Fresh Water Tank Leaking

[rverosloff1]

I have a 2006, 36ft Journey. It sat all winter outside after having drained out all the water. I filled it after closing the winterize lever in the side bin. It is leaking out the drainage pipe. I pull out the lever and push it back in multiple times, without any problem. it goes all the way in easily, but there is still a constant drip. Is there any easy way to keep it from dripping or do I have to replace the valve?

[Jim_HiTek]

If it's set up in a similar way to my '02 Journey, they are known to need periodic adjustment...but you have to crawl underneath to do it. I didn't want to bother with that so I just got a 1" or 1.25" expanding rubber stopper and stuffed it into the drain hose/pipe. I'm a full timer so I wasn't going to be draining the tank much PLUS it's not all that hard to crawl under there to remove it if needed. So far haven't needed.

What is happening is that the guillotine stopper valve (a small one, same type as is on the grey and black tank dumps) isn't getting closed well enough. And that's because the spiral wire that does that little job gets loose. Climb under there, find it, loosen the clamping screw, pull the wire tighter than tighten the screw.

At least that's what happens with mine. Pulling the plug once a year to drain the tank wouldn't be much of a problem if I ever store it over winter.

[RVMJR52]

Thanks Jim. Just what I was needing. I was musing about your stopper idea although bumpy driving might lead to occasional aggravation. Will look tomorrow for the cable pull clamp - in the storage cabinet where the pull handle is or underneath entering the fresh water tank?

[Jim_HiTek]

I installed that rubber stopper, the expanding type with a screw and wingnut, back in late 2016 after I discovered that it would drip down underneath the RV and empty the tank in a few days. Really annoying. I found that those bayonet valves used by Winnie under there tended to have a leakage problem from mostly the spiral cable. It would come detached easily due to poor design and then wouldn't allow the bayonet to completely close. Then I also read that the small bayonet valve itself wouldn't work for very long.

The clamp on the spiral cable comes loose up in the wet compartment. Where mine was I'd have to remove too much to access it so I didn't want to bother.

Okay, with that information, I wasn't about to mess with repairing it every two years or so and since I'm a full timer, I didn't need to drain the tank all that often anyway so the stopper was installed. I've never removed it AND it's never dripped again even after 7 years in place.

So, there's no worry about them coming out due to a bumpy ride.