Intermittent leak - need to drop underbelly for troubleshoot
Hello RV friends!
Well we have made it to the end of another lovely RV season. I have had a few issues, including a leaking A/C unit that was barely held down onto the roof and brake wires that were worn through and shorting out so I lost my brakes while headed through the mountains. Glad I spent the money for good pads and vented rotors on my TV! I got it all figured out but now I need to troubleshoot a strange leak. I posted about it before and thought I found the issue - the refrigerator vent was routed inside the coach 'basement'. I re-routed but I still have this strange leak now and then.
I notice it when I am dumping my TT, and ONLY then. It drips from the low point drain penetration point in the underbelly. It's not a lot, but it's a leak so I am concerned. The two things I am doing while dumping that I don't normally do are this - I run the water for a long time through the pump. I use it to help fill the black tank when I flush it, and to add water to the grey before dumping. I have only showered once in my TT so that's a long time to even intermittently run the water for me. The other thing I do is use a hose and spray water into the toilet. I do this to flush it out and make sure the tank is clean, to refill to dump a second or third time if it's the end of the season. So I think it is either a small leak in the plumbing that I don't normally see or it's some sort of leak in the connection between the toilet and the black water tank.
I am going to go on one more trip this fall before I winterize and I want to take advantage of the situation to troubleshoot. So how do I drop the underbelly of my Heartland Mallard IDM245? I thought it was screws but it's some kind of rivets or something. How do I remove these nicely and what should I expect under there? Are they commonly packed with insulation or are they mostly open? Mine was advertised as having a 'heated basement' - so is it going to be open with no insulation? I know there is an option to cut the underbelly and re-tape. I'd rather not do this, unless it's the way it should be done. Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be as detailed as I could be.
Thanks in advance!
Scott
Well we have made it to the end of another lovely RV season. I have had a few issues, including a leaking A/C unit that was barely held down onto the roof and brake wires that were worn through and shorting out so I lost my brakes while headed through the mountains. Glad I spent the money for good pads and vented rotors on my TV! I got it all figured out but now I need to troubleshoot a strange leak. I posted about it before and thought I found the issue - the refrigerator vent was routed inside the coach 'basement'. I re-routed but I still have this strange leak now and then.
I notice it when I am dumping my TT, and ONLY then. It drips from the low point drain penetration point in the underbelly. It's not a lot, but it's a leak so I am concerned. The two things I am doing while dumping that I don't normally do are this - I run the water for a long time through the pump. I use it to help fill the black tank when I flush it, and to add water to the grey before dumping. I have only showered once in my TT so that's a long time to even intermittently run the water for me. The other thing I do is use a hose and spray water into the toilet. I do this to flush it out and make sure the tank is clean, to refill to dump a second or third time if it's the end of the season. So I think it is either a small leak in the plumbing that I don't normally see or it's some sort of leak in the connection between the toilet and the black water tank.
I am going to go on one more trip this fall before I winterize and I want to take advantage of the situation to troubleshoot. So how do I drop the underbelly of my Heartland Mallard IDM245? I thought it was screws but it's some kind of rivets or something. How do I remove these nicely and what should I expect under there? Are they commonly packed with insulation or are they mostly open? Mine was advertised as having a 'heated basement' - so is it going to be open with no insulation? I know there is an option to cut the underbelly and re-tape. I'd rather not do this, unless it's the way it should be done. Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to be as detailed as I could be.
Thanks in advance!
Scott
