Freshwater Tank impossible to fill

[B and B]

My vent has never worked, that's on the list for Goshen this year. By filling it slow the air does escape by the water inlet.

[JoeNanMinn]

you guys must have missed the part where I said I let the water TRICKLE in and it took over an hour to fill, but finally did get full.

[barrie1]

Originally Posted by JoeNanMinn

you guys must have missed the part where I said I let the water TRICKLE in and it took over an hour to fill, but finally did get full.

Yes, I agree with you JoeNanMinn. I let our hose trickle and it still backed up at the fill cap. Besides our previous Keystone NRG TT never had a problem filling it's tank. This was the last problem I expected to have on a brand new 2015 Shockwave 5th wheel toy hauler.
No one is being asked to reinvent the wheel...

[Brother Les]

It should never take longer than 15 minutes to fill the water tank. look for the reason for such a low fill rate and fix it

[BigTJohn]

Fill a 5 gal bucket with full pressure. How long does it take.? Put the hose into your gravity fill and adjust so it does not back up the flow. Now remove the hose, use the bucket to see how long it takes to fill. Figure you have a 40-60 gal(or more) fresh water tank. Now you can do the math and get an approximate time to full, or any portion thereof. 15-30 min will not be out of the ordinary. Also, look at the back of the fill connection. I bet there is not a hose attached to the vent fitting. There will be a short hose coming out of the water tank, that is your vent hose and is open to the air, and Road and dirt and.... As you travel it will allow gallons of water to escape before you get to your destination. Running a hose to the vent fitting from the the tank will prevent this. I had to do the with current 5th and previous TT both FR products.

[JoeNanMinn]

ya, its a shame. for what we pay for these things you would think that things would work like they are supposed to. We shouldn't have to troubleshoot and fix this stuff ourselves. But like many others on here have said it would be even more frustrating to try to get the dealers to do it. It just all comes back to lack of quality control.

[pschnetts]

I've had the same problem with my 2014 Sabre. Two times to the dealer and still not fixed. I found a solution that works!

I added a "T" fitting after the city water inlet (the pressurized water connection I use when I have a full hook-up site) and a "T" fitting just before the water pump on the suction side. Then I connected the two "T's" with a shutoff valve in between.

For normal operation, leave the valve closed. To fill my tank, I simply open the valve anytime I have a hose connected to the city water inlet. I remove the gravity fill water inlet cover to let even more air out of the tank. When water flows out the gravity fill, shut the valve. I usually let it run a little bit as I am surprised by the little bit of debris and hardwater deposits that must float and flush out of the tank.

The water flows from the pressurized side of the water system into the suction line off the freshwater tank to fill the tank.

The fresh water tank fills fast and full every time. On our longer trips, we will alternate between FHU sites and boon docking or State Parks. I can easily fill the tank just before we leave a FHU site by just turning a valve for a few minutes.

[KyDan]

Originally Posted by JoeNanMinn

you guys must have missed the part where I said I let the water TRICKLE in and it took over an hour to fill, but finally did get full.

Don't want to repeat myself but I wonder if you've tried this???
I use a cut off washing machine hose. It's 3 feet long- about 5/8" outside diameter
on one end and just normal female hose connector on the other.
I am able to push the hose into my fill port about 2 feet.
IF I do that I can fill at full pressure. It occasionally burps out a splash
but I can fill my 50 gal fresh tank in 5 minutes.
You could do the same with a piece of garden hose but you don't want
the fat/thick premium garden hose. You need the cheap thin skinny hose so
it's a much looser fit inside the fill tube.

[JoeNanMinn]

well, I finally found the time to dig more into my freshwater tank filling problems. I had to take the underbelly covering loose and follow the freshwater fill line and the vent line back to my water tank. I was quite surprised and frustrated at what I found. First I noticed that the water fill line was run up and over some of the frame braces and then under the next one, creating a roller coaster effect for that line with low spots and high spots. I also found several screws in the frame mounted from the outside with the screw tips actually rubbing against the water fill line. I put protective covers over the tip ends to fix that. I disconnected the fill line and was able to re install it so it runs now over the top of each cross member creating a straight line run.

The biggest problem was that the vent line was totally kinked and even twisted in like a screw pattern. The vent line fitting at the top of the tank was turned down and loose and the hose was forced to run underneath the bigger fill line. The hose at the bottom of the tank that supplies water to the water pump was also kinked and twisted and the connection was loose there too.

With all of these issues fixed I can now fill my freshwater tank with the garden hose wide open. What used to take over an hour now takes about 15 minutes.

I spent alot of time dealing with this on my own. Can't imagine how long it would have taken the dealer to figure this out and fix it.

How could anyone pass this installation at the factory? Unbelievable.

The hose piece on the left of the picture is the vent hose. The one on the right is the line out back to the water pump. Hope sending this pic works. I have never sent a pic before with this.

[PopBeavers]

At the end of my water hose I have a smaller clear tube that extends about 4 feet from the filler cap. Since I started using this I have never had a problem. Sometimes the fill line is kinked. Sometimes it runs uphill.

At least one post mentioned using the garden hose. Of course they meant to say using the white fresh water hose.

[Ford Idaho]

Originally Posted by JoeNanMinn

well, I finally found the time to dig more into my freshwater tank filling problems. I had to take the underbelly covering loose and follow the freshwater fill line and the vent line back to my water tank. I was quite surprised and frustrated at what I found. First I noticed that the water fill line was run up and over some of the frame braces and then under the next one, creating a roller coaster effect for that line with low spots and high spots. I also found several screws in the frame mounted from the outside with the screw tips actually rubbing against the water fill line. I put protective covers over the tip ends to fix that. I disconnected the fill line and was able to re install it so it runs now over the top of each cross member creating a straight line run.

The biggest problem was that the vent line was totally kinked and even twisted in like a screw pattern. The vent line fitting at the top of the tank was turned down and loose and the hose was forced to run underneath the bigger fill line. The hose at the bottom of the tank that supplies water to the water pump was also kinked and twisted and the connection was loose there too.

With all of these issues fixed I can now fill my freshwater tank with the garden hose wide open. What used to take over an hour now takes about 15 minutes.

I spent alot of time dealing with this on my own. Can't imagine how long it would have taken the dealer to figure this out and fix it.

How could anyone pass this installation at the factory? Unbelievable.

The hose piece on the left of the picture is the vent hose. The one on the right is the line out back to the water pump. Hope sending this pic works. I have never sent a pic before with this.

WOW!



That is one very sad situation right there....

Upside is YOU fixed it and IMO you would get little if any response from the factory.

[mikezjr]

I'm going to give a copy to the service mgr so he has something think about the next time this occurs to another customer. I took our 2015 sabre

[Ijusttow]

I took the advice from another reply and bought a super cheap ($9) hose at Dollar Bargain that has a small O.D. compared to a garden use hose, cut it about 4' long and attach that to my Camco filter. I shove the hose down the fill opening a couple feet and turn the water on full blast. All the venting air comes out around the hose and I fill 60+ gallons in about 12 Minutes. I've been fixing little issues myself cause I know a visit to the service dept will be fruitless.