FR3 - Its good for me -TO POOP ON!

[repsolgamma]

OK, everyone settle down it's just my sick sense of humor for what is undoubtedly a common issue for FR3 owners.

It finally happened, at about 11,500 miles something gave my low hanging sewer pipe a big shove to the rear, pointing it straight backwards!

I am not amused.

So I have now taken it all apart, cleaned up some of the mess, while other messes await me in my attempt for repairs.

It looks like the only damage so far was The 1 1/2 dump valve housing cracked, and of course the split pipe in the middle was ripped out of both sides, the gray and the black water valves.

The black dump valve is now weeping a little bit, which is worrisome but I do not see any damage to the housing.

I should have seen this coming from 100 miles away, and modified my drain pipe long ago.

The question now is, what should I do and how should I repair it? If anyone has done this before me, please share me your insights. To those that have not considered what can happen, let Ye be warned!

[Combatcoal]

i hate to say this but.............pictures please.....😲

[ScottBrownstein]

Yes...exactly the same thing happened to me! Something hit the waste pipe and turned it towards the exhaust. At the same time I was on the road and had a 1/3 full holding tank and grey water tank. Broke the output flanges on both wafer valves. I called the factory and warned them about this.

I replaced both wafer valves (fortunately the tank side flanges were still intact), the waste ell, and all of the downstream fittings. The factory sent me all the parts. HOWEVER, rather than cementing the waste ell to the lower pipe elbow that goes to the outlet adaptor I used a 3" rubber pipe joint. It fits in the waste compartment, but should something hit the pipe again it will merely rotate and break nothing!

I informed the factory of this change and told them that for an additional $2.00 and no changes to the pipes and fittings they could fix this. I do not know what they did. As far as you are concerned, it is an easy fix the parts are stock 3" abs pipe and fittings and the waste ell.

Let me know what's broken. By the way, the wafer valves will leak without the pressure from the gaskets on the output side. My output flange broke right off both valves, but they come with the new waste ell, the cemented flanges on the upstream side of the wafers were both fine. The factory sent me some extra parts, let me know what you need as I might have them.

Picture of the finished fix is attached.

[ScottBrownstein]

Unfortunately the biggest problem is that you have to dump both tanks first since you have to replace the bolts in the valves that go to the new flanges on the waste ell. No way around that. You can't fix the broken flanges and the new flanges come already assembled on the new waste ell. My solution was rags wrapped around the pipe and broken flanges...and a lot of water and bleach to clean up afterward.

Once that is done, the whole fix takes less than 1/2 hour, as long as you have the parts.

[repsolgamma]

Thanks for the picture of your repair, the rubber joint is a brilliant solution to keeping the outlet in the same location just behind the wheels.

The flange on my grey tank output is cracked before the slide valve and ell. That means I will have to remove the entire 1 1/2 ABS parts into the bottom of my grey tank, and re-glue the 3 inch tank pipe, something I hope will seal.

The grey tank sealant is a light gray and does not look like ABS cement, so I need to find a tube of flexible sealant like the factory used.

Anyone know what the tank to ABS sealant is?

Thinking now is a good time for a 12V macerator install, and maybe a pair of electric valves.

Not interested in another drain pipe pointing backward any time soon!

[ScottBrownstein]

I would call the factory. You can't solvent weld ABS to the tank material. Some have used Oatey pipe sealant, but that will not hold a new flange to the grey tank and is used to seal the ABS pipe into a deep flange.

[repsolgamma]

May have to replace the entire grey tank, not a happy thought............