Outside kitchen gray water tank on 2018 8328bs

[w021095]

Has anyone had any problems with the outside kitchen sink not draining into the gray water tank? Purchased the camper last spring (2017) no longer under warranty, so it looks like I will be fixing it. Before I remove the under belly panel, I was hoping that someone would know how the plumbing is configured from the sink to the gray water tank, (the outside sink is on the slide out, drain line leading from the sink to the tank is louse but still connected to something)
Thanks

[Kaadk]

Not familiar with it, but is it not draining at all, or is it draining, just not the to grey tank? Do you have only 1 grey, or do you have a grey and a galley?

[w021095]

The 8328s have three gray water tanks , when water is put into the outside kitchen sink, the water runs out the vents on the under belly enclosure. I'm guessing that its not hooked up or became unhooked and Im looking for information on how it plumbed before I take off the under belly enclosure. I have called Forest River and left a message and emailed them with no response, Camping World where it was purchased will look at it for a fee, because it is no longer under warranty. ( Over the years we have purchased three new Forest River Products, the other two were problem free, this one not so)

[Kimber45]

im not positive but I thought I saw a thread where a out door kitchen sink just drained on the ground under the unit and didn't go to a tank? has it always been that way or a new problem?

[timfromma]

I don't have your camper but I have an outside sink and it drains into the black tank.


Try emptying the black, leave the valve open and turn on the outside kitchen sink to see if water comes out.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by timfromma

I don't have your camper but I have an outside sink and it drains into the black tank.


Try emptying the black, leave the valve open and turn on the outside kitchen sink to see if water comes out.

He mentioned in Post #3 that it's coming out the underbelly. In that case, I assume he's going to have to drop the underbelly to find the source of the leak.

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

I would assume that it's on the slide out that it has some kind of flex hose on drain for sink. Mine, not on a slide out has its own tank and the plumbing for it is less than a foot long after p trap.

Not under warranty, I would drop belly covering but would not be surprised if you can't see anything but bottom of tank. How hard would it be to pull sink? That way you can see what you need to do and which way to go.

[ADK]

Our 8328bs has the same problem, thought it was the water tank until I filled it and no drips. Tried to get a picture but not that easy. Looks like a clear flexible hose connects from the drain line into the top of the tank, if you can expand the pic you may be able to see it.

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

Originally Posted by ADK

Our 8328bs has the same problem, thought it was the water tank until I filled it and no drips. Tried to get a picture but not that easy. Looks like a clear flexible hose connects from the drain line into the top of the tank, if you can expand the pic you may be able to see it.

That's what I was afraid of. Hose clamp came off or loose on flex hose where it attaches to tank. Can it be reached from sink access if slide in? Or is tank going to have to be dropped, hose attached, fed back toward sink and attach there?

[ADK]

It looks like we would need to cut the underbelly behind the tank and could repair it without pulling the tank. You can also see the remains of the bird nest that built in there earlier this year, I cut a piece of cardboard and taped it around the pipe to keep them out.

[OldJarHead]

Following. Have same camper.

[jimmoore13]

I'm in a different league with a PUP, BUT....if you have a drain leak...

It's possible (likely) that the drain plumbing for the sinks is all 1 1/2" ABS/PVC...black pipe. This is not well suited to the arduous duty of an RV, because the frame flexes a lot, and it forces the plumbing to flex with it. As a result, mine cracked at the worst possible place...a "t" that joined the kitchen sink with the outside sink. Doh!!

The best fix is a simple one. "Fernco" rubber fittings. With some conventional ABS/PVC couplings and a short length of straight pipe (to make up for lost pipe that had to be cut out along with the broken "t"), and with a Fernco "T" and a Fernco coupling (rubber with hose clamps), I repaired the drain plumbing in a way that accommodates the flex...one an done. These are readily available at Home Depot and other home supply and hardware stores.

Now, if you have a blockage in your outside sink "flex" drain, investigate why that might be. The flex bends and develops an elbow when the sink is stowed (mine, at least, slides in an out). If the elbow becomes extreme, you might have a slow drain...even when the sink is extended. One thing I do when I put my camper away for a week or so is: a) open the gray tank dump; b) insert a garden hose into the outdoor sink drain; c) run the hose wide open for a few minutes. This "pressure" washes the flex drain, and it flushes any residue out of the gray tank. This "keeps my pipes happy."

One more tip. The black ABS/PVC drain pipe is a bad choice for other reasons. Under the sink, I was having problems with the drain pipes rattling apart. I do lots of off-road travel in rough terrain, and I found my pipes had come apart by watching water come out from under the kitchen sink cabinet. No fun!! So I got pretty aggressive tightening all those drain joints, then I added a couple wraps of Gorilla tape to make sure they stayed put. No more problems.

P.S. Ferncos are great for in home plumbing repairs and/or alterations to drain lines during remodeling. Most drain plumbing in a home is immovable. But you can slide a Fernco onto an exact fit pipe, put the pipe in place, slide the Fernco to split the difference, and tighten the hose clamps. Easy as pie. And, in virtually all cases, they meet code. They are the drain equivalents of shark bite copper fittings....a homeowner's dream come true.

