Black Water Drain will not open

Johnypop · 06-23-2019, 10:52 AM

Black water tank filled, tried to drain pulling handle. Used forceful pull, handle pulled out did not drain. Is there a manual pull on valve. Want to drain and replace valve.

Walt · 06-23-2019, 11:51 AM

What make and model trailer do you have? Are you from North Dakota?

Johnypop · 06-23-2019, 12:18 PM

DRV Mobile Suites 36RS3. I live in Florida

Walt · 06-23-2019, 02:02 PM

There is no manual pull. Sounds like the inside cable broke. Time to replace the valve and cable assembly. Not a fun job.

**wingnut60** · 06-23-2019, 03:05 PM

Depending on the year, access can be just hard to plain difficult. Open the sliding door in basement--the one on the off-door side. Should be a white water filter hanging from frame--directly behind that filter about 2 ft rearward you can see the 3" drain line out of the black tank and the valve location. If you are agile/long arms, you can possibly reach behind the valve to where the cable enters and maybe manually get it to open some. Outside of getting this valve open, since the tank is full, not going to be a fun/clean job.
Have you tried grabbing the cable end with vice-grip pliers and pulling on it again?

MTK46 · 06-24-2019, 10:59 PM

One thing I found on my hard to open valves was to use just hard steady pull. Don't just yank on it. Try the vice-grip pliers like wingnut60 posted.
If you do get it open & drained you can add a pull valve on the end of your drain line. They are about $20.00 at CW. Just don't leave the gray open if you do that. Your black will back up into it which you don't want.

elliott-maine · 07-01-2019, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wingnut60

Depending on the year, access can be just hard to plain difficult. Open the sliding door in basement--the one on the off-door side. Should be a white water filter hanging from frame--directly behind that filter about 2 ft rearward you can see the 3" drain line out of the black tank and the valve location. If you are agile/long arms, you can possibly reach behind the valve to where the cable enters and maybe manually get it to open some. Outside of getting this valve open, since the tank is full, not going to be a fun/clean job.
Have you tried grabbing the cable end with vice-grip pliers and pulling on it again?

If you can see it through the door, you could just remove the back wall from the compartment and have plenty of room to access it.

**wingnut60** · 07-02-2019, 02:21 PM

Not sure that applies to a DRV? Probably need a little more detail...

elliott-maine · 07-02-2019, 02:46 PM

Can you remove the panel the sliding door is in? I didn't realize DRVs we so different than others.

**wingnut60** · 07-03-2019, 12:45 AM

On a DRV, the basement has 2 sliding doors providing access to the innards--furnace/ducts/transfer switch/holding tanks, etc. Not necessary to take the doors out. But as I said earlier, the 3" tank valve is straight behind the water filter on almost every model I have seen. Moving the filter out and some water lines will get access to the valve, but it isn't easy to replace--doable, but not easy. The black tank valve is a 3" model, and the cable is about 4ft long--the 6' model is probably too long. These valves have a history of the cables binding and breaking.