My biggest beef with my FWC...

Tomas Tierra

Tomas Tierra

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Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
1,071
Location
Hollywood Beach, Alta California
on my last (off) road trip I noticed alot of water leaking out of the vent of my water tank, even after draining off a gallon or so..I guess I overfilled, but by a gallon, in a 12 gallon tank??

THe Horror! And the subsequent mess!!(see photo)

Stan, any suggestions? I know, I know, Slow down and enjoy the journey. not, get there, and realize the journey..Am I doing something wrong with the tank??

Well that's it...that's my biggest beef (other than the downstairs bed is made for SLEEPING only, ((ugly collapse, and breakage))...serious mod needed)
 

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Tomas,

My Ranger will do the same. Until the water drops some it will self level, more so if the truck is tipped off road to that side. I don't worry about mine.

Pull out the silverware draw and look at the overflow hose. You can re-route it up some to prevent the straight shot.
 
Something is not right. I can cap mine while its as full as possible and I never get a drop leaking out.
 
Mine drips too.

My water inlet also drips after I've topped it off, but not nearly as much as it looks like yours did and filling up the dog bowls twice (about 1/2 gallon or less) lowers it enough to prevent further dripping.
 
Our Eagle has the same problem with a topped off tank. I'm going to take Patrick's suggestion and check out the overflow hose tonight. Thanks.
 
I've run into something like the same problem in travel trailers.

If the tank filler is the kind where a sort of circular drawer pulls out, if you look up above the drawer when it's out, you will see a hole -- Inside, the hole has a nipple on it for a tube -- Extend the overflow/vent tube on top of the tank to the nipple and water that sloshes will just run back into the tank. Also let's you know the tank is full when filling by squirting at you:)

If the filler has no such fitting, then you need to either lengthen the tube and raise it higher than the top of the tank or put a valve in the tube to close it after you are through filling.
 
water

That is the nature of the beast. If you overfill the tank as you did, the water is all the up into the fill hose and the vent hose. This will tend to leak out until the level drops enough not to anymore. Really doesn't hurt anything though.

For the extra activities on the lower couch you need to stay to the passenger side more to prevent accidents.:D
 
I think the forum needs some pictures of the action causing the couch issue to help diagnose the problem and provide feedback.:) :D :eek:
 
Hmmmmmm....

Not sure about those photos Brett...Some Photos of your new rig would be cool though! Havent seen a pop up on one of the new Tundras yet..

Yeah, both of the legs that hold the lower bunk aloft buckled simultaniously..Not sure if I'm going to rebuild it the same way it was, or do something different...

I think it's like the cooking, better done outdoors...

BTW, I'm really not bummed about the water dripping, just wanted to figure out if I was doing something wrong..
 
Not sure about those photos Brett...Some Photos of your new rig would be cool though! Havent seen a pop up on one of the new Tundras yet..

Here you go Tom: pics
 
Kind of off-topic, (well, the topic of what was Tomas doing to break his couch. Stud....) kind of not.

I have never used the water tank in my camper. The PO told me he and the original owner had never used it either. Somehow I've made due with a few 2.5 gallon water jugs on my trips. Now with my 2 gallon showering can and my own new couch-breaking-passenger, I want to be able to carry more water for showers and such.

My concern is if the tank has never been used, could seals and gaskets be dried up and cause a leak. I haven't taken the front face off the galley to look at the tank, but short of finding out the hard way (filling it and having it leak everywhere), is there a way to determine if the tank is still watertight? Could there be any crud in the tank that could clog up the lines?

Since I bought this used '92 model, (which was refurbished at the factory in '99), I never got a thorough demonstration of the water system and how it all works. But now I think it may be time?

Any suggestions? Or should I just call Ben or Stan?
 
I can't say much about the inspection process outside of pulling the drawer and looking inside while filling etc. You certainly will want to disinfect the system before use. I may be stating the obvious but just thought I'd mention it.
 
kcowyo,
I would just go for it and see what happens :D . If you have a leak just drain it out the drain valve. Then, clean it out and use it, the stock water system is a pleasure to have.

When I go for the weekend, I don't even bring any extra water containers.
 
Hello kcowyo

I would think your water sytem would be just fine.

Not much to break or seals to dry up over the years.

Just clean it out / flush it out / and sanatize it with RV fresh water cleaner or a table spoon of bleach.

The hand pump is usually the first thing to go on those older water systems.

Hope this helps ...

=========================================================
 
water tank

All the fittings on the water tank are threaded in. The hoses and lines connected to them or hose clamped on. The only possible problem with no use that you might have is a line has rotted out or a mouse chewed on one. It doesn't take that much to remove the front of the cabinet and look over the lines. Either that or fill it up and see what happens. I would flush it out a couple of times though.
 
Hello Thomas Tierra

I can't see any big problems with what you are doing.

If the tank is over filled, it will come out the side a little as you drive.

You can maybe look in the cabinets to make sure the breather hose looks OK and is not kinked.

If you need more info, just call us here in the office and I can do some more research on how all that goes together. Over the years I have not had many people bring this up. Just hasn't seemed to be a problem.


On the other hand, the couch legs on your older camper always seemed to give us problems if they were not used properly.

I had a 1992/1993 Grandby and it had the same couch set-up with the folding legs. It was great, always worked like it was supossed to, but I used it and set it up properly and catiously.

If the wood screws that attached the small folding legs into the wood in the bottom of the seat cushion pulled out or if the small spring that gave tension to keep the folding leg "tight" fell out, the legs would come crashing down. It was a little bit of a hassle to set up too.

In Oct. 2004, we went through a complete new floorplan change here and finally changed the couch design for good. We won't be going back to that design. I think All Terrain is still using that old couch design in their campers, but I'm not positive ?

Again, it was an OK system if used and maintained properly, but more frustrating for the customers in my opnion. I can't count how many people used to call in and tell me how they modified it on their own to change the older design because they ran into the same problem you did.


HERE IS AN OLD THREAD THAT COVERS OUR NEW COUCH DESIGN ...

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=563&highlight=couch



Please let me know if I can help with anything else





.
 
Thanx for the reply Stan! I think it is so cool to have guys from the MFG's of these awesome campers responding to my blah blah..

After some thought, and looking at some of the photos on the couch thread, I'm realizing something. I removed the front storage area and cushion that would make hte couch an "L".. This must add some stability to the downstairs bed, no? could this have contributed to my "accident"..I know the Corona's were partly to blame, but..

Still considering the fix/solution for the problem..
 
bed problems

One way to solve your problem is a couple less Corona's and add a third leg in the middle of the other two on the couch.

Have done this in the past for some customers and it seemed to work fine.
 
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