Freshwater Tank impossible to fill

hcbarch · 05-08-2015, 03:24 PM

I can only get my freshwater tank to fill 1/3 before water comes out the fill pipe. Anyone have this trouble before or know how to fix it. The trailer is a brand new 2015 Columbus 365 RL. Help!

Brother Les · 05-08-2015, 03:42 PM

Dealer issue to fix. The overflow/breather pipe may be too far into the tank.

daywalker567 · 05-08-2015, 04:26 PM

I had the same issue with my ow. the problem I had was that I wasn't using enough water pressure. So now instead of using the garden hose I put a sprayer/ nozzle on the end and no more bacback flow

jevanb · 05-08-2015, 04:58 PM

remover the panel that can get you access to the back of the fill panel and remove the loop/ straighten the hose from the filler going down to the tank. mine was looped and I could not get hardly any water into the tank . Mine is now a straight shot into the tank and I can fill it to completely full in just minutes @ 80 gals capacity

mikezjr · 05-09-2015, 11:38 AM

My new Sabre 250RLUD 5th wheel still has this problem since we took delivery last December!
Just got it back from the dealer for the 5th time yesterday: As always, the tank comes back full; I drain it, check the that the level is at E and try to top it off but only am able to fill it to 1/3rd. I then drain the tank into a 5 gal bucket 3 times before the it stops draining.15 Gallons!! This time I made sure the trailer was level. Same thing happened. And boy, am I

OFF. We have more miles going to the dealer than going on an outing. It's a 60 mile round trip to the dealer.
The dealer has changed the air vent, un-kinked the fill hose, and made sure that the fill hose is not below the connection on the tank.

hcbarch · 05-09-2015, 11:59 AM

Thanks. Not too encouraging. I was able to get mine to fill by using house pressure. It burped all over me at 1/3 & 2/3 & full, but I got it done. Into the dealer on Friday. Thanks for the reply though. Good luck with yours.

arp7098 · 05-09-2015, 12:58 PM

there can only be two possible reasons for this. either the fill hose going to the tank is kinked or stopped up or the vent hose is kinked or stopped up. it is most likely the vent hose. if you can put air pressure to the vent hose and it will blow back in to the freshwater tank then it is likely the fill hose.

OldCoot · 05-09-2015, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arp7098

there can only be two possible reasons for this. either the fill hose going to the tank is kinked or stopped up or the vent hose is kinked or stopped up. it is most likely the vent hose. if you can put air pressure to the vent hose and it will blow back in to the freshwater tank then it is likely the fill hose.

I agree, can't believe a vent hose could be shoved too far into the tank as they can't be so crude as just poking a hole in the tank and shoving a hose in the hole.

Ford Idaho · 05-09-2015, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arp7098

there can only be two possible reasons for this. either the fill hose going to the tank is kinked or stopped up or the vent hose is kinked or stopped up. it is most likely the vent hose. if you can put air pressure to the vent hose and it will blow back in to the freshwater tank then it is likely the fill hose.

Would you really want to blow what ever might be clogging the vent hose into the tank?

Use a shop vac to suck what ever out of the tube?

nuisance · 05-09-2015, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikezjr

My new Sabre 250RLUD 5th wheel still has this problem since we took delivery last December!
Just got it back from the dealer for the 5th time yesterday: As always, the tank comes back full; I drain it, check the that the level is at E and try to top it off but only am able to fill it to 1/3rd. I then drain the tank into a 5 gal bucket 3 times before the it stops draining.15 Gallons!! This time I made sure the trailer was level. Same thing happened. And boy, am I

OFF. We have more miles going to the dealer than going on an outing. It's a 60 mile round trip to the dealer.
The dealer has changed the air vent, un-kinked the fill hose, and made sure that the fill hose is not below the connection on the tank.

Sounds like a great reason to attend the Goshen Rally if I ever heard one. Let the factory fix the problem and have fun meeting over 1600. fellow FROG'S

DickiedooFlagman · 05-09-2015, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcbarch

I can only get my freshwater tank to fill 1/3 before water comes out the fill pipe. Anyone have this trouble before or know how to fix it. The trailer is a brand new 2015 Columbus 365 RL. Help!

In a previous trailer, I found the water tank was installed at an angle to the trailer floor. So when the trailer was leveled, there was an air pocket of about 5 gallons at the higher end of the water tank. I dropped the bottom trailer cover, and installed a second vent at the high end of the tank. That fixed the problem.

barrie1 · 05-10-2015, 12:50 AM

Funny thing is that all happened to me today.
We have a brand new 32' Shockwave 5th wheel. She came with a full tank of water so never knew anything was wrong. Went to fill her up at the house, with the hose and an empty tank. Next thing was the water came pushing back up the fill cap. Pulled everything apart to look for a kinked up fill line and never saw a kink anywhere.
Next step was to seal off the area around the hose at the fill cap to add pressure to the R V fill pipe. That seemed to work. But I never had that problem or issue with our other Trailer. I just left the hose in and checked when it was done. Anyway, while filling our Shockwave, I noticed that a gurgling noise was coming out of the vent pipe. I'm thinking now, after reading this blog, that the vent pipe wasn't installed properly or is blocked somehow.
This is one of those things that will probably baffel the dealer service dept. so I'm thinking I need to figure it out.

JoeNanMinn · 05-10-2015, 12:19 PM

Well it obviously must be something that forest river is doing in assembly with these tanks. We have a brand new 2014 Sabre with the same exact problem. As soon as the tank gets to 1/3 full water starts coming back out the fill pipe. I have only had a chance to look at the pipe from behind the fitting down to where it goes through the floor. Mine is not kinked or looped for what I can see above the floor. I let the water TRICKLE in from the hose, took over an hour to fill that way, but finally got it actually full.

barrie1 · 05-10-2015, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeNanMinn

Well it obviously must be something that forest river is doing in assembly with these tanks. We have a brand new 2014 Sabre with the same exact problem. As soon as the tank gets to 1/3 full water starts coming back out the fill pipe. I have only had a chance to look at the pipe from behind the fitting down to where it goes through the floor. Mine is not kinked or looped for what I can see above the floor. I let the water TRICKLE in from the hose, took over an hour to fill that way, but finally got it actually full.

joenanminn that stuff drives me nuts. Why should you waist all that time just to do something simple like full the water tank. What would happen if you were on a long trip and stopped at a truck or R V stop just get a fill with water. Can't believe after building R V's for so long, and getting it done right on all older units. now they can't build it right.

That to me says that it's the workmanship on the installation process.
By the way. My Service Manager told me they build 8 to 12 R V's a day on the Forrest River production line.

Anyways, my wife and I love our Shockwave 5th wheel toy hauler.

DickiedooFlagman · 05-10-2015, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrie1

joenanminn that stuff drives me nuts. Why should you waist all that time just to do something simple like full the water tank. What would happen if you were on a long trip and stopped at a truck or R V stop just get a fill with water. Can't believe after building R V's for so long, and getting it done right on all older units. now they can't build it right.

That to me says that it's the workmanship on the installation process.
By the way. My Service Manager told me they build 8 to 12 R V's a day on the Forrest River production line.

Anyways, my wife and I love our Shockwave 5th wheel toy hauler.

When we visited the Flagstaff production line (8528 IKWS) they claimed workers went home each day after 35 units had been assembled.

barrie1 · 05-10-2015, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DickiedooFlagman

When we visited the Flagstaff production line (8528 IKWS) they claimed workers went home each day after 35 units had been assembled.

That's insane isn't it. Wow...

OldCoot · 05-10-2015, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barrie1

That's insane isn't it. Wow...

That's a fact, believe it or not. It's not really an assembly line as most folks understand it, it is a large assembly area, nothing is automated.

JoeNanMinn · 05-11-2015, 08:29 PM

ya, I am pretty sure it a QC issue too. Our underbelly is enclosed so I will have to open part of that up to get to the freshwater tank and see whats going on. We had 2 travel trailers previous to this new 5th wheel and had virtually no problems with the TT's. We like our 5th wheel but have a list of about 15 things so far that I'm not happy with. They are all QC issues.

BigTJohn · 05-19-2015, 09:32 AM

Trying to fill the tank too fast it's usually the problem. Using a freshwater hose is really not the way to do it. Too much volume and pressure. If you have it, use the shower hose from the outside shower. Remove the shower head (duh) and put the hose into the gravity fill. Do NOT lose the small black washer. Turn on the cold water and let it fill. On mine, the water goes through the filter (assuming you can hook up to a fresh water water source) then when you fill, it gets filtered and when you use the pump it gets filtered again, double win!

TURBS · 05-19-2015, 09:37 AM

Filling the tank to fast is always the problem.
You can literally put more water in then air can escape.
I have a sabre and I just turn the hydrant on slow and I never have a problem.
Slow down and enjoy the day!

TURBS
08 duramax tuned n modded, 32bhok Sabre
2015 camping "6 nights"

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