HELP! Fresh water tank filling when valve set to “City”

[jcubeta]

Hello -

We are travel trailer newbies and we have our camper out for the first time this season. We have a Highland Ridge Ultra Lite 2802BH.

I am at a campsite hooked to city water. I have thw intake valve on the outside of the trailer set to “City” (see photo link below). However the fresh water tank is full and now running out the overflow.

Could the valve be bad? Am I missing something else that I needed to take care of after it was winterized?

Stressed.
James

I have uploaded a photo here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/9s74kqIoflJ2hIes1

[wnjj]

jcubeta wrote:
A fellow camper suggested that there may be another valve near the water pump that was manipulated during winterization that I may need to open/close. I don't even know where my water pump is, but it sounds like it's under our kitchen cabinets (my dealer never told me about how to find or maintain the water pump).

That would be the winterizing valve. It's a 2-way valve (3 ports) that selects between the tank or a short piece of open-ended tubing for the pump's water inlet. Sometimes it can be 2 separate valves, 1 per 'input'. That way you can use the pump to pull RV antifreeze directly from the bottle without having to put any in your fresh water tank. If that valve is set wrong, your pump will run and provide nothing but air and little spits of water that's already in your system from the city inlet (i.e. what you describe).

It may well be unrelated to your tank filling issue.

Are you sure your city/fill valve is turned all the way to 'city'? If it's anywhere but completely on city, some water will still fill the tank. The same goes for if it's broken or failing.

[roadrat2]

Now that we know the secondcwater intake is the black water flush, it's either a check valve or a winterization valve

[bobndot]

Go to youtube.


here is some how-to vids of 2 mfg.'s the 3rd vid shows an in-line check valve if you decide to go that route instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRZTORXasqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZi77wstOR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PfC2YBd_tk

[myredracer]

jcubeta wrote:
OK, stupid question, but what is the "check valve"? Is that the blue-handled valve that I switch between "City" and "Tank Fill"? Because I figured that it might be (1) cheap, and (2) leaking.

Your pump may or may not have a built-in check valve. These valves only allow water to move in one direction. There is also one inside the city water inlet. A typical RV water plumbing diagram is below. A separate inline Shurflo check valve is below. Note that it is designed for use with hose/gear clamps and shouldn't be used with PEX. Shurflo has a rebuild kit for the integral valves but personally I would rather use a separate one of better quality.

Sorry, but due to the ridiculous Captcha "feature", I cannot get images to post at the moment. Somebody needs to fix that. :M

[jcubeta]

myredracer wrote:
Sometimes it's better to just do things yourself, besides you can often do a better job anyway... Also, your TT could sit at the dealer for weeks.

I am COMPLETELY with you here and I'm not afraid to do it myself. Just want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I roll up my sleeves.

Thank you!

[jcubeta]

OK, stupid question, but what is the "check valve"? Is that the blue-handled valve that I switch between "City" and "Tank Fill"? Because I figured that it might be (1) cheap, and (2) leaking.

[myredracer]

A leaking check valve isn't all that uncommon. Happened to us on our brand new TT. Does it fill up slowly or quickly? If slowly, it'll be the check valve at the pump. You have a couple of other options. Install an additional check valve at the pump by using a quality, commercial grade, brass body one and leave the existing pump & check valve alone. Or if you won't be using the FW tank much or never, install a shutoff valve at the pump which is what I did. A valve or check valve could be added using a sharkbite type. Cut PEX & insert pipe - done in under a minute.

Sometimes it's better to just do things yourself, besides you can often do a better job anyway... Also, your TT could sit at the dealer for weeks.

[jcubeta]

Hello again, everyone -

Sorry I didn't post a response sooner - we were trying to be less stressed and actually enjoy our weekend. 🙂 Thank you so much for your responses - I really appreciate your time and input. We did run into another (maybe related?) issue, which I'd like to get your input on.

Before I get into that, some suggested that I might be hooked to the wrong intake. I am certain that I am not. On our trailer, there are only two places a hose can connect: one is the black tank flush and the other is intake. There is a blue valve on the intake that can be switched from "tank fill" to "city". We got our trailer last year and have always used city water, and we've never had this issue of the fresh water tank filling up.

As for the new, possibly related issue - two things that I should mention:

1. We have never used/sanitized the fresh water tank
2. This is the first time out with the trailer after winterization.

Since the fresh water tank was full, we thought we should turn the pump on and at least use the water for washing dishes and using the toilet. When we turned the pump on, we could hear it running yet no water was coming out of the spigots; only air and sometimes some spits of water. So we just turned it off and decided to forego water until we get a better understanding of what's happening.

A fellow camper suggested that there may be another valve near the water pump that was manipulated during winterization that I may need to open/close. I don't even know where my water pump is, but it sounds like it's under our kitchen cabinets (my dealer never told me about how to find or maintain the water pump).

So that's where we are. I am taking the trailer in for inspection in a few weeks and I'd like to get things repaired if needed. But I'm wondering if this is a post-winterization thing that I didn't know to take care of...

Thanks again!
James

[wnjj]

campigloo wrote:
I think you’re hooked to the wrong inlet. The older trailers have a gravity fed inlet. You just kinda prop the hose up and let it run until it overflows. It was not threaded.
Try moving the hose like pmallone suggested.

I don’t know why there would be a gravity fill if there’s a city/fill valve.

I’m going with the bad pump check valve as is the case most of the time, assuming the city/fill valve itself isn’t leaking.

[bobndot]

Make sure you do not move the fill hose to the black tank flush port. If you do that with the dump valve closed, you are really going to be 'stressed James' .

[doughboy]

it's a bad check valve in the water pump
check the brand and model number.
go on ebay and get a rebuild kit for about $10.
i think 4 screws and it all comes apart.
check out youtube. mine's a sureflo

good luck
larry

[campigloo]

I think you’re hooked to the wrong inlet. The older trailers have a gravity fed inlet. You just kinda prop the hose up and let it run until it overflows. It was not threaded.
Try moving the hose like pmallone suggested.

[roadrat2]

Is it possible you're connected to the wrong inlet? The black star shaped thing at the lower left of the pic looks like it could be your city inlet. Undo the hose, connect to that, leave the valve on 'city' and see what happens. Be sure to use a pressure reducer.
The inlet that you're connected to may only be for filling the tank. Seems like it would be more clear if that valve simply said 'open'(city) and 'closed'(tank full).

[bobndot]

LadyRver wrote:
I do need to replace the water pump or rebuild it, in my case, since I have replaced one before in another unit, I will just put a new pump in.

Same here , I started carrying a spare pump. It's so simple to do, I just swap it out then rebuild the bad one at my leisure.

While at a site, it's a good idea to have water in the fresh tank to use in case the campground has a city water leak and they need to shut down there system for a period of time. I just unload it before I travel again. Like others I only run with 10 or 15 gallons.