kjk66ss
chatsworth
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hey everyone,
as my previous post have stated ,i have a 2005 fleetwood gearbox.
my trailer was in the shop for 4 months getting the front end rebuilt from water damage. and when i bought it the owner advised me to drain and clean the fresh water tank.
i got the trailer back last week and drained the tank and filled halfway with more water and dumped in some bleach and drove it around. i let the bleach sit for a night then drained it and filled halfway and drained again and ,once again filled halfway. i only filled half water cause it seems like an offull lot of water(130gallons) to just fill up and waste.
anyways,this morning i pulled the valve for the fresh tanks and stil algai came out. so im thinking to do a thourghout cleaning ill just remove the tanks from the trailer and get the preasure washer in there and be able to get the water all over the tank without having to fill it entirely and will be able to physically move the tank to clean and inspect. i dont drink or cook with the water just clean and shower but have young kids that will be around the water and the though of algai in the water does not sound good. and the owner said the water had been in their for 2 years sitting..
so now to the point. how hard is it to remove a 130 gallon tank? i know the tank is 1 solid tank and one half,where the valve is,is about 6-8 inches and the other half of the tank is about 4 inches thick. i can see the 2 big brackets that are holding the tank up. and on the valve to drain the water is about a 1/2inch hose coming off the valve,not sure where it leads. could that be the main supply? what other items are connected to the tanks?
* This post was
edited 02/09/12 04:12pm by kjk66ss *
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nayther
Burbank, CA
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You shouldn't need to remove it to get it cleaned, IMHO. I'd go through the process of flushing more. The bleach kills the algae for sure, keep doing it until its clear. The bleach also kills any bacteria. Removing the tank would be a *****! I've been contemplating removing mine to fix a leak but have to drop the axles to get it out so have not done it. Will yours clear the axles? If so there should only be the brackets you see and the fill/vent and the supply line to the pump to disconnect. But it will be pretty heavy.
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dedmiston
Valencia
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Don't be too hard on yourself about wasting the water. You don't have much alternative.
Only filling it halfway with water and adding bleach really won't do much, because it will only sanitize the lower half of the tank. I'd fill it up all the way and then sanitize it.
How flat is it in your part of Chatsworth? I know drainage can be hit-and-miss in the valley. I'd hate to dump a tank for of bleached out algae in front of my house and have it sit there in a puddle. I'd be afraid The City would show up and fine me. Maybe tow it up to the top of De Soto before you pull the handle.
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lincster
Mesa Az
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Only filling it half way is why you are not getting all the******out. You gotta fill it up all the way until it is coming out the over flow.
Dump and fill a few more times. MUCH easier than dropping the tank(s).
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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Another tip to try is to fill it full or close, then add several bags of ice. Then drive it around, start and stop often so you can really use the ice (before it melts) to knock off crud from the walls. Get several of the big bags of ice (Costco super size).
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kjk66ss
chatsworth
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ok,
thanks everyone for the ideas and help.
i poured in the required amount of bleach for 130 gallons. i put the hose in and attempted to fill up the entire fresh tank. tank filled up rather quickly. like 15 mins it was full . i belived it wasnt full all the way and just let the hose dit hoping it would burp out the vent and continue to fill. after 10 mins of running it never burped . i then pulled the hose out and it was almost like the tank was pressureized. few gallons of water flew out every where.
i got the air compressor and shoved the air nozzle into the vent hole and nothing happened. i tried to blow in there by mouth and nothing,almost like the vent was blocked or their is a one way type valve that only lets out not in? not sure.
i have everything inside taken apart trying to follow the vent hose down and the tank goes so far up that you cant see anything underneath or get your hand under,and reach around. the tank on the gauge shows full and the tank is almost full. by looking under, the water is about 2 inches from the top which seems fine on the bigger end of the tank. but where the tank steps up to only about a 4 inch tank 2 inches only leaves me with about 2 inches of water at that point.
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kjk66ss
chatsworth
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tried blowing air into the vent and tried sucking water out but couldnt get anything. something must be blocking it unles it has some type of valvle at the tank end?
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1L243
Astoria, Oregon
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You should feel air coming out the vent as you add water. The air has to go somewhere if the vent is blocked it will come out around the filler hose.
Back to the bleach question. How many cups of bleach are you adding for a 130 gallon tank. Don't forget to run the bleach solution through all the faucets till you can smell the bleach. Then flush with fresh water.
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kjk66ss
chatsworth
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well nothing comes out the vent. i cant even blow any air into the vent or suck anything out.
i even cut about 4ft of tie wire and tried shoving some tie wire down ,i only got about 15 inches in and wouldnt go any futher and the vent hose is about 20 inches from the outside of trailer and runs inside and then through the floor to the tank so the wire ether hit some thing that is blocking the vent or it just got to the elbow that goes into the tank??
correct me if im wrong. i should be able to hear bubbles developing in the tank when i put the compressor to the vent or should be able to siphon water out or at least air?
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dedmiston
Valencia
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It sounds like your vent line(s) might be kinked.
Keep in mind though that your vents are smaller than the fill line, so if you turn the hose on too high you will fill it faster than it can vent. This can either cause the tank to buckle (bad) or the water will puke back out at you (annoying). It sounds like you experienced the tank puking on you.
As you fill the tank, you should hear some venting. It should gurgle and/or whisper a little. Try shutting off the hose for a second and listen for venting.
I use a filler tube that has a shutoff so I can turn off the flow every few minutes and let the venting catch up with the filling.
But if you're not getting any venting at all, get underneath it and locate the vent line(s) and see if they're kinked.
Also, your tank might actually be two tanks tied together with a line that keeps the equalized. If so, then they'll vent at different rates. So if you're filling the tank too fast, you'll have two problems: it can't vent quickly enough and it can't equalize to the other tank quickly enough. So it will seem like your tank is full, but it just hasn't caught up yet.
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