Leaking below the bathroom

[Pam Garlow]

Chris, There's some great advise in this thread, and just think about all the $$ you are saving if you fix this yourself! Most RV places will charge you $75 minimum just to take the camper in to find the leak.

Good luck on the repair, You can do this!

....and never, never use that nasty silly-cone on your trailer.

[chris huss]

:-) thanks all!!!

[Bob Miller]

Looks to me like you have some serious floor damage that will need repair as well. Might as well just plan on pulling the whole thing out and finding out where the leak starts before putting it back together.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

OR, you might need to remove the gate and remove the "J" PVC, it should just screw into the bottom of the tank. But, you may not be able to unscrew it if the gate is in the way of the frame.

If you end up having to remove the gate - while you have it off clean it all up. Over time the blade and the part of the gate it slides into can get a little clogged up and cleaning it all up helps in getting a nice easy & tight closing of the gate.

[chris huss]

What is the "gate"??

[Carol H]

The gate is the thing you pull under the trailer in order to empty the black water tank. Also known as a sewer Termination Valve

[Eddie Longest]

I've been on the road and just got back home and have not been keeping up with this thread. The white caulking around the drain pipe is not normal. You should be looking at wax from the wax seal or you should be able to see where the pipe is screwed into the tank. If someone has placed calking there it is trapping the water and as you see it is damaging the floor.
First clean all the junk from around the pipe and wood and you should be able to see where the leak is coming from. As you can see from the picture the 90 deg. fitting is glued to the pipe that is screwed into the tank. You can not unscrew the pipe to re-seal threaded pipe if that is where the leak is because the frame rail will not allow you to unscrew the pipe. That is why you have to cut the 90 deg. fitting to get the threaded piece out. You will need to order all the plumbing from the tank to the gate valve because it is all glued together.
A little weeping leak from the threaded drain pipe is usually not a big issue since it just runs down the pipe but once you seal it at the floor with calking the water starts to rot the floor. This is a case where the attempted repair of calking the pipe could be causing more damage than the leak itself.
To find a leaking tank to pipe fitting you have to have water covering the bottom of the tank. The first qt. or two of water just lives in the pipe below the pipe connection.

Eddie

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Eddie Longest

As you can see from the picture the 90 deg. fitting is glued to the pipe that is screwed into the tank. You can not unscrew the pipe to re-seal threaded pipe if that is where the leak is because the frame rail will not allow you to unscrew the pipe. That is why you have to cut the 90 deg. fitting to get the threaded piece out. You will need to order all the plumbing from the tank to the gate valve because it is all glued together.

Eddie

I'm confused, if you have to cut the pipe to get the old one out, how can you possibly put a new one in if it's all glued together? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Eddie Longest]

A short tailpiece of pipe that is threaded on only one end of the pipe is threaded into the tank bottom. Thread dope is applied to the threads before it is threaded tight into the tank bottom. You next dry fit you slip joint plumbing together and mark the joints. (Hard to see with Black ABS pipe.) When things are lined up to where you want them to be you then disassemble your plumbing clean the joints and glue it all back together.
With most glued drain plumbing, if you have a problem if can cut a piece of pipe out and join it back together with a slip joint coupling. With the Scamp drain the couplings are so tight together you don't have room to add a coupling.
If you look at the picture in post 17 you will see that when you try to unthread the pipe from the bottom of the tank the 90 will hit the frame rail. This is how it is done in a front bath since it is so tight a fit. In a side bath you may have room to unthread the tailpipe by removing the gate valve but I think you still may have the same clearance unthreading issue.
I think you and Carol may have side bath Scamps that's why we are not quite on the same line of thought. I have been dealing with Scamp FB plