Dump Issue

[Tom Goudie]

I would like to reach out to the forum with a couple of situations that you may have some thoughts on. We have owned a 2018 373FB for a little over a year.

I have a dump problem sometimes, where I am unable to dump after a week or two of camping. The last time I was here in California at a Thousand Trails in Oregon House for about 3 weeks. I did have the Honey Wagon come out and pump have way through the trip. Upon leaving, I was unable to get a drop out at the dumpsite. I have brought this up to our only service center in the past, it is the only one in the area in the area and they said I needed to change the additive from the little packets to a liquid, I did and still no go. Any Thoughts?

Thank you for whatever help you can give me.
Tom

[howson]

I would like to reach out to the forum with a couple of situations that you may have some thoughts on. We have owned a 2018 373FB for a little over a year.
1. I have a dump problem sometimes, where I am unable to dump after a week or two of camping. The last time I was here in California at a Thousand Trails in Oregon House for about 3 weeks. I did have the Honey Wagon come out and pump have way through the trip. Upon leaving, I was unable to get a drop out at the dumpsite. I have brought this up to our only service center in the past, it is the only one in the area in the area and they said I needed to change the additive from the little packets to a liquid, I did and still no go. Any Thoughts?
2. I would like to install a Hughs 50 amp protector in my garage to keep it safe and dry. I was told it was no big deal, just attach it to the transfer switch and your good to go. I am lost with not knowing where to find it. Has anyone encountered this with their rig?
Thank you for whatever help you can give me.
Tom

Tom--welcome to the forum.

I'm going to move your post to the applicable Technical Forum channels and separate them into separate threads, as the questions are completely unrelated to each other. I'll send you links to both threads here momentarily.

-Howard

[Tom Goudie]

Thank You, Howard!

[howson]

Tom Goudie -- here's your dump issue thread.

[TucsonJim]

Tom - this is a very common problem for those of us who can't dump on a frequent basis. I do a lot of dry camping, and it may be 10-14 days between dumping the black tank. There are two primary causes for low flow from the black tank.

1. Not enough water being used when flushing. When dry camping, there is a desire to minimize the amount of water used on each flush. When you don't use a lot of water, it prevents the black tank from filling too fast, and conserves water. Unfortunately, this also causes solids to build up and clog the outlet of the tank. Toilet paper and human waste form a dam at the outlet of the tank and prevent if from easily dumping. We have found over the years that anytime there are solids in the bowl, you should fill the bowl 2/3 full of water before flushing. This will provide enough water to really help with later dumping.

2. The wrong TP. When connected to shore utilities, the TP you use doen't make much of a difference. If it doesn't dissolve, it can usually be rinsed out with the black tank flush. But when you don't have water for the black tank flush, the right TP makes a huge difference. When dry camping, you should use a toilet paper designed for RVs. This type of TP will dissolve in water and is easily dumped from the holding tank. If you want to test your store bought paper, put it in some water and see if it dissolves. If not, you should switch brands. I'm attaching a video that was posted by "Wandering Weekends" that shows some TP testing they performed.

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

Jim

[boyscout]

1. I have a dump problem sometimes, where I am unable to dump after a week or two of camping. The last time I was here in California at a Thousand Trails in Oregon House for about 3 weeks. I did have the Honey Wagon come out and pump have way through the trip. Upon leaving, I was unable to get a drop out at the dumpsite. I have brought this up to our only service center in the past, it is the only one in the area in the area and they said I needed to change the additive from the little packets to a liquid, I did and still no go. Any Thoughts?

This could be

1. There is an accumulation of solids impeding the outlet in the tank, or its post-valve plumbing.

This accumulation-of-solids problem is more common when owners (a) don't put five gallons or so of water in the tank after dumping it, (b) frequently dump when there's not much sewage in the tank (dumping a full tank is best), (c) don't use lots of water when flushing, (d) leave the dump valve open while parked and connected to a sewer so that water from toilet flushes immediately drains from the tank (usually leaving solids behind), (e) don't rinse enough with the black flush when dumping, and (f) never perform any maintenance on the tank.

