Holding Tanks

Sunseeker06 · 09-25-2006, 10:48 AM

My husband and I went out camping this weekend with our new Sunseeker.

This is the first RV we've had with a galley holding tank in addition to the black and grey. We were told the kitchen sink water goes to the galley holding tank. Here's what we ran into this weekend:

At the control panel at the beginning of the trip, eveything showed empty. Used the kitchen sink a few times to wash our hands, etc. Did not wash any dishes.

Saturday morning, DH and I both take showers. The galley tank shows full, the grey tank shows empty. We drain some water out of the galley tank onto the ground. I ran some water in the kitchen sink to see what would show up. The grey tank finally showed 1/3 full.

So, I'm assuming the tanks or lines are mixed up. Has anyone had this problem before? What a pain in the neck.....

Bear · 09-25-2006, 11:28 AM

We are having the same issue with our toy hauler. I will be discussing the issue with my dealer this week and let you know what happens.
Cheers
Bear

Sunseeker06 · 09-25-2006, 03:27 PM

OK, so the dealer says that we are to pull the lever for the galley holding tank and it will drain into the grey tank. Why the extra tank (galley) is not clear to me. I guess it's considered an extra holding tank in the event the grey fills up.

Bear · 09-25-2006, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunseeker06

OK, so the dealer says that we are to pull the lever for the galley holding tank and it will drain into the grey tank. Why the extra tank (galley) is not clear to me. I guess it's considered an extra holding tank in the event the grey fills up.

Sounds like a load of crap to me. I talked to my dealer about it and he said that isen't right (he is a friend of mine, we go camping together all the time). He is going to tear the under belly out and have a look. I will keep you posted.
Cheers
Bear

Hokiehall · 09-25-2006, 08:40 PM

I have a separate galley tank and it has its own dump valve. I attach the sewer hose to it and it dumps. It does not go to the gray tank or anywhere else but the sewer. Is it possible that the sensors are switched on the display panel so you are reading the galley tank but it is the gray tank that is actually full?

The galley tank is on mine because it was not feasible to run drain lines from the rear kitchen to the gray tank which is in the middle of the trailer.

flagstaff · 09-26-2006, 06:40 AM

I'm set up like Hokie. My front tank is only for the galley and is not connected to the rest of the system. The sesors in these things are pretty touchy and a little soap suds or something on the sides of the tank can give you false readings also. But as Hokie said you may want to have the sensor wires checked.

Sunseeker06 · 09-26-2006, 07:28 AM

Well, my DH and I will be out again this weekend in the RV and I am going to see if the galley tank will drain into the gray tank if we pull the lever. We do not, however, have to attach the drain hose to the galley tank to drain it -- it does go out through the main shoot.

The shower is definitely draining into the galley tank, which doesn't hold a whole lot. Two showers and it was full.

This is our first Forest River product and although this is the only issue we've had so far, it's irritating. I may call another Forest River dealer and ask this question to see what kind of answer I get.

Sunseeker06 · 10-03-2006, 12:04 PM

UPDATE:

Well, we tried pulling the lever on the galley holding tank to see if it would drain into the grey tank, like the dealer told us and no, it did not. The water just sat in the drain pipe and came barreling out at my DH went he opened it up at the dump station.

I have found another FRiver dealer in my area and am going to call to see if the shower should indeed be draining into the galley tank. It just doesn't make sense to me that it's draining into the galley tank. We end up with almost nothing in the grey tank at the end of the weekend. Since that's the larger of the tanks, you would think the shower would empty into that and the kitchen sink would drain into the galley.

1 ROK WUD · 10-03-2006, 09:49 PM

Sunseeker, do you have two separate sewer connectors on the outside of the camper, one before the axles and one after? If so, the forward connector should be galley only and the rear connector is a combo for the grey and black water tanks. If so, I would also suspect your control panel is wired incorrectly.

Sunseeker06 · 10-04-2006, 07:40 AM

No, we don't have two separate sewer connectors - just the one. We have three levers to pull - one for the black, one for the grey, one for the galley.

The galley holding tank sensor is fine - the water starts backing up in the shower for whomever is taking the 3rd shower of the trip. This tells me that the galley holding tank is about 15 gallons, which isn't much. The sensor at the control panel shows full also.

I still think that the pipes are connected wrong - the water from the shower should be going into the grey tank - NOT the galley.

Anyone else care to share their thoughts on this?

Hokiehall · 10-04-2006, 11:58 AM

I looked at the floorplan of your unit on the FR website and it would appear that the shower should dump into the grey tank and the kitchen and bathroom sinks into the galley tank. The easiest way to test where the shower dumps is to open your galley tank and run water into the shower to see if indeed it is coming out of that tank. Do the same procedure with the two sinks, one at a time, to determine which tank they are connected to. At this point you can then tell your dealer what is happening and have it rectified.

You can do this at home with fresh water and not need to be connected to a sewer line.

