sewer garden hose hookup

[jsweeney]

Please help me here. I have a 831bhss camper and I bought it as a repo and it had the black tank full along with partially the others. Today I took it to a dump station at a campground around my town and emptied the galley, waste water and black tanks and noticed theres a sewer garden hose hookup with the city water hookup. Can anyone tell me how this works cause I plugged it up and it didnt fill much at all and tried forcing the water back out garden hose so I unplugged and done it the way I knew as to feed my hose through the window and toilet as I drained it and when I got home and filled my fresh water tank for the first time and check for leaks I heard a water leak in the pump section and ucover the door to it to find my water filter housing busted and wondering if me doin this busted it. Please give any advice you have on this as Im a new beggining camper owner and open ears. thank you for all advice.

[jsweeney]

also I want to add the black water shows still full some of the times and I know its empty

[TURBS]

You can rely on the factory probes in your tank to give you accurate tank levels.
Post a pic of the connection your speaking of.
Its a good chance that the filter canister was not winterized and broke.

[Rod Johnson]

You might have something stuck on the probes. After I drain my waste tanks, I fill them back up with soapy water and bleach or whatever other tank treatment products I have around.

But I dump here at the house.

[jsweeney]

thank you all so much. When you say stuck on the probes where do I look at this. Are you all saying i didnt try pressurising this 2 much and bust this canister myself. Like I said Im a begginer at this camping and really trying to learn. Im a mechanic on cars at my dads garage and this is a new ball game for me and my wife.

[jsweeney]

also when i push on the valve on the inside of the city water valve should it at like it was under pressure and spit water back at me like its getting relieved

[TURBS]

Your city connection has a check valve .
When you pushed on it you opened and the system was under pressure

[Rod Johnson]

The probes are in the side of the tank, under the trailer. I don't think you'll be able to get to them, as the 'stuff' on them is probably some toilet paper on the inside.

You can fill the tank up part way and drive around to slosh the water and clean it off.

Do a search for black water tank recipes, there are a bunch of different things people put down the toilet to help keep it clean.

[jsweeney]

ok thank you so much so your saying this was normal. Thats one thing along with the water spitting back out the garden hose i hooked up that made me think i busted the canister myself

[jsweeney]

thank you all so much for helping me out. I wanna learn all about all these things and the only way is getting experience and asking you all with experience.

[TURBS]

Read on this section it might help to
Forest River FAQs - Forest River Forums

[jsweeney]

which segment did i need to go to after opening this page. My manual I tried reading througgh it on things i wanted to learn about and it shows hardly anything if at all on anything I wanna learn about. this manual seems almost useless that came with the camper

[TURBS]

Yes manual is useless its very generic.
Your better off going to the actual products site and read item specific manuals.
Such as for the fridge if its a dometic go to dometic web site.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by jsweeney

which segment did i need to go to after opening this page. My manual I tried reading througgh it on things i wanted to learn about and it shows hardly anything if at all on anything I wanna learn about. this manual seems almost useless that came with the camper

Any of those segments may be helpful to you in general for learning more about your camper.

[jsweeney]

Thank you I will try that. zThank you for helping me out

[TURBS]

No problem!

[jimh]

the water filter could have burst during cold weather if left with water in it. if urs didn't leak when u first pressured it up, that may not have been what did it.

if u can post a picture of the water connections, it would help. the manuel that came with my trailer didn't have enough detail in it for me.

on my trailer, the city water fill and fresh water holding tank fill are next to each other. the city water fill has a screw on cap on it. a hose will go into it but u can't screw one onto it. u will also see a small vent near the fresh water fill. if this is plugged, the tank won't fill (if there is water in a loop in the vent, it won't fill).

the one (on mine) with a hose connection with sewer marked on it is a black water flush (it blows water on the level probes). this line has a loop on the inside with a back flow preventer on it (usually out of site). you open the black water drain when u use this. it may not seem like anything is going in but u will see water coming out the drain. when u disconnect, u may see water come back but this is not from the black tank. the pressure is bleeding off between the hose connection and the back flow presenter. it also drains to the inside to the black tank.

these may not be the lines ur talking abt. i got into one of these discussions with someone with a motor home and it turned out their sewer flush line and the city water connection were next to each other.

[jsweeney]

thank you all for the help youve given me and here is a couple pics of the hookup and the water pur canister that busted. let me know how to use the hookup. do I need to have the pump on to use the hookup

[jimh]

it's what it reads...definitely a sewer flush. if u could see the other side the line would probably make a vertical loop with a check at the top of the loop. when u hook a hose to it, it opens the check and sparys water in ur black tank and on the level probes. when u shut off the water and disconnect, water will come back but it is from the loop. the check (actually a back flow prevented) stops the black water from coming back but it will give the illusion that it is.

as stated on the label, the black dump valve should be open.

i believe mine has a check and a vent. when u apply pressure the check opens and closes off the vent. the vent is on the pressure side. when u remove the pressure, the loop drains. the vent prevents it from syponing. the pressure u see is in the line. the black tank is vented so the pressure doesn't come from there.

i believe ur canister froze. if u had built enough pressure with a water hose, i believe something else would have given. that would be my opinion. it would be better to replace the canister but u may try getting some jv weld and see if it will hold...assuming u can find the piece that broke off.

(most people are going to use the term check valve and back flow preventer interchangeably...including me... the backflow preventer is more of a two stage device...a check and a vent or another check)

when u hook up a hose to the sewer flush, use a seperate dedicated hose (not ur drinking water hose). to make it look good, put a check valve in that line or someone may see it and get upset. we don't live in a perfect world so with a couple failures, u could get contaminated water back.

[Rod Johnson]

Originally Posted by jimh

when u hook up a hose to the sewer flush, use a seperate dedicated hose (not ur drinking water hose). to make it look good, put a check valve in that line or someone may see it and get upset. we don't live in a perfect world so with a couple failures, u could get contaminated water back.

Great post. I wanted to make sure that was noted, you beat me to it.

I've never seen a filter housing break like that when it froze... Not that it couldn't, I've always seen them crack down in the filter part, not the threads.

It couldn't have been over tightened, or cross threaded. Regardless, its broken now.

Depending on what material its made from, I'd use a solvent based glue, like PVC or ABS pipe glue. But I have a feeling it just needs to be replaced. The OP might get lucky and find a similar filter housing and be able to just pirate the cup instead of having to change the whole filter out.