The latter is often accomplished by ensuring that the tank is roughly half full, adding soap and water softener (google "GEO method" for information) or a liquid plumbing solution, and going for a good drive with lots of turns to thoroughly slosh the contents of the tank around before dumping it. This might be a remedy for your current problem too.

Sometimes a device like the one at the following link can help by forcing water backwards up the dump path and into the tank. It's important to be cautious about overfilling the tank though.

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-Trai...s%2C159&sr=8-1

Some people have found that a device like the following is useful for breaking up stuff in the tank.

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Flexibl...9714932&sr=8-4

Finally, on our trailer I've learned that if I'm not extra-careful to flush it and empty it, waste including solids can remain in the post-valve plumbing, probably in the manifold where the outlets from all three waste tanks are connected. I'd guess that over time solids accumulating there could also become an impedance to dumping and anything that slows the out-rush of water from the tank increases the chance of solids being left in it.

2. The valve control cable has detached from the valve gate. If the operation cables seem to have normal resistance it might be necessary to drop some of the black plastic chloroplast bottom of the trailer to ensure that the valve gates are moving when their handles are operated.

3. Occasionally - not often - a disk of tank material that was cut out to insert a pipe in the tank and was left in the tank lodges in its outlet. The back-flush device above might help with this.

2. I would like to install a Hughs 50 amp protector in my garage to keep it safe and dry. I was told it was no big deal, just attach it to the transfer switch and your good to go. I am lost with not knowing where to find it. Has anyone encountered this with their rig?

Most devices of that kind work just fine plugged into the power source with the trailer's power cord attached to it and to the trailer in the usual way. Is something about the Hughes device different that it needs to be on the other side of the transfer switch?

EDIT: I took too long to write, several replies since I started this!

[Tom Goudie]

Thank you for so much great information. It appears I might fall into several of the reasons why it is happening to me off and on. I will utilize some your suggestions for sure. Again can't thank you enough for taking the time to reach out to m. Maybe it will help others as well to follow some of your suggestions so it will not happen to them.
Tom

[Tom Goudie]

Thanks, Jim for the reply as well. So much good information is coming my way. This may be the best thing I did by joining this group.

[lobsters]

Tom - this is a very common problem for those of us who can't dump on a frequent basis. I do a lot of dry camping, and it may be 10-14 days between dumping the black tank. There are two primary causes for low flow from the black tank.

1. Not enough water being used when flushing. When dry camping, there is a desire to minimize the amount of water used on each flush. When you don't use a lot of water, it prevents the black tank from filling too fast, and conserves water. Unfortunately, this also causes solids to build up and clog the outlet of the tank. Toilet paper and human waste form a dam at the outlet of the tank and prevent if from easily dumping. We have found over the years that anytime there are solids in the bowl, you should fill the bowl 2/3 full of water before flushing. This will provide enough water to really help with later dumping.

<deleted>

Jim

We dry camp all winter. I seem to have an allergy to putting clean water in the toilet just to make sure there is enough liquid in the tank to ensure there is no "pyramid". We wash and rinse all of our dishes into dish pans. When full, I take this used / dirty water, and empty the dish pan into the toilet. Kill two birds with one stone... errr... gallon, so to speak. For the two of us, this means we need to dump about every 8 - 9 days. We wait for the tank to be full, judging by sound. The sound of a flush changes when the tank approaches full. In our rig, it becomes a sort of hollow-sounding "thud".

FWIW,
-Al

[TucsonJim]

We dry camp all winter. I seem to have an allergy to putting clean water in the toilet just to make sure there is enough liquid in the tank to ensure there is no "pyramid". We wash and rinse all of our dishes into dish pans. When full, I take this used / dirty water, and empty the dish pan into the toilet. Kill two birds with one stone... errr... gallon, so to speak. For the two of us, this means we need to dump about every 8 - 9 days. We wait for the tank to be full, judging by sound. The sound of a flush changes when the tank approaches full. In our rig, it becomes a sort of hollow-sounding "thud".

FWIW,
-Al

Yep - We just did 14 days of dry camping in Quartzsite Arizona and used our dirty dishwater for flushing. We made it the whole 14 days without dumping or refilling the water tanks. But I will admit that there was a very well watered tree next to camp .