Waste Water Lesson#1

2PawsRiver · Sep 13, 2018

We picked up our cyclone last week, parked it in front of the house and have been living in it for 8 days, taking our time moving in. House is sold, we have a few more weeks and we are on our own. One of the gray tanks was getting full so I bought a Portable Tank (used, dang those things are expensive). Went to uncover the drain and had a nasty surprise, thankfully just gray water, but appearantly the lever on the gray water tank had already been pulled open.....was pretty interesting.

Made sure valves were closed and we are back on track.

Other then that, I still have to figure out what is draining what, 4270, multiple black and gray tanks..................good times.

avvidclif · Sep 14, 2018

Food coloring is your friend. Only put it in one place at a time. My lavatory and shower are the same tank so that could be confusing. FWIW I have 3 handles. 2 small ones and 1 larger. The shower/lavatory is closest to the front of the trailer and that handle, a small one is also closest to the front. Next is a large one and it's the black tank. Last is the other small one and it's the kitchen sink which is closer to the rear.

CoveredWagon · Sep 14, 2018

Purchase one of those “last chance” valves as I call it. Someone Will chime in with the real name. It goes on where the sewer cap is and then the cap goes on after it.

rdufek · Sep 14, 2018

Twist on valve from Camping World, best investment ever made.

https://www.campingworld.com/twist-on-valve

CoveredWagon · Sep 14, 2018

rdufek said:
Twist on valve from Camping World, best investment ever made.

https://www.campingworld.com/twist-on-valve

Yeah that’s it 😁

Bogie · Sep 14, 2018

It's always a good idea to make a visual check of the valve handles before removing the cap. I once had someone (I think kids from the adjacent camp site) open the black tank valve in order to try to give me a big surprise at my next stop. Fortunately, I saw the open valve before removing the cap. No real harm done, but it could have been ugly.

jimtoo · Sep 14, 2018

And just as a suggestion, when you put the twist on valve on be sure the handle (upright part) of the valve is positioned about the 2 o'clock position. If handle is pointing towards the front, 10-11 o'clock it might be bounced enough on our highways to come off. (Speaking from experience. )

Jim M

pjones1969 · Sep 14, 2018

I put a screw in our valves to keep them in place

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

pegmikef · Sep 14, 2018

rdufek said:
Twist on valve from Camping World, best investment ever made.

https://www.campingworld.com/twist-on-valve

Or if you have Amazon Prime, they sell the same thing at same price.

mlpeloquin · Sep 14, 2018

Twist on valve can save you from being foot deep in brown trout and wrapping paper. I won't tell which Heartland member told me the fun time they had without the twist on valve when their black water valve failed. I purchased one after that story and glad I did.

2PawsRiver · Sep 15, 2018

Great advice.....love the food coloring and ordering the valve.

jimtoo · Sep 15, 2018

There is also the taste test,,,,, coffee,,,, tea,,,,or pee...

PondSkum · Sep 21, 2018

Yep. I kept getting some surprise water when removing my cap, so I purchased a twist on valve to eliminate that issue. Some folks also use this in order to open both gray tanks to "equalize" them when boondocking between dump stations to maximize gray capacity.

alsams · Sep 21, 2018

2PawsRiver said:
We picked up our cyclone last week, parked it in front of the house and have been living in it for 8 days, taking our time moving in. House is sold, we have a few more weeks and we are on our own. One of the gray tanks was getting full so I bought a Portable Tank (used, dang those things are expensive). Went to uncover the drain and had a nasty surprise, thankfully just gray water, but appearantly the lever on the gray water tank had already been pulled open.....was pretty interesting.

Made sure valves were closed and we are back on track.

Other then that, I still have to figure out what is draining what, 4270, multiple black and gray tanks..................good times.

I have a 4270 as well and here's what I've figured out so far.

Front gray tank is for the front bathroom sink and shower and the valve is underneath the slide and it comes out the front sewer outlet
Front black tank is for the front bathroom toilet and the valve is underneath the slide and it comes out the front sewer outlet
Rear gray tank is for the kitchen sink and rear bathroom sink. The valve is at the back of the unit along with the black tank valve but it drains to the front sewer outlet, not the back one. Surprise!!
Rear black tank is for the rear bathroom and the valve is at the back of the unit and it drains out the rear sewer outlet
To my knowledge, no gray water comes out the rear sewer outlet

Hope this helps and if anything is incorrect, please correct it.

Al

2PawsRiver · Sep 21, 2018

I was just sitting here thinking exactly what you are telling me, but I thought, why would you drain the rear tank to the front dumping point......makes no sense, but I believe you are right.....thank you for the reassurance.

alsams · Sep 21, 2018

2PawsRiver said:
I was just sitting here thinking exactly what you are telling me, but I thought, why would you drain the rear tank to the front dumping point......makes no sense, but I believe you are right.....thank you for the reassurance.

Finding out that the rear gray tank drains to the front sewer outlet was trial and error ... mostly error! Luckily just gray water. After that I decided to drain everything and put water in each sink and toilet individually and watched where it drained. It would be nice if the manual would state that somewhere.

pjones1969 · Sep 22, 2018

alsams said:
Finding out that the rear gray tank drains to the front sewer outlet was trial and error ... mostly error! Luckily just gray water. After that I decided to drain everything and put water in each sink and toilet individually and watched where it drained. It would be nice if the manual would state that somewhere.

I was surprised to see that too, we insisted that the dealer fill and drain all tanks during the PDI and that’s how we figured it out, now I dump the rear connection first then back up to dump the front connection, install twist on gate valves so you’ll never get a surprise, they are a must have.

https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-T58...keywords=valterra+t58+twist+on+rv+waste+valve

JohnD · Sep 22, 2018

Or you can get a 'Y' connection so that you can have them all hooked up at the same time...

My previous Heartland Trail Runner had front and rear tanks and I did that all the time...

No more running back and forth with the hose...

Nina9ah · May 25, 2019

I just wanted to say thank you for posting about the tanks and their output. My husband and I couldn't figure out why the gray tank #2 was still reading as full when we emptied both the front and back sewers. I searched the forums and found this thread. My camper doesn't have anything labeled on the valves so we had no idea which lever is for what, not to mention which lever goes to which sewer output. Thanks again!

emery395 · May 26, 2019

Seems poor planning to not have grey water be able to flow out after black. Wonder if plumbers messed up during construction

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