Holding tank repairs.....

[Miniozzy3]

So I have/had 2 leaking holding tanks when full.
I have extended warranty through a 3rd party so it would be all covered.
However I was wondering how it could be taking so long to perform the few simple repairs that were needed.
After 4 months and nothing being done at the repair facility. I contacted the warranty company. They said they were having trouble granting the quote for repair. Just extreme charges we included, like 300.00 for belly tape. Then adding shop supplies on top. All in all the quote came out to 2,836.00 to remove 2 tanks and replace a water heater check valve.

I laughed and explained I and a HD mechanic and have my own company. Even doing the repairs for the first time. I would beat that estimate. I have been granted the pleasure to doing the repairs myself and getting paid to do it.

I did the black tank in under 4 hours. Turned out it was just a loose fitting at the top of the tank from factory.

However what I found with the grey tank. Was just baffling... ( here are some pics).

You can see they used those silly roto fittings. Just don't... Pay to get proper fitting spun welded to tank. Its just worth it. Then they added glue and epoxy to try and seal the leaks from above floor.. All that succeeded in doing was gluing tank to underside of floor. Then if you notice they glued in reducer to drop the size of the 3" to 1.5". but its offset and what's worse its offset to top!

I had 11 gallons of grey water frozen in tank when I put it in shop. It added 5 hours to removal of tank being glued and almost 1/3 full of some of the most rotten smelling stuff I have ever encountered.
Tomorrow I will clean the 2 fitting off the top and see if I can chip or cut out the reducer crap.

BTW we purchased this RV from a personal friend who owns the dealership. And they did the repair the first time for the previous owner. Guess what? It was not disclosed to us. Even when we asked if there was any repair work done previously.

Lesson learned, Don't even trust, not for a second. Any RV dealer out there.

I will post pictures of the tank once the new fittings are spin welded on and I had that darn reducer out of the mix.

[Aceallenk]

At the end of the day, the greatest benefit of this whole process is, ''knowing it's fixed, properly.'' Plus I'm sure it'll be safe to say you'll find a few other little factory bloopers that'll get cleaned up, and corrected better than factory along the way. I know from experience it don't matter what wall I get behind or under, be it running a wire or whatever, there's always something that needs cleaning sawdust, reattaching, or something corrected. Thankfully those corners are starting to become few and far between on our trailer, lol...but it's easy to say ''it's better than new.''

[Papa-T]

Wow what a mess. Glad you got paid to fix it and it’s done right.

[dagst1]

Looks like you have quite a job there. Let it know how it goes.

[Miniozzy3]

Well time to brave the -25 ish weather to get tank fittings. I love winter in Saskatchewan. I guess that’s -13F for the American friends.

And yes I’m finding a whole lot of questionable factory flaws. Like 1/2 the self taping bolts only installed that hold tanks. I’m amazed they let these trailers down the road.

[Miniozzy3]

So guess what! I forgot to take pictures of the tank repairs. But it went awesome! Did a little research and found fittings that glue into tank (ABS).
And use a ground up ABS plastic mixed with acetone to glue a proper fitting into tank.

I figured out why the RV dealership had the 3 to 1.5reducer/offset upside down. During reinstallation of the original tank problem. They accidentally installed the tank brace 180 deg wrong (causes tank to be to low!). So fittings wouldn't line up.

I'm currently waiting on a tool to arrive from amazon that will cut out the remaining portion of that upside down reducer. it cost a bit of money but I will save the outlet on the grey tank and allow me to glue in another fitting.

For anyone having to do ABS plumbing these "reamers" would save a pile of parts. I know they are cheap, but replacing a tank is not what I want to do.
I did order the 5.00 replacement fitting just incase. But I want to stop disturbing possible leak points somewhere.

[43tutor]

I went through that last year on our 5th wheel. All 3 tanks on our trailer had similar problems. It appears our fittings broke due to stress / vibration. I repaired the fitting on the tanks but installed a flexible rubber coupling on the inlet pipe leading in the tanks. Hopefully the rubber will absorb some of the road vibration.

Glad you got it fixed.

[mark5w]

Originally Posted by 43tutor

I went through that last year on our 5th wheel. All 3 tanks on our trailer had similar problems. It appears our fittings broke due to stress / vibration. I repaired the fitting on the tanks but installed a flexible rubber coupling on the inlet pipe leading in the tanks. Hopefully the rubber will absorb some of the road vibration.

Glad you got it fixed.

That's sounds like it's a good idea.

[Tonyg2724]

Thanks for sharing the problems and the fixes. If you don’t have them already, now would be a good time to add tank heaters and extra underbelly insulation.
Nice work.

[Miniozzy3]

All done and no leaks. Ummm have to post pics from home

[Miniozzy3]

Bought a 3" reamer to clean the remainder of the old pipe out of the tank.
Glued all new pip and 3" valve in for grey tank. No more slow drain of grey water.