[ADK]

Here are a few pics I took with my cheap endoscope camera. The hose screws on the end of the drain pipe coming from the kitchen sink and turns 180 degrees and screws on a male thread on top of the tank. It is three feet from inside the frame so reaching it in any fashion is impossible without going from the belly up. Three places to leak,where it is screwed on both ends or the hose itself could have a hole in it. Wondering if I could pull the screws holding the underbelly and pull it out from inside the frame without cutting it, I am new to a camper with covered underbelly.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by ADK

Here are a few pics I took with my cheap endoscope camera. The hose screws on the end of the drain pipe coming from the kitchen sink and turns 180 degrees and screws on a male thread on top of the tank. It is three feet from inside the frame so reaching it in any fashion is impossible without going from the belly up. Three places to leak,where it is screwed on both ends or the hose itself could have a hole in it. Wondering if I could pull the screws holding the underbelly and pull it out from inside the frame without cutting it, I am new to a camper with covered underbelly.

ADK: Your problem may be similar to one I had a few years ago on my Mini Lite. The slip joint connection from my kitchen sink drain hose to the pipe cracked. (My kitchen is in a slideout, hence hose.) The fact that they didn't clamp the hose in line with the pipe probably didn't help!



It's a one-piece fitting, as opposed to the two piece fittings used in home plumbing.



I replaced it with a standard two piece from Menards:



If you know where the fitting is under the trailer, many people cut a U-shaped flap in the underbelly to provide access, then duct tape it shut. Cut it so the flap drops down at the rear so air doesn't get into it and force it open.

Good luck.

[bigmurph]

Those fittings that you showed are available at some Home Depots or Lowe's Home Improvement stores. Just had to replace on on my parents MH. Lowes had a mobile home section that had the parts I needed.

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by bigmurph

Those fittings that you showed are available at some Home Depots or Lowe's Home Improvement stores. Just had to replace on on my parents MH. Lowes had a mobile home section that had the parts I needed.

Yeah. Menards happened to be closer. You may never have heard of them in your neck of the woods. Upper midwest company. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Similar to Home Depot/Lowes, but a little bit upscale from them, IMHO.

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

I have a feeling that it's going to be harder to get to, have access to, than fixing. I am sure factory attached to tank first before installing tank. If the slide is in and sink removed, how close is connection then.?

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by Ida Ratherbe Camping

I have a feeling that it's going to be harder to get to, have access to, than fixing. I am sure factory attached to tank first before installing tank. If the slide is in and sink removed, how close is connection then.?

This is a WILD GUESS coming from a guy with a PUP, but I suspect you may be able to drop the empty gray tank a few inches to make it easier to service/replace it...assuming the slide is extended. If so, be sure to have a 5 gallon bucket or something similar to hold it up while you work on it.

I mention this based on bizarre experience with servicing my Toyota. I had to reattach the hose from the windshield washer fluid reservoir to the pump. This appeared to be impossible. I first removed the headlight nacelle. A long, hard process. No luck. I finally realized I had to remove the inner fender liner. Had I known that, it would have been easy enough, but at first glance it seemed preposterous.

So keep an open mind about how to get to the fittings. Accepting the inevitable (assuming it is) will make the job easy. Sometimes, as you face the job, scratching your head and saying, "could they really have designed it this way?," the answer might be, "yes."

[brobinson0857]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

im not positive but I thought I saw a thread where a out door kitchen sink just drained on the ground under the unit and didn't go to a tank? has it always been that way or a new problem?

there is a gate valve on the back end of the trailer that drains outside sink. just picked up 20188328bs and used 1 week figuring trailer out

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by Kimber45

im not positive but I thought I saw a thread where a out door kitchen sink just drained on the ground under the unit and didn't go to a tank? has it always been that way or a new problem?

I like to remind everyone that most Popup campers (PUPs) come with no gray-water capture tank. The kitchen sink is plumbed straight out the side of the camper, and you're expected to attache a short length of hose and capture sink-water in a bucket. If the PUP has a "bathroom," there's a good chance it's a "cassette" toilet with a 6 gallon capacity.

An outdoor shower, another source of gray-water, has no capture for the "effluent" coming off your (or your kid's or dog's) "stinky body."

The idea that an outdoor sink might drain to the "ground" is not unusual. Capturing and routing an outdoor sink to a gray tank might involve torturous plumbing over long distances and be prone to clogging. If your secondary sink is not plumbed to the gray tank, it's likely that you'd use the PUP technique and capture in a 5 gallon bucket primarily so you can tote the water away from your site and not be standing in mud when you use the sink.

What you do with that gray-water depends. In an RV park or govt. campground, the right thing to do is bring it to the bathroom or pit toilet and dump it there. If you don't, you'll likely get cited and/or evicted. When in the boondocks, where there are no "facilities," one must find another way. In a dry area it's ideal irrigation for the trees. In wet areas, near wetlands or rivers/lakes, it's best to dump it in a toilet (if available) or to haul it to high ground where it won't enter natural waters.

For those who find this abhorrent, I'll remind you all that all those "back to nature" tent campers dump their gray water more or less on their sites. In crowded campgrounds, there may be a central dish-washing area for tenters, but that's the exception, not the rule. And I defy any of the men (and most of the women) to make the claim that they've never peed in the woods.

So, if you have an outdoor sink that drains to "nowhere," just remember that you're in good company with the millions of PUPs out there whose "gray tank" is a 5-gallon bucket that once held joint compound.