to fix in my trailer was a mile long, and some still remain to be fixed. Some things were so darn stupid by design that were impossible to fix, unfortunately.
azdryheat
Explorer
Feb 13, 2017
Glad to see an RV owner solving his problem and THEN coming here to tell us about it.
naturist
Nomad
Feb 13, 2017
Quality build, yup.

First time I used the shower in our brand new TT, I got water on the bathroom floor. Turns out the guy who installed the trap under the shower floor didn't bother to tighten the rings that seal the pipe. Took me 5 minutes to fix (including the time to remove the access door). But he saved probably 30 seconds on the initial job.

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ew, that smell...

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