Hi,
sorry for the newbie post. But we had an experience with our water tank that I thought follows
on in this thread.
We were out camping last week for three days in our Penguin. Before leaving, I wanted to check
that we had at least 40l in our 83l water tank. I thought that looking at the level in the clear poly filler
hose and relating it to the tank would give me a reasonable idea of whether the tank was full, empty,
or about half full. I even took off the cap at the filler point to avoid any effect of air pressure in the filler tube.
In reading what follows, note that the van came with a full water tank, and we have not yet added any water.
So, with what I thought was a half full tank, off we went. That night, we couldn't pull any water from the manual
pump! $^^%#%O*) I thought, what could possibly be wrong? So I inspected the water tank. There is a three-way
connector on the outlet: one goes up to the filler point, the other goes through what looks like a non-return valve and
then on to the manual pump, the third is a bung for emptying the tank.
I was alarmed to find that the water level was now barely above empty, showing only a little water in the filler hose.
My first impression was that my method of checking the water level was seriously flawed and my first valuable lesson:
don't rely just on the water tank (it could easily develop a leak) and carry a spare container of water. So, in future, a filled 10l water
container will always be in the car boot.
Luckily, we had a couple of litres in some water bottles we use for hiking. The camp spot had untreated creek water on tap
for washing, cleaning etc, and we were asked for another 3l from the only other campervan who fortunately had a 250l tank.
So, we were very lucky that we were not a lot worse off.
Later, the next day, I tried to manual pump again, and out came water without any problem, easily filling a 600ml bottle.
Checked the filler hose again and it was again showing at least half a tank of water!!!!!
I have just spent some time trying to see if the tank had an air lock. Perhaps others have had similar experiences.
Here is what I think has happened, suggestions are most welcome, because I don't want this to happen again.
As we left the dealer, they filled up the tank until it overflowed. The breather hose leaves the top of the tank then
drops in a long loop, almost to the bottom of the tank, before rising through the floor and connecting to the external
breather outlet. This loop contained water.
So, I am surmising that this water create an airlock in the tank. The manual pump then had two ways of sucking, either
water from the tank (with the airlock holding the water in the tank, or from the filler hose, which quickly drained and
just delivered air from the filler point (via a non-sealing dust cap)
Here is what I think may have fixed the problem. Ideally, the filler hose should not have a loop in it that can collect water.
The way Jayco have run the pipe is to route it from the top of the tank, down under the steel C-section cross member
and then up through a hole on the floor to the external outlet. However, with a closer look, there are holes in the
vertical part of the C-section that will easily take the breather hose. So I disconnected the hose, re-routed it
through the hole in the C-section and temporarily pushed the extra length up into the floor space.
(I will cut it to the correct length if I am on the right track. Now, the breather hose has almost no loop
from the top of the tank on its way to the external outlet.
It would be interesting to know whether all Jaycos have a loop in the breather hose or if mine was installed incorrectly.
Two additions for our future trips:
1: Carry a spare container of water
2: Carry a small piece of hose which I will use to blow air down the breather outlet to clear any water in the breather tube.
Sorry for the long post.
regards
Mike
