fixing black water release mechanism - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

mbrown · 07-21-2020, 06:56 PM

We have a 2007 17T Hi Lo. As we tried to release the black water, the handle came off and the black water did not release. There is also a leak at the black water tank where the pipe comes down from the tank. Does anyone have recommended solutions for these two problems?

Thank you.

JackandJanet · 07-21-2020, 11:44 PM

Yes, you can change the valve that empties the black water tank. I did this on mine. Got the replacement dump valve from etrailer.com. They're not expensive and not particularly hard to replace. Your problem though, is that you have waste water (and other contents) still in your tank, if you couldn't empty it. As you remove the old valve, the contents of the tank will start leaking out around the valve fitting. I don't know what to tell you to do, except have a big bucket handy and maybe just loosen it some, until the bucket gets nearly full, then tighten it up again so you can dump the bucket in your toilet. Repeat as necessary until the contents are drained. If you have "solids" in there, this will not get them out, but maybe you can dump them once you have changed the valve. I'd lubricate the new slide with plumbers grease before you insert it.

The leak at the drain pipe connection to the black tank is also easy to fix. I repaired mine by coating the entire joint with ABS cement (bought at Home Depot), then pressing fiberglass cloth onto the still wet cemented areas and applying more ABS cement over the entire "patched" area. The fiberglass cloth makes a very strong patch and it adheres to the tank and pipe well with ABS cement. I think I repeated this process once more after the first application had dried.

There are numerous posts on these problems in the Plumbing section.

- Jack

mbrown · 07-22-2020, 11:30 AM

Thanks. I will verify the part and get it ordered

JackandJanet · 07-22-2020, 12:12 PM

I had a thought, is the rod that connects to the valve visible? If so you could possibly grasp it with locking pliers and pull on them to open the valve. It would be a lot more "pleasant" to change the valve if the tank was empty and cleaned. *grin*

I think that rod end is threaded too, now that I think of it. Possibly, you could thread a nut on to it to give the pliers something to "grab", or, maybe you could put something large onto the rod ahead of the nut that would give you something to pull on with your hands.

- Jack

anchorwood · 07-23-2020, 06:53 PM

I had the handle on the dump valve break on an old motor home we had. I think half the plastic handle was gone when we bought the unit, so I didn't trust the one side that was left. As Jack suggested, I had the vise-grips handy and a good pair of gloves to pull them ready when the other side broke. I think I used that solution for a whole summer.

Getting a new valve on was much better when I finally did it. Plumber's grease, great idea Jack. Any way to make this process easier, I'm all for it.