Dump valves sticking

[Lahooie]

Hi. When we pull the black and grey handles, it appears the rubber valves seem to be hardening? and sticky. We have lubricated the rods with grease but that isn't helping, it seems to be the rubber valve seals. I asked this recently and received one suggestion of pouring coconut oil or vegetable oil down the toilet, bath sink or tub and let it sit then drain? Is this the best solution or is there a diagram for valves so we can take apart and lubricate? Should I contact Grand Design technical support on this?

[Cate&Rob]

Lahooie

Welcome to our owners technical forum. When you have a chance, have a look at our welcome post. https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members . This will help you set up your signature and navigate the forum.

I am not familiar with the gate valve configuration in you picture. Please provide more information on the Grand Design model that you have.

As you have discovered, lubricating the pull cable seldom solves a sticking gate valve. There have been many discussions on this forum on this topic. If you use the search tool in the upper right corner on "gate valves" you will discover a wealth of background information and perspectives on the success of putting lubricants into the tanks to free up the gate valves.

Rob

[TedS]

It is probably a Bristol gate valve with excess cable poorly routed and causing a lot of drag on the cable. If that is the case, the cable could be rerouted to take out sharp bends to ease the cable movement. I would not put a lubricant into the tank, it will coat the walls.

[JBill9694]

I agree with TedS that checking the cable routing is worth the effort. Might even want to consider longer cables to ease the bends, pretty sure at least one cable will have 180 degree bend in it.

It looks like all three handles are exposed to road spray from the TV or trailer tires, which is not good. Moisture and grit in what I'll term the scabbard, the portion of the assembly that the 1/4" shaft fits into, will make operation difficult and will eventually freeze the shaft in place. There are threads on trying to get lubrication into the scabbard but IMHO unless you can pull the shaft out far enough to get good access (this would entail disconnecting the wire from the drain valve at the other end of the cable from the drain valve, it is pretty much a waste of time. Something I'm planning on doing to my own cables in the next day or two is install 1/4" rubber washers on the shafts between the T-handle and the scabbard so that I can reduce the chance of water and grit getting into the scabbard. For Lahooie this would be pretty simple as all three handles are held in place with retaining screws. For me, two of the cables are replacements with the T-handles on swivels about pins that I need to find a replacement for.

[Lahooie]

Lahooie

Welcome to our owners technical forum. When you have a chance, have a look at our welcome post. https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members . This will help you set up your signature and navigate the forum.

I am not familiar with the gate valve configuration in you picture. Please provide more information on the Grand Design model that you have.

As you have discovered, lubricating the pull cable seldom solves a sticking gate valve. There have been many discussions on this forum on this topic. If you use the search tool in the upper right corner on "gate valves" you will discover a wealth of background information and perspectives on the success of putting lubricants into the tanks to free up the gate valves.

Rob

Hello Rob and thank you for your reply and suggestions. I did go in after reading your post and set up my signature. I apologize for not listing our specific trailer info. Its a 2020 315RLTS.
In all fairness, I did a thorough search prior to posting. I used valves sticking, black grey valves sticking, dump valves sticking, etc. and only one post showed which is the one that suggested vegetable oil which is why I was clarifying if this is a good idea. I just tried Gate Valves per your suggestion and once again only that one same post showed (other than the one I posted yesterday). Maybe I'm not doing the search properly? Anyway thank you for your reply.
Linda

[Cate&Rob]

Lahooie
Hi Linda,

Try this . . . in the search tool, go down to “Advanced Search”. Enter “Gate Valves” in the Key Words section and “Cate&Rob” in the Members section. Then the Search Now tab. This should give you a long list of related threads. If it doesn’t . . . let me know.

Rob

[Dennis66]

I had same issue finally talked dealer into dropping the lower section and low and behold they found the black tank cable was to short and what was happing was pulling on a angle making it difficult to close they replaced the 6' cable with an 8' cable much better now.