Emergency!!!!

[JoshuaBlake]

Hi guys, winter has finally arrived in Minneapolis and I've made a terrible mistake. We had to go to Kansas city last week so before I left I drained the water system and hot water heater tank and unhooked the hose from the camper. When we got back the temp has barely topped out above freezing so we have been staying in A hotel instead of this absolutely non insulated camper... Now we're done with work and about to head back to Texas and realized that I didn't dump the black OR grey tanks and they are frozen solid!! The valves will still open luckily but I'm in desperate need for a very fast and effective way of thawing the tanks or some advice on what I should and should not do before we hit the road.. thanks for the help!!!!

 

[Treeclimber]

Short of building a fire under each tank---NOT--- there really isn't much you CAN do, except pack up and drive back to Texas. And when it thaws, find a dump station near home. Really, you can Google that! As they thaw, the chunk may move around, but depending on the time it takes to drive back and the temps along the way, that should not be a problem.
Tree

 

[Treeclimber]

Oh! and before you leave, close those valves! Otherwise you'll leave a trail.

 

[hilltool]

I agree. By the time you clear mid Iowa you may be ok during day time. Maybe pour some anti-freeze in there ( rv only) to help things along as stuff begins to melt. Many rest stops (interstate) now have dumps. You may have to do it in spurts- find a dump station and see what will come out and keep trying. Another solution is to buy one of those black-tank flushers that allow you to force water up into the tank and that may help unfreeze whatever is in the line-----but it may take some time. live and learn

Rick

 

[RichR]

I would be hesitant to try to drain the black tank until it is for sure thawed. You don't want to release the liquid without making sure the solids are going to with it. The gray tank you can get away with a bit at a time.

 

[JackandJanet]

One other point, unless the tanks were full, I would not expect the expansion due to freezing to have cracked them. However, the drain lines would have been full down to the valves, and they might be cracked. You should probably check for leaks as you go.

Additionally, the "J-traps" under the sinks probably had water in them and they could be frozen and cracked too. Check for internal leaks under the sinks. If your toilet is like mine, there's no J-trap above it, so at least that should be ok.

- Jack

 

[mari-HILO]

Its better that you follow the advice given here.

 

[Bravada]

Well how did it turn out? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Epoweredrc]

Well how did it turn out? Inquiring minds want to know.

This post is Almost a yr old. I hate when people don't reply to let us know what happened. I had the drain line freeze on my old camper once I had to cut the line outside and thaw it with a heat gun to get water flowing again, somewhere I have a picture of the 2 inches of pipe I cut showing solid frozen water in it. mine was just the grey water pipe