Sunseeker06 · 10-05-2006, 10:17 AM

Another Update: Here's what the folks at Forest River had to say about the holding tanks on our Sunseeker:

The galley tank does hold the shower water and that it is plumbed correctly – it is 20 gallons. The grey tank holds the sink water (bathroom and kitchen) and is 27 gallons.

Their brochure shows that the grey is 47 gallons, so what they did was add the 20 and 27 together.

I would love for these to be reversed,but am not sure if that can happen or not. We've got a local RV tech in our area that is willing to look at it, so we may see what he can do.

I am surprised that it's taken several phone calls to the dealer and then to Forest River to get this simple question answered. This is our first FR product and I'm hoping not all of our issues will be handled like this.

Hokiehall · 10-05-2006, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunseeker06

Another Update: Here's what the folks at Forest River had to say about the holding tanks on our Sunseeker:

The galley tank does hold the shower water and that it is plumbed correctly – it is 20 gallons. The grey tank holds the sink water (bathroom and kitchen) and is 27 gallons.

Their brochure shows that the grey is 47 gallons, so what they did was add the 20 and 27 together.

I would love for these to be reversed,but am not sure if that can happen or not. We've got a local RV tech in our area that is willing to look at it, so we may see what he can do.

I am surprised that it's taken several phone calls to the dealer and then to Forest River to get this simple question answered. This is our first FR product and I'm hoping not all of our issues will be handled like this.

What genius came up with that scenerio. Any dolt knows a shower will take a heck of a lot more water than the kitchen/bathroom sinks. Hopefully you can get it reversed. Both of my holding tanks will hold 25 gallons and it is a stretch for more than 3 showers unless we do it the "Navy" way.

Sunseeker06 · 10-05-2006, 03:03 PM

What genius came up with that scenerio. Any dolt knows a shower will take a heck of a lot more water than the kitchen/bathroom sinks.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ahhhhh....just what I said to the tech at the RV dealership.

Of course, he told me he just services them, he doesn't build them.

welshman599 · 10-18-2006, 08:00 PM

My father-in-law has a Salem LE model with a galley tank and it does drain into the grey water, same set-up as yours. His grey holding is 40 gallens though. One benefit of the separate galley tank and valve is that it stays separated from the other grey water tank and there are fewer odors as a result. But the trick is to keep the knife valve between the two tanks closed. That should also separate the water systems - sink into the galley and shower into the grey. When draining, open the gate valve to drain the grey water first, and when it is empty open the valve to drain the galley. Once the galley tank is empty, close the valve between them again and then close the main gate valve.

welshman599 · 10-18-2006, 08:06 PM

Whoa, I just read you note about the FR explanation. Well, that makes no sence at all. Again, father-in-laws has the same tanks and (I think) his tanks serve the logical drains - sink to galley and shower/br sink to main grey.

woodiel · 02-17-2008, 05:47 PM

I'm having the same problem and this is the first time I have used since I purchased it new last fall.

Today, I de-winterized my SS3100 and noticed the galley tank filling when I ran the kitchen sink and verified it on the tank indicator. I then turned on the shower expecting the gray tank to start to increase but instead the galley filled to capacity. I think the bathroom sink emptied into the gray but it was very slow coming out of the faucet. I'm going to work with it again in the morning to see what is filling up.

Update...galley is serviced by the shower and the kit sink...the bathroom has it's own tank...took water hose and filled tanks through the drains i.e. shower, galley, lavatory.....system doesn't make sense to me but I will be contacting manufacture and dealer.

Woody 01 · 02-17-2008, 09:14 PM

Sounds like yours was plumbed on Monday morning or Friday after noon.

tomhole · 02-18-2008, 01:12 PM

I have a galley and gray tank on my 2701SS. They both run to a single dump valve that then runds to a common 3" outlet with the black tank (black tank has its own valve as well). But the galley and gray tank drains Y together before the gray tank dump valve. This allows one tank to fill up the other tank making the two 25 gal tanks into one large 50 gal tank. I like this setup.

If you were to re-plumb your tanks in this fashion, you could have one 47 gal gray tank that serviced all drains.

Tom

wildwood · 02-18-2008, 01:58 PM

This discussion stirs my imagination. just got a new FR Wildwood LE 29BHBS with two gray and one black tanks. It has two valved gray lines with slide valves connected into a Y connections into the valved black waterline and they all go to one common outlet sewer connection.

My kitchen is near the front next to bedroom, and the bath is in the rear. It is my understanding that the kitchen goes to one gray tank, and the shower/sink go to second gray. After hearing all this discussion, it will be interesting to learn about how the piping is setup. The FR brochure says it has 66 gallons of gray water capacity, at this point i dont know how it is distributed. Life is a learning experience isnt it. It is good to talk through things you on FRF

Does FR supply any type of drain piping drawings to explain this type of info

Have a good day

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