Somewhat urgent question about dual gray tanks...

[jcubeta]

Hello everyone,

We are on our "maiden voyage" with our new Open Range UT2802BH (we're also first-time camper owners), and I have a newbie question:

Our model has two gray tanks: one called "gray" and one called "aux". I seem to recall the dealer explaining that the "aux" tank holds the kitchen gray water, and the "gray" tank holds the bathroom sink/shower water. One tank is drained in front of the axles. The other is drained near the rear of the trailer. There is only one valve pull at the front and two pulls (grey and black) at the rear.

This morning, the "aux" light showed F and the "gray" light showed 1/3. So I hooked up the hose to what I believe is the "aux" (which is in front of the axles) and drained it. However, when I checked after, the "gray" now shows E and the "aux" is still at F.

So am I to assume that I & the dealer had it reversed? That the "aux" is the bathroom shower/sink and "grey" is the kitchen? Or did I just really screw up?!

Thanks in advance for your help.
James

[trail-explorer]

sch911 wrote:
Read up on how to clean the sensors and make them a little more usefull. Most of us ignore them.

It's a NEW trailer, on it's maiden voyage.

The sensors aren't dirty.

[time2roll]

Indicators could be reversed. Would not be the first time.
Otherwise run the water when dumping to confirm where the water flows.

[Old-Biscuit]

Looking at floorplan kitchen is center with bath rearward of kitchen.

And all on 'curbside' so drains go across rig to tanks

Forward tank s/b kitchen (galley/AUX)

With grey/back rearward.......

Monitor wires connected wrong
Swap grey & Aux

Now that tank is empty.....open that drain valve again and run water down sink. (Fill sink then drain it---leave faucet running)

Does water run out of the drain line/valve???
YES.....
Monitor wrong

[lenr]

My experience is the gray and fresh tank indicators work most of the time, but not very well. The black tank indicators work for the first 2 days and that's it. If your toilet has a straight pipe down to the black tank (hopefully) you can turn off the water supply, open the flapper, and look down with a flashlight for a very accurate indicator of black level. Never, ever, use a flashlight that will fit down through the pipe--only use a big rectangular one that will not fit--no exceptions! As said above, experience will quickly teach how long one can go.

Off subject but since OP is newbie (we all were once) I'll offer two other pieces of advice. After checking the black level, be sure to get a little water on the toilet flapper valve to keep the seal moist--you always want some liquid on it. Dried out seals leak stinky gas. Also, do not let your black tank continuously drain like we did our first week out. Let it build up as much as your schedule allows so solids are immersed in fluids and stay soft. Always whoosh out when draining a black tank.

Have fun camping!

[donn0128]

No you cant screw up draining gray tanks. That is as long as you pull the handle and drain the water. My guess is mislabling. You might buy yourself a lable maker and once home go around and figure out what everything is/does and make appropriate lables for them. On my fiver I have three valves, all terminating in one place. So the lables are rather simple. Gray,gray,black. Simple deduction on my part let me know the valve over the tires is kitchen. Your it sounds like is not that simple, thus the need to correctly mark.
BTW, for your information, it is perfectly safe and acceptable to leave the gray valves open all the time. Been doing this for years with no problem. I usually close the gray tanks a,day before I schedule to dump the black to give me some water to flush the sewer hose.
Also, since you have two terminations they sell a Y so you can attach everything at once to your sewer dump. Might want to invest is the stuff necessary to do that. Saves the headache of moving the 4 inch hose around.

[DutchmenSport]

There's always a learning curve with a new camper, but eventually you'll figure it out. First, you can't depend upon the sensors on your holding tanks. There are hundreds of forum threads here about malfunctioning sensors and how to to fix that problem.

The best thing you can do is drain the second grey tank until it's completely empty. Drain the first tank until it's completely empty. Then close both valves. Run water in the kitchen sink for a couple minutes and open one of the valves and see which one discharges water. Then you'll know.

Then do the same thing with the sink and shower in the bathroom. Then you'll know for sure. Labels on your RV don't necessarily mean anything. You can't trust that.

And by the way! You just learned a very important thing about purchasing an RV that all of us have experienced. And how sad, new buyers just don't want to believe the seasoned, old-timers ... and that is ... Salesmen don't have a clue about anything related to RV's! They will tell you anything to get you to make the deal.

[sch911]

Forget those sensor readings. They are notoriously inaccurate. In time you'll learn how long you can go on each tank. Read up on how to clean the sensors and make them a little more usefull. Most of us ignore them.