Gray water and the 36 FL

[benstefa1@yahoo.com]

Hey all,

After two days of dry camping gray water tank one is full. The shower bathroom sink and kitchen sink are attached to gray water one???
Gray water two shows empty.........

Very Wierd. Any one else have this experience?

For the record I did not have the dishwasher installed.......

Best Regards,

Ben

[Robin'n'Marian]

That does sound wierd... is the other tank only for the washer, or maybe some plumbing is hooked up wrong?

[Robin'n'Marian]

Robin says he will be hooking the two grey tanks together in any case, so they equalize and act like one. We will be doing a lot of boondocking and that will give us a much longer time before we have to dump, since the tanks would not be filling evenly otherwise.
I believe you would get a Y connection with a way to have the drain portion shut off.

[Grandpa]

We have the 36RL and have experienced the same problem with the two 45 gallon grey tanks. One fills quickly and the other doesn't. If someone figures out a good way to combine the two please post to the forum. Could it be done by adding an overflow pipe to the two tanks so when one is almost full it flows into the other?

The printed information that was provided in their brochure said that grey tank was 90 gallons which was very attractive. It didn't state that there were two different 45 gallon tanks. Very misleading. The answer is to combine the two!

[Dave&Ginny]

Most RV's are done this way. They have 2 tanks, one for the bathroom and the other for the kitchen. One solution would be what Bryon (Kr2011) said to do. He's going to ad a valve that he can close down stream from the 2 grey water valves. Then with that valve closed and the 2 original valves open, they would both balance themselves in fluid levels

[Grandpa]

Isthe additional valvean expensive process?

[KR2011]

Depending on your tank configuration it can cost a bit. The belly has to be removed and the Plumbing has to be altered. When I was at the factory I saw how they put the tanks in the FL and I think it might not be possible because they stack the tanks. I did not pay close attention to which tank was where, so if the 2 grey tanks are on the bottom they could be connected together, possibly, then it will depend on the plumbing which I have not seen yet.

[Campers]

Has any one checked with the factory about this problem? We pick up ours on May 8th. I will be looking at that one ver carefully. Our Outback had 2 grey tanks 1 for shower and sink and 1 for the galley. I hoped it was the same with redwood

[mhs4771]

Per the plumbing drawing I have for the 36RL, one gray tank is for the Galley, while the other Gray tank services the Shower, Vanity, and the Washer. Similar to our Montana, except that on the Montana the Washer empties directly into the dump line so we have to have a full hookup to use the washer. You would have thought that Redwood could have put the washer into the galley tank as the only other thing going in is the kitchen sink, while the other has to handle the showers. We can do 4 showers into our current gray, any more and you're standing in water. So that tank usually gets dumped two to one of the galley tank.

[KR2011]

Originally Posted by Campers

Has any one checked with the factory about this problem? We pick up ours on May 8th. I will be looking at that one ver carefully. Our Outback had 2 grey tanks 1 for shower and sink and 1 for the galley. I hoped it was the same with redwood

it is the same with the redwood's they have 2 45gallon tanks 1 for the galley and 1 for the bathroom grey water.

[KR2011]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

Per the plumbing drawing I have for the 36RL, one gray tank is for the Galley, while the other Gray tank services the Shower, Vanity, and the Washer.Â* Similar to our Montana, except that on the Montana the Washer empties directly into the dump line so we have to have a full hookup to use the washer.Â* You would have thought that Redwood could have put the washer into the galley tank as the only other thing going in is the kitchen sink, while the other has to handle the showers.Â* We can do 4 showers into our current gray, any more and you're standing in water.Â* So that tank usually gets dumped two to one of the galley tank.

They are actually using a larger tank than most manufacturers by 5 gallons. We have the dishwasher and washer/dryer plus we only have electric at our hosting site for the state park were at. We will be dumping a lot!

[5th_Time]

Also the dishwasher dumps to the galley tank.
Something like 2 gals per.Edited by: 5th_Time

[Grandpa]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

Per the plumbing drawing I have for the 36RL, one gray tank is for the Galley, while the other Gray tank services the Shower, Vanity, and the Washer. Similar to our Montana, except that on the Montana the Washer empties directly into the dump line so we have to have a full hookup to use the washer. You would have thought that Redwood could have put the washer into the galley tank as the only other thing going in is the kitchen sink, while the other has to handle the showers. We can do 4 showers into our current gray, any more and you're standing in water. So that tank usually gets dumped two to one of the galley tank.

Does the drawing you have show how the tanks are installed or stacked? Would that drawing give enough information to guide someone through joining the two grey tanks together to allow one to drain into the other to expand capacity?

[5th_Time]

I wish the factory would weigh-in on this. The engineersusually havetheir own reasons for designing the systems the way they are. Then, we can second guess their logic .

[Grandpa]

The engineers need to dry camp for about a week. It would illustrate how important the grey tank size can be.

[mhs4771]

One view makes it look like the two grays are side by side, yet anothe view makes it look like one is above the other. So nothing that could really be used as a guide line, plus the only reason I got what I did was because they we in the process of updating the drawings. So it may be entirely different than what I have.

[KR2011]

I posted this earlier and now I'm reposting it for those of you who did not read it.

I was at the factory I saw how they put the tanks in the FL and I think it might not be possible because they stack the tanks. I did not pay close attention to which tank was where, so if the 2 grey tanks are on the bottom they could be connected together, possibly, then it will depend on the plumbing which I have not seen yet.

[TravelinAnderson]

I think I'll send Brian Emmons an email to see if he'll provide a schematic of the tank layout for the 36FL. We too have had times when one gray tank is at 1/3 and the other is full to the point that there standing water in the shower.
I'm thinking about putting another 3" waste valve in the main drain pipe where it exits the covered underbelly. My thinking is that I can close the newly installed valve and open both gray water valves. This should allow the gray tanks to equalize. Since all the sinks and shower drains are higher than the holding tanks they should still equalize even if they are stacked.
When I'm ready to empty the tanks I'd close the gray tank valves, connect to the dump station then open the new valve and empty the tank as I normally would... black then grays.
Please feel free to critique my thinking here.
If I'm right, the gray water tank issue could be solved for the price of a 3" waste valve.

[BradPAjax]

All,
The pix Dave and Ginny posted on their Factory Tour Forum shows 3 tanks, 2 grey ones side by side under the kitchen and a big white one under the bath. I assume these are the grey and black water tanks?
This will not help out those with an FL but should illustrate what we can expect in the RL, RE, and BR.

[KR2011]

Steve if the tanks are stacked you era putting a lot of pressure on the bottom tank at the top where the linen comes in as well as the vent pipe and this is where they will leak. But if I'm thinking about what I saw the grays are on the bottom and the black tank is on top. The galley tank would be at the bottom front with the black tank on top because it is right beside the kitchen and the shower and bath sink is towards the back so if I'm thinking correct the 2 gray tanks are side by side at the bottom with the black tank on top and the fresh tank is all the way to the front.