Black tank leak. Need advice.
Hi everyone,
Well, I just discovered a dubious slow drip of my nearly full black tank, and I'm not sure how to proceed. Let me explain my situation.
I store my 5th wheel 300 miles away from home in a small town during the Fall and Winter, as we use it to tailgait for football games. I use a mobile RV dump company to drain the tanks every 2 games (approximately 5-6 nights), and with 4 of us staying in it, plus our party goers, the 30G black tank gets full quickly.
Today when packing up, I discovered a slow leak, not at the dump valves, but somewhere along the tank/vent pipe. I couldn't tell because the underbelly is sealed. The good news, if there is any good news, is that the underbelly isn't filled with waste water, so at least the issue isn't full blown nasty. I also detect a "sewage smell" in the pass through storage area, and I read somewhere that it could be another clue the vent valve is culprit.
My question is this....I'd like to examine the situation more closely and see if I can locate the leak, but that would involve me cutting the underbelly material to access the tank. Have any of you done that before?
The long term plan, after the fall/winter season, is to take the **** thing into a service center and have it properly fixed or the tank replaced, but I'd like to get some waterproof spray sealant and some tape on there if I could. I'm just afraid I'll butcher the sealed underbelly and cause even more damage and expense to the job.
Well, I just discovered a dubious slow drip of my nearly full black tank, and I'm not sure how to proceed. Let me explain my situation.
I store my 5th wheel 300 miles away from home in a small town during the Fall and Winter, as we use it to tailgait for football games. I use a mobile RV dump company to drain the tanks every 2 games (approximately 5-6 nights), and with 4 of us staying in it, plus our party goers, the 30G black tank gets full quickly.
Today when packing up, I discovered a slow leak, not at the dump valves, but somewhere along the tank/vent pipe. I couldn't tell because the underbelly is sealed. The good news, if there is any good news, is that the underbelly isn't filled with waste water, so at least the issue isn't full blown nasty. I also detect a "sewage smell" in the pass through storage area, and I read somewhere that it could be another clue the vent valve is culprit.
My question is this....I'd like to examine the situation more closely and see if I can locate the leak, but that would involve me cutting the underbelly material to access the tank. Have any of you done that before?
The long term plan, after the fall/winter season, is to take the **** thing into a service center and have it properly fixed or the tank replaced, but I'd like to get some waterproof spray sealant and some tape on there if I could. I'm just afraid I'll butcher the sealed underbelly and cause even more damage and expense to the job.
