Difficult waste tank valves

[Dayle1]

Well after 5 yrs use, the cable valves have become way too difficult to operate. It takes all the strength I have to open them. I tried mineral oil on the seals and spray lube on the cables, neither made any difference. So, I dropped the underbelly and disassembled the valves. What did I learn? The problem is not the cable being tight, twisted, or crimped. In fact once the black tank valve was clean and hanging loose it was an ez two finger operation.

The problem was solid waste, soap, etc that builds up inside the valve body behind the gate valve. This is what made it very difficult to open the valve with less impact on closing the valve. The issue is how Crossroads and probably other manufacturers install cable operated valves. In an ideal world, the valve body and valve stem would be vertical so that gravity and constant operation would keep solid waste from building up around the valve. Worst case installation would be with the valve body down. But neither of these are practical options. Horizontal is practical but not much better than straight down. But Crossroads does even worse than horizontal, they install the valves rotated about 30 degrees down from horizontal. While this makes it ez to route the cable under the tanks, cross members, etc., it is guaranteed to leave solid waste building up behind the gate valve with no way for it to drain or be flushed out. With a little more effort, the valves could have been installed at least 30 degrees above horizontal. Making the change now would be more difficult.