Fresh water tank fill issue

[Cup_fan]

We just purchased a new Vibe travel trailer and took it out Labor day weekend for the first time. One issue that I discovered is with the fresh water tank fill. Every other rv that I have had, you would just stick the water hose in the opening, and when water came spewing out, you knew the tank was full. This camper has a connection that you screw the hose into just like the city water connection has. But the problem is, there is a check valve. Most state parks that we stay in don't have water hook-up, so if we needed to add water to the tank, we just poured it in through a funnel. The check valve in this rig prevents that because there is not enough pressure through a funnel to push the check valve open. I am curious to know if anyone else has this set up, and how you get water into the tank without a water spigot near by.

[GilliedogKiwi]

I think you have a lemon!

[Cup_fan]

UPDATE PART TWO: mobeewan, yes I did sanitize the connection before I made the swap. But I also discovered that there should NOT be a check valve in the connection to the black tank flush. My black tank flush does not work, and while trying to troubleshoot this issue, I found a check valve beneath the bathroom sink. This valve prevents black water from running back through line to the connection. And having a check valve at the connection would keep water in the line, which could freeze in winter, so I'll have to remove this check valve at the connection. I've discovered that my problem is either a clog in the sprayhead or a kink in the line going to the sprayhead. Wayneat63044: Thanks for your info about the fresh water overflow. Sounds like I now have another issue to address. We had a storm come through here Thursday night, and when I went out to the camper last night, I discovered that the bed was completely soaked. Apparently the streetside window next to the bed is not sealed, and water came through the window and soaked everything. Needless to say, I'll be taking the camper back to the dealer to have some issues fixed.

[GilliedogKiwi]

I can't believe that Forest River would produce such a mess! I would have taken the trailer and asked for my money back. As it sounds like this is the situation in more than one of the Forest River trailers you would think they would do something about it and fix the problem at NO COST to the owners. Puts me off looking at a Forest River product when we are upgrading.

[mobeewan]

x

[mobeewan]

Cup fan wrote:
UPDATE: I went back out and was trying to engineer a way to bypass this check valve and noticed something interesting. There is three places to connect a hose to this camper. 1. The city water connection. 2. The fresh water tank fill. 3. The black tank flush.
What I thought was interesting was that the only one of the three connections that didn't have a check valve was the connection for the black tank flush. It was also the only connection that had a screen in it. So I thought hmm, what if they just put them in the wrong spot when they installed them at the factory? So I removed the two connections and swapped them. I can now add water to the fresh tank with a funnel. I went ahead and put some water in the fresh tank to make sure it wouldn't affect water pressure, and everything worked fine. So for now, until I can get a system to add water with an external pump, I think this will work.

I hope you sanitized the one you swapped to the FW tank. :E

[WayneAt63044]

I also have a Vibe and had the same problem you had. Additionally, starting out with a full tank & after traveling 1hr the tank was only 1/2 full as it empties via the overflow which is underneath beside the drain. My solution was to remove the outside shower which we never use and move the overflow to that area so that the overflow outlet is above tank level. The design problem is that the water tank is totally under the floor where the slide out travels over it and there is no way near the tank to get the overflow above the tank. For a time before my mod I would fill the tank until overflow, then close a valve I added to the overflow for travel, and then open the overflow valve when setting camp so that water tank walls would not get sucked in by pumping water from the tank.

[wmoses]

2oldman wrote:
Design issues like this make me wonder if the people designing them have ever gone camping.

You and me both. I think that having this check valve is not very smart and have to wonder why it was done. My FR product does not have this.

[Cup_fan]

UPDATE: I went back out and was trying to engineer a way to bypass this check valve and noticed something interesting. There is three places to connect a hose to this camper. 1. The city water connection. 2. The fresh water tank fill. 3. The black tank flush.
What I thought was interesting was that the only one of the three connections that didn't have a check valve was the connection for the black tank flush. It was also the only connection that had a screen in it. So I thought hmm, what if they just put them in the wrong spot when they installed them at the factory? So I removed the two connections and swapped them. I can now add water to the fresh tank with a funnel. I went ahead and put some water in the fresh tank to make sure it wouldn't affect water pressure, and everything worked fine. So for now, until I can get a system to add water with an external pump, I think this will work.

[2oldgypsies]

We bought a 2013 Wildwood with the same problem. The reason it was built this way was because the fresh water tank is under the walk around bed and the water has to be under pressure to push it under the floor and back up to the fresh water tank. If you look at where that outside water inlet is and then follow it to see where it goes inside the trailer I think you might find the same thing. I went to Home Depot and bought a 4" sewer drain clean out w/cap, like you would find on the outside of your home, and cut a hole in the top of the water tank and glued it into place with caulking useing my caulking gun. It turned out to be pretty easy to pour water into that 4" opening. the only downside to this is that you have to take the water inside to pour it into the tank. I hope you find this helpful.

[PenMan]

My TT has the same set up as the OP's. You screw the hose to the fresh water tank inlet. I tried to use a funnel to put some bleach/water into the tank to sanitize the system and could not do it because of the check valve. The only way I have found to transfer water from a tank is to use a 12 volt pump with hose attached. For sanitizing the system I used the winterizing suction line and diverted the pump discharge to the fresh water tank.

[69_Avion]

Cup fan wrote:
Avion, when the tank is full, water comes out of an overflow tube beneath the camper next to the drain tube/valve. Travisc, your suggestions are the only ones that have come up with as well. I was contemplating removing the check valve, or I'll have to be able to pressurize the water with an external pump. I asked the dealer about this issue, and he said that the check valve should be easy enough to open that simply pouring water through a funnel would create enough force to push the check valve open. Needless to say, I tried it and water just sat in the funnel.

There were two reasons I was asking where the overflow was. First, I would be very concerned if the overflow doesn't relieve as much water as the city connection can put into the tank, otherwise you can burst the tank. Second, if the overflow was large enough and high enough, I though that you may be able to use it as a secondary fill. It appears that this option will not work.

[2oldman]

Design issues like this make me wonder if the people designing them have ever gone camping.

[Cup_fan]

Avion, when the tank is full, water comes out of an overflow tube beneath the camper next to the drain tube/valve. Travisc, your suggestions are the only ones that have come up with as well. I was contemplating removing the check valve, or I'll have to be able to pressurize the water with an external pump. I asked the dealer about this issue, and he said that the check valve should be easy enough to open that simply pouring water through a funnel would create enough force to push the check valve open. Needless to say, I tried it and water just sat in the funnel.

[travisc]

You could remove the check valve- or just add a way to pressurize a 5 gallon containerto push the water in-

On my Winnebago it uses a gravitiy feed fill system with a vent, I had the opposite problem with my check valve- on the city water the check valve failed and water was spewing out it when I turned on electric pump. I ended up putting a cap on the city fill until I could fix it.