Grey Water Piping Nightmare

[vetman90]

I have a 2002 Adventurer 35U Ford chassis and I fulltime in this coach on my sons property.

I have had a slow grey water leak which appears to be coming from somewhere behind the large 4" black piping before the grey water dump valve and back into the underfloor area somewhere. I planned on posting here when I first noticed the leak under the coach a few weeks ago when time permitted but now the problem has grown. When I open the dump valves / water connection basement compartment I find no grey water going into the tank at all now. If I leave a sink running and go open this compartment, all water is running off of what I thought was the top of the grey water tank up against the compartment and spilling down the left side compartment wall onto the compartment bottom and out onto the ground through the compartment bottom hose pass-thru port.

Looked at it again today and see that the compartment is actually up against the rear wheel well and I don't see how to access the larger main grey drain piping run that disappears into a dark void.

I hoping one of us on this forum has experience with accessing the drain piping system for leak repairs on this model coach.

Considering the floor covering is carpeted I doubt an access panel would exist in the floor.

I am printing out a copy of the plumbing diagrams for this model coach now but so far don't see anything that shows how the piping would be accessed.

I have a bad smell developing fast around the outside perimeter of the coach so there must be a break or separation at the pipe-to-tank fitting and the waste water is accumulating on top of the tank before running out the compartment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[al1florida]

This leak probably needs professional attention on site at your RV. Most RV's are not built with any access to the gray and black tanks.

If no professional attention, at least someone who can take panels off (if possible) stick their arms and hands in tight quarters, with a flashlight and mirrors to try to see where the leak is. Repairing the leak can be even more difficult.

If you have been in the RV for some time, have not moved it, and the problem has recently started, you may have had some critters, such as a mice, chewing holes in the pipes.

[powercat_ras]

From the Winnebago drawing, it looks like there is a flexible drain pipe coupling secured with 2 hose clamps at side of the grey tank that the pipe from the drain valve leads to. Given that 16 years has passed since the coach was assembled that would seem to be the most likely point of failure. Sorry can't help as to how to get access to that spot to repair it , if that is the failure.

Good luck.

[vetman90]

Thank you for the input so far. I might luck out and have a factory rep read this post soon and get real facts; accessible or not accessible without opening the floor !!

I often wonder how the actual holding tanks would be replaced if ever needed.

It seems that most motorhomes are built in a way that once the tanks and piping is installed and fastened in place with piping runs, the flooring goes down and those items are buried for life.

Unfortunately for me I'm living on my sons property in Sonoma County, Northern CA and there are not many onsite repair services near here to choose from. The few we have don't show very good reviews but I have not looked in 2 years and maybe there are others now.

I'm afraid the trick is going to be finding one that wants to take on this kind of repair.

As I think about this problem more I will call a factory outlet tomorrow and ask tech support what they think about accessing the entire grey waste main line. More than likely I'll bet they tell me if I brought it in they would have to open the floor ( a good time to replace the original floor coverings) !!!

[powercat_ras]

If I was a mobile RV tech or DIY on a friends coach, here would be my process, assuming you have a sewer connection where you are parked:

-- Figure out what and where the problem is, by ...

- Drain and flush the black tank.

- Remove the section with the 2 drain valves and drain port, sealing the black line side with plastic and tape so you don't deal with smell and drippy mess, and fish a cable fed inspection camera up the grey line to visualize where the problem is. If DIY you can get a cable fed inspection camera fairly cheap at a Harbor Freight store or online.

-- Once you figure out where and what the problem is, generate a plan to fix and a cost estimate. You can make an informed decision on if the cost to fix is worth it on a 16 year old RV. Hopefully the grey tank is fine and it is "just" that the C2 coupler that has failed.

- Grey tank and C2 coupler are forward of the rear wheels and there may be an access panel in the basement or perhaps a removable wall or floor in the basement. If not you will have to cut an access hole in the basement floor or basement wall to get to where the repair needs to be made.

Personally no way would I go at this from above, if a hole must be made I would go thru the basement compartment back wall or up from below.

[frayfl]

If water is draining off the top of the gray tank and not out the gray tank valve then the connection between the drain pipes and tank may have failed.

I have an 06 Adventurer and had a similar problem with the gray tank odors and found gray water on the ground when traveling with out first draining the gray tank.
i chased this problem fr a long time. I pulled the bottom of the vanity and kitchen cabinets, then cut access holes in the floor to gain access to the top of the gray tank. The holes gave me enough access to find the problem.

