Damage from France trip

[Lanerboy]

Just got back from nearly 3 weeks in france and yesterday I washed all the van off really well spent 3 hrs getting it like new again

I was at the back and noticed something ganging down underneath so crawled under to have a look and it was a bit of foam from around the fresh water drain outlet not a problem as don't seem to do much

BUT I noticed I have managed to ground down the pipe that comes out the tank for the drain it is all rough on the end and I think I have ground about an inch off it

I never heard anything whilst driving and the only place I can think thus happened is over the very high and long humps in the villages that leave the back end over the hump when the rear wheels are over it I thought they may cause a problem so I went over all of them at a snail's pace much to the annoyance of the drivers stuck behind me but even so I have managed to do this

Its a stupid idea in my opinion to have a rigid drain pipe pointing straight down and so low to the floor not a great design Carthago if you are reading this

 

[Clarky]

I found that the bracket holding our drain pipe had worn away underneath, although the pipe was still, just, supported.
Put a cable tie on it about a year ago and it's still in place.
I think I may have bashed ours while reversing over kerbs in supermarket car parks.
They are a bit vulnerable but don't worry too much.

Richard.

 

[138go]

Now you have ground it down it should be ok next time ..

 

[Lanerboy]

@Clarky are you talking about the grey water waste pipe ????

I am talking about the clean fresh water drain that comes down in the centre by the rear axle for dumping clean water

I have moved my grey waste pipe it now exits in front of the n/s/r wheel for the reason you mentioned above

 

[Cliffdale]

Just got back from nearly 3 weeks in france and yesterday I washed all the van off really well spent 3 hrs getting it like new again

I was at the back and noticed something ganging down underneath so crawled under to have a look and it was a bit of foam from around the fresh water drain outlet not a problem as don't seem to do much

BUT I noticed I have managed to ground down the pipe that comes out the tank for the drain it is all rough on the end and I think I have ground about an inch off it

I never heard anything whilst driving and the only place I can think thus happened is over the very high and long humps in the villages that leave the back end over the hump when the rear wheels are over it I thought they may cause a problem so I went over all of them at a snail's pace much to the annoyance of the drivers stuck behind me but even so I have managed to do this

Its a stupid idea in my opinion to have a rigid drain pipe pointing straight down and so low to the floor not a great design Carthago if you are reading this

Count your self lucky! My fresh water over flow was pushed so far down in to the tank that when i filled it up for the first time, it siphoned out and emptied the thank. It was our first motorhome so we were not sure where the water was coming from, it was just a flood across the road!

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[Feltwell]

The waste exit on my van was right in the middle, ok for drive over grids but no good for emptying into a container on the typical UK site.

You can get preformed bends in silicone hoses, meant for car cooling circuits - so I made up a drain pipe using one of those for the “drop”, if it bashes on a speed hump or whatever it just bends harmlessly out of the way

 

[steve 6644]

The waste exit on my van was right in the middle, ok for drive over grids but no good for emptying into a container on the typical UK site.

Exactly the same on our Rapido. I like your idea of the rubber elbow in fact, when I extend mine I may run the whole thing in rubber up to new side mounted taps. We have the added fag of having to grope about on the floor to reach the drain valves for both fresh and grey water under a hatch, bloody ridiculous!.

 

[Feltwell]

Not sure what sort of tank you’ve got, but if you look on CAK tanks they do a slide valve which is opened by a rod that goes to the edge of the van. You could possibly fit on of these, you can get rigid piping which connects to it which is cheap, and just get the (relatively expensive) silicone hose for the final drop.

The only thing with fitting a pipe to the side of the van is it means if the van is on any kind of slight side slope the tank doesn’t empty as fully as it does using a valve that discharges directly from the tank - it makes a surprising amount of difference - for that reason I ended up fitting a second drain valve - you could perhaps keep your original one for this?

 

[keithchesterfield2]

Wouldn't it just be simpler to cut off the pipe as close as possible to the tank and take away any chance of bottoming the pipe ever again ?
I've only emptied my fresh water tank once in six years and never had any problems - so why should you need to empty it, I ask myself ?
Make life simple .......

 

[Lanerboy]

Wouldn't it just be simpler to cut off the pipe as close as possible to the tank and take away any chance of bottoming the pipe ever again ?
I've only emptied my fresh water tank once in six years and never had any problems - so why should you need to empty it, I ask myself ?
Make life simple .......

Yes this is what I am going to do cut it off, it's not about emptying the tank I am more on about the poor design of having a rigid drain pipe sticking down with no flex in it at all and being the lowest point of contact with the road I feel lucky it has not done more damage to the tank when under stress from coming into contact with the road

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[Lanerboy]

This is a pic of the pipe, I am going to see if I can unscrew it from it's joint

 

[keithchesterfield2]

Yes this is what I am going to do cut it off, it's not about emptying the tank I am more on about the poor design of having a rigid drain pipe sticking down with no flex in it at all and being the lowest point of contact with the road I feel lucky it has not done more damage to the tank when under stress from coming into contact with the road

I think if we all posted about badly designed MH we would have considerably more posts on this forum.
I believe that most of the Manufacturer's have never taken out the vehicles they built and actually tried them out to see if the basics are right - for the money we pay you'd have thought they might have done - but I doubt it.
The MH we bought had a toilet roll holder close to the toilet and was okay until you actually put a toilet roll on the holder - and then it was impossible for the toilet lid to be lifted - give me strength....

 

[Speve]

This is a pic of the pipe, I am going to see if I can unscrew it from it's joint

View attachment 306284 View attachment 306285

That should unscrew and then you could fit a 90° bend and pipe it to the side.

 

[TerryL]

Managed to almost break off the freshwater drain valve when I ran over a stepladder that fell off a vehicle in front of me. It's on the bottom of the tank so not even the lowest point.
Luckily I managed to repair it in situ with some self-hardening putty-like sealant. Otherwise a tank out job and a plastic weld.

 

[Clarky]

@Clarky are you talking about the grey water waste pipe ????

I am talking about the clean fresh water drain that comes down in the centre by the rear axle for dumping clean water

I have moved my grey waste pipe it now exits in front of the n/s/r wheel for the reason you mentioned above

Yes, correct.
I assumed that you meant the waste outlet pipe, sorry.
After having problems with the outlet valve in the fresh tank, now fixed, I haven't trusted it.
If I want to drain the fresh tank now I pump it through the taps and use it to rinse out the grey tank.
I'm sure cutting the end off the drain pipe isn't going to cause you any further problems.

Richard.

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