Chinook Glacier 2004 - City water draining out the bottom of RV

[JBSplash]

Hello all,
I've been prepping my RV for the road for some time now and have made many discoveries. The last problem I have is with the potable water system. When I connect city water, most of it is draining out of what looks to be a bypass hose underneath the vehicle. I can manage to fill the 2 tanks (and I have been able to drain them through the water heater bypass. I cannot, however, get the pump to pressurize the system and I can't get water to come out of the faucets or shower....at all! The other weird thing that happens is the toilet fills with water....to the point of overflow if I dont flush it! There is a 3-way valve that I'm not sure how to work exactly, but its either closed or open (in a couple positions) and the same problem occurs. I'm thinking it could be something to do with the anti-syphon valve behind the sink.Either that or a clogin the lines somewhere.

Interesting discovery BTW.....and I hope this helps others: ON THIS MODEL/YEAR, THE AUTOMATIC TRANSFER SWITCH IS BEHIND THE SINK PLUMBING!!!! Looked for it for a long while!!!

Any help on the water quandry would be greatly appreciated!

[JBSplash]

Well, I figured out that the two valves (hot and cold) in the compartment behind the shower were, in fact, flush-out lines...at least the cold one is...not sure about the hot. Now im down to flow issues and a toilet valve thats sticking on the Dometic 511. Still flushing everything out all weekend, then installing a new water pump. I figure it best to use the old one and its filter to purge the potable tanks of their resident evils! Hope my posts prove useful to other with old Summits. PM me if questions.

[KevinChinook]

Hi JBSplash. What you are describing about the City water draining out of the bottom of the RV (Summit) is what I have. I replaced my old city water inlet water & flange because when I hooked up to city water, the valve just whined and the pressure wasn't very good. After I replaced it, it seemed to work for a while - and then I was going back & forth from city water to water holding tanks & pump to make sure things were working. When I hooked city water back up, the flow just dumps straight on the ground without going into the vehicle or pressurizing it. I can see it is coming out of a hose under the vehicle, but can't really see where that hose goes. I have the back of the sink open so I can see the city water inlet connection and that is tight. There must be another valve there somewhere that is just stuck open. Any ideas what it is or where it is or what it looks like? Thanks.

[KevinChinook]

SELF-INDUCED PROBLEM!

During the process of flushing my system after Winter, I had emptied everything through the drain-valves. I then closed the drains & refilled the tanks again and pumped the water through the faucets to clear the lines and faucets. Filled it again and emptied through the drain-valves. In the meantime the pump over-heated and shut itself off. I fought with it for a while, but then quit and decided to hook up the city water again and try it, but this time (apparently) I forgot to close the drain-valves by the shower/bathroom. When I hooked it up, it was just dumping on the ground. I threw-in the towel and went to bed. The next day the pump worked again (then realized it had a over-heat breaker that shut it off to save itself ... Yay!) I heard water running on the ground again and then looked at the drain-valves again and that's when I realized I hadn't shut all the valves.

So ... all is working. The new city water inlet works and doesn't whine and has good pressure. Water pumps work and all is well.

[noluck]

good to hear

[JBSplash]

I'm finding that the water system on my 2004 Summit is just plain old and, as we are all learning , plastics and rubber parts don't age well when left in storage for years at a time!!! I'm chasing leaks in my potable water system, patching cracks in my grey and black tanks, and lamenting the whole process in general...cuz I have limited time and $$$$, like most anyone else!!! My questions at this point are: 1.) Who sells replacement Grey and Black water tanks for these units??? and 2.), Does anyone know what goo will stop the leak, repair the tannk cracks?? IDK whether these are ABS or HDPE. Anyone cracked this hack yet???

[JBSplash]

KevinChinook, BTW, thank you for the feedback! It is helping me make sense of the bypass valves and the value of replacing the inlet to the cityb water...etc. The stuff just falls apart over time ( like we do,lol) and must be replaced. Thankfully there is Prime and Chinese manufacturers that are actually our allys as RV ers, if not citizens, lololol!!!! I figure I will replace every part in my old RV before the journey ends. I love the process, however exasperating.