Black tank troubles

No RVer ever wants to experience trouble with their black wastewater tank, the one where all the sewer goes. Just the thought of that brings up images of the memorable scene in the movie “RV” when Robin Williams connects two sewer hoses to try to empty his rented RV’s black tank and a geyser erupts.

We started to notice a trend every time we went to dump our black tank: The lever handle was difficult to pull. It seemed to be gummed up on the inside, causing stickiness and friction. We could get it partially open, but it took extra effort to get it to the fully open position.

Not wanting to take any chances on trying to fix it ourselves, we called a mobile RV tech to repair our black tank troubles. 

Black tank repair, take 1

The morning the tech was scheduled to arrive, Bob drained the contents from the black tank. Then he attached a hose to the trailer and forced water into the tank to flush it. After it reached capacity, he emptied it again. He repeated that process multiple times to give the tech a clean area to work with. 

Bob also emptied our basement storage compartment and removed walls to allow access to the plumbing and wiring. 

Bob was sure the cable was the problem. As soon as Manny from Cruz Mobile RV Repair showed up and took a look, he told us it wasn’t the cable. It was the valve, which relies on the lever to slide a blade back and forth between two gaskets to seal contents in and let them flow out. 

Back to square one

Unfortunately for us, Manny had just used the only valve on his truck at the previous customer stop. He couldn’t get another one that day and told us he’d be back in a week.

Not wanting to leave our belongings outside in the intense Arizona sun and heat for a week, Bob reattached the basement walls and moved our stuff back in. 

A week later, he reversed course yet again, emptying the basement contents, removing the wall boards, and emptying and flushing the black tank.

Black tank repair, take 2

Manny returned and got right to work. He crawled under the fifth wheel and cut a hole in our new underbelly to access the faulty black tank valve. He had to disconnect it from the black tank and then crawl inside the basement to fully remove it. 

He began installing the new valve and gaskets. To alleviate further problems, he decided to reroute the cable for the valve to allow it to move more freely. This took a little extra work.

Once he got everything securely in place, he had me open and close the lever multiple times. What a difference! Instead of pulling with all my might against friction, the lever moved smoothly and easily — and opened all the way without extra exertion. 

Then Manny had me add water to the tank so that he could check for leaks. I complied and left the water running into the tank while he continued to finalize the installation of the valve and cable, including securing it to the rig. 

After some time, Manny had me shut off the water and empty the tank. To our relief, nothing leaked. With that confirmation, he crawled under the trailer again to reseal the underbelly to complete the job.

He left, and I reattached the wall boards in the basement and moved our belongings back in, out of the sun, grateful we had called a mobile RV tech instead of trying to complete that job on our own.

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