So my husband and I are total noobs and we just purchased an open range roamer 309BHS. It's parked at a campground and worked perfectly fine up until a few days ago. I figured between the manual and 2 sets of parents with rvs we'd be able to figure any issue out but that's not the case. We are hooked into the city water connection. The fresh water lever is shut. The pump is off. Any time the water to the trailer is turned on it just pours out of 2 red pipes under the trailer. They seem to be some sort of flue and they are right beside the fresh water lever. Our fresh water tank was full so we ran the pump and had some water. Then my husband decided to empty it out and then turn on the city water to see if the issue was that the tank was full and we were letting off the excess, nope. I looked at another open range and his fresh water lever is open so that the tank never fills but I tried that and again the water just pours out this time from the fresh water hose (is there a bypass I need to turn so that it doesn't?)Everything is closed until Wednesday for the holiday weekend here and I've already had no water for 2 days, sink full of dishes and company coming today. The manual might as well be Chinese it's way too vague for a noob. I'm hoping this doesn't come across as gibberish and someone can help us.Thanks in advance!Eta-the rv guy was here the other day and looked at all the water stuff and it seems to have just started since then. So my husband thinks he did something that now the tanks filling up and causing this issue.

I'm not that seasoned myself, but on our trailer, those 2 lines have there own shutoffs. In other words, those lines should be able to be shut so your system holds water, they are to drain the lines for winterizing. Look underneath and see if you see to valves that can be closed.

I am assuming you only have one common spot both city water & filling the tank?

Trailers have "low point" drains to allow complete evacuation of the water lines during winterization. They should have caps on them during normal use, so the system pressurizes. Are there a couple of caps laying on the ground under the pipes? When you looked at the other Open Range what did the pipes look like? Capped or open?

Perhaps those two red pipes are supposed to be connected to each other?Try turning off the city water and running off of the tank and pump. If everything works fine then your problem is before the place where city and pump water meet.

I've looked for caps and I checked the other OR in the park and his doesn't have caps either Here's a pic http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab236/nbarker23/2014-06/173A915D-4772-4E2B-8AAF-9E501B42232B_zpspgoy7p4w.jpg

Need my water back....noob issues | Good Sam Community

21 Replies

dave17352
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
PenMan wrote:
dave17352 wrote:
My guess is low point drains they probably have valves above someplace you can close.

They are not low point drains. They are a vent and overflow line from the fresh water tank. There are also two low point drains but they are not red.

OK

notice it was my guess
PenMan
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
dave17352 wrote:
My guess is low point drains they probably have valves above someplace you can close.

They are not low point drains. They are a vent and overflow line from the fresh water tank. There are also two low point drains but they are not red.
dave17352
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
My guess is low point drains they probably have valves above someplace you can close.
PenMan
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
The two red tubes are an overflow and a vent on the freshwater tank. If water flows from a red pipe your tank is full. I'm not familiar with your specific Open Range model (we have the 337RLS) and our water station is different. If you check the owner's forum I'm sure someone can tell you exactly what you need to know. http://www.openrangeowners.com/ORforum/
opnspaces
Navigator II
Jun 29, 2014
Hi Nikkik welcome to the forum. This should hopefully be fairly easy to figure out but you need to first know what the red pipes are.

To me it sounds like your fresh water lever is either broken or set incorrectly. Every time you turn on the hose the tank which is already full overflows and it runs out of the red pipes. Here's a few easy tests to figure out what's going on.

Test 1) Check your monitor panel. Does it read the fresh water tank full or empty?

If panel reads full, the fill lever is likely broken or set incorrectly.
If panel reads empty the lever is working correctly or the panel is wrong.

Test 2) Disconnect the hose from the trailer. Now turn on the water pump. Does water come out of the red hoses?

If water comes out then a low point drain is open and the red pipes are low point drains.
If no water then the red pipes are tank overflows and you have a failure of the fill lever.

After these two tests you should now know if the red hoses are low point drains or fresh tank overflows.

If they are fresh tank overflows just turn off the hose (but leave it connected) and run off the water pump until you can get the lever fixed.

If they are low point drains you need to find the valve and turn it or push it down to turn it off.

You can also try turning on the hose and then move the water lever and see if you can get the pipes to stop draining.
GaryWT
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
If you had work done call the company that was there and tell them they did not close the low point drains. Should be an easy fix but if not make them come back. You did say everything was fine until they were there.
DiskDoctr
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
Looking at your pic...

Assuming the white gate valve is the drain for fresh water tank, those could be vents/overflow for the tanks. The relative position is correct.

If you put water in the tank, then open that white gate valve, I'll bet you get lots of fresh water!

If so, this means your have the city water connection turned on, but have a valve turned to "fill tank" position. Instead of having the city water available for use, you are simply continuing to add water to the fw tank. Once full, it would just overflow out the red lines.

Can you post a pic of your city water connection and valves?

It's also possible you have an internal (drain) valve open, which would simply route the water out those drain lines.
x5rdman
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
Look right above those two pipes inside the camper. Most likely a valve you can shut off.
RoyB
Explorer II
Jun 29, 2014
Don't be afraid to seek help from your neighbor campers... They will help you with open arms.... A good cup of coffee goes along way at campgrounds...

All of the trailers pretty much have the same basic water flow system... Some variations is shutting things off is about the only difference in them... You have to be a genius to figure one of these panels out for the first time to use it.

Mine all runs from the city water water connection and my fresh water tank is manual fill using a Water Jerry can... The only time I use my on-board water pump is when I have water in the fresh water tank.

This is basically my water flow diagram... The only TANK DRAINS to the ground will be the FRESH WATER tank and the fresh water water distribution low point line for winterizing... It would illegal to have a drain on the GRAY and BLACK water tanks that dump directly to the ground.

My HOT WATER TANK BYPASS for winterizing looks like this... Other trailers may use a two valve or even a one valve winterizing setup for their water heater bypass. Mine uses three valves like shown here. Note the oblong valves tell you if the valve is open or closed.

Hopefully this will give you something to look for for your trailer.

This would be a better simplified diagram of your larger trailer

I know its abit late now but when I first got my trailers I setup in the back yard and actually did some backyard camping making me find out all of these finer points. Once you learn them it will all be second nature after that...

Lets us all know how things are progressing along...
Roy Ken
Poppy___Nana
Explorer
Jun 29, 2014
As has been said - they look like your low point drains.

Look in your bathroom or kitchen under the sink (or close to where the drains would be in your TT) and see if you see two red lines and a valve there which will either open or close the drains.