There are grommets glued to the top of the gray tank where the drains and vents enter the tank. There pipes should have been inserted into the grommets. The main drain pipe, washing machine drain and vent pipes were not inserted into the grommets but were just sitting on the top of the grommets. Things drained ok most of the time and only had odor issues when traveling when [email protected] water evidently splashed around in the gray tank.

I also had to open the wall to get to the vent pipe to fix the problem. I cut the pipes and added a couple of inches to the pipes, then inserted them all the way into the grommets and sealed with polybyutal caulk. I also used plumbers strapping to secure the pipes.

I later found what appears to be an access panel to be able to see the top of the tanks. The panel was located on the right side behind the panel around the rear wheel.

Finding the problem was much more difficult than the fix.

[BirchyBoy]

Given the age of the camper, I’d seriously consider pulling the carpet up and making an access panel in the floor as near the suspect connection as possible.

[vetman90]

frayfl,

Thank you for all the info here of your plumbing experience with your coach.

I found more information regarding my problem but I'm sure the problem will be the lack of the factory inserting the piping into the grommets sufficiently to allow expansion and contraction as well as vibration from driving especially some of the 6" deep potholes we can encounter every now and then.

I found I didn't do a very thorough job of diagnosing my problem with this grey water leaking.

I assumed my leak was the 4" main-to-tank connection because the 4" pipe moves around easily when grabbed onto. Once I sat and studied the system drawings a little better there is no way I would have grey water on top of the tank from a main line entering the tank on it's side.

I ran the shower and bathroom sink full on and went outside to find that the water WAS draining through the tank and out the grey water dump line and there was no water dripping from inside the basement area.

I shut those faucets off and ran the galley sink full on, went outside, all water was coming from the top of the tank and running down into the valve compartment and onto the ground.

I traced the galley sink waste line by visibly seeing it run through the sink cabinet wall, pulled out a drawer located between the oven and the sink cabinet but no line visible due to a rear cabinet closure panel. Pulled the large drawer out from under the oven and found this cavity is wide open. I can see the sink waste line running through the back parallel the coach wall and into the next cabinet which is the refrigerator cabinet. I pulled the large drawer out from under the refrigerator and can see the waistline stubbed into this cavity about 6" and then turns down ninety degrees and penetrates the floor through a hole about 1" larger than the pipe.

Another case of poor quality control by Winnebago, the down pipe is wedged so tight up against one side of the hole (closest to me) I can clearly see a scuff mark about 1/4" up the pipe from the floor penetration with fine wood dust at the point of contact so this tension has been on the pipe for some time. So either the tank shifted causing the bind and pressure of this pipe to become off centered or it was originally installed and left this way. The pipe won't budge when grabbed and seems to still have a lot of tension against it. If the pipe popped out of the grommet I would think the pipe should be free to move around a little when grabbed.

I have not had the chance yet to open an access panel I found in the back of the basement storage compartment that does appear to be in coordination with where the tank and this drain pipe connection to the tank should be. It's the upper half of the second compartment back from the entrance door to the coach. Not sure if your rig has the same options but I have an outside radio compartment in the side wall directly above the same basement compartment.

Worst case scenario if that access panel is of no help then I'll have to look under the coach for access or cut an access hole under the the fridge.

Once I get to this I'll update this post.

I have to say, this motorhome is the worst coach I have ever owned.

The roof sheet popped out of the slot it's caulked into on the passenger side and half the roof came up like a wind sail in New Mexico on I-40 while moving from Arkansas to California. I got hit with a big gust of wind from my right hand side and that did it. The motorhome immediately moved from the slow lane into the fast lane and was leaning to my left before I could hit the brakes and slow down enough to allow the roof sheet to drop back down.

The side windows in the driver/passenger area (both upper and lower windows) have fogged up so bad I couldn't see out to the side view mirrors at all when dark. Didn't seem bad at all while test driving this coach during the daytime.

The front A/C quit working on the the same trip.

The rear basement A/C quit the day we rolled out at the start of the trip. Nice 103 degree trip from AR to CA !!

The hot water heater started leaking and quit shortly after I got to California.

This all happened 6 years ago when the coach was only 10 years old. Yes I bought it used. None of these problems existed while travelling home 600 miles when purchased. (except for the fogged windows that became a problem when the sun went down).

In my lifetime so far I have owned 2 used travel trailers and 5 different used motorhomes over the years and NONE were plagued with problems like this.