Whenever I completely fill the water tank on my tent trailer, I have been getting puddles of water on the floor. I checked and re-checked all the plumbing fittings and connections and could not find any leaks.
Finally, in desperation, I thought I would take off the tank and see if I could find the leak there. While in the process of figuring out how to do that, I found something that surprised me. There was a hose connected to the very top of the tank. The hose goes up through the floor of the trailer and into a walled off portion of one of the storage compartments. This device was plugged into the end of that hose.
The black end has a barbed fitting to hold it into the hose, and the white portion is full of tiny holes.
I assume it’s some kind of overflow protection, but why does it need to be inside the trailer? Could I pull the hose out and fasten it to the underside of the floor, so that when the tank is too full it will water the pavement instead of the floor of my trailer?
I think some water tanks have to be pressurized to get water out of the faucets, so they have little air pumps inside the trailer you turn on when you want to use the water. That endpiece looks like it might just be a filter to keep out anything big that might have gotten sucked into the airline from getting into the water. Did you check to see what the other end of the hose is hooked to?
When using your electric pump, it is theoretically possible to draw water from the tank so fast that the tank could collapse from the vacuum. The vent is designed to allow air to enter the tank to replace the water you have withdrawn.
I think it required under one or more of the RVIA construction codes.
It also may serve as an overflow tube but I suspect that is by accident rather than design.
Thanks. It sounds like the popular consensus is that it’s a vent.
I’m hoping that if I fasten the thing to the wall, so that the end of the hose is a foot or two above the floor, I won’t have the problem with water leaking all over the floor and getting my carpet wet.
It is higher than the tank. The tank is under the floor and the vent (currently) is coiled up and resting on the floor, so it’s just barely above the tank.
There is a filler spout on the side of the trailer, that has a hose leading to the tank. The spout is above the floor level, and when the tank is full water will fill up the hose (that’s how I know the tank is full). I’m sure that that’s when the water gets into the vent and onto the floor.
Not sure how long you’ve been RV’ing but this type of shortcut is common. It saved the manufacturer the 2 cent cost of the staple to hold it in the right place.
Shouldn’t be too hard to re-engineer some sensibility into it.
On mine, the tank vent runs along the filer hose and exits to the outside. Handy too - when I’m filling the tank, I can judge how full it is by the sound of air blowing out of it, and when water squirts out, I know the tank is full.
Youi know, now that you mention that, I think my filler spout has an empty hose connector on it, which is probably what that is for. I’ll double check when I get home, and if that’s the case it will be a simple matter to run a hose from the tank to the filler spout.
After I got home tonight, I checked out the tank again, and I already have a vent hose going to the filler spout.
Here is a summary of the connections to my water tank.
[ul]
[li]On the left side (facing forward) at the bottom is the large hose from the filler spout, used to fill the tank.[/li][li]On the left side at the top is a small hose that goes to the vent fitting on the filler spout.[/li][li]In the center at the bottom is a small hose that goes to a “T” fitting. One side goes to the water pump inside the trailer, the other side goes to the drain valve.[/li][li]On the right side, at the top is a short length of hose (2-3 ft long) that goes up through the floor and has the aforementioned thingmajiggy on it.[/li][/ul]
Unless someone can give me a good reason why I need this extra vent hose, I think I’m going to remove the hose and cap off the fitting on the right side of the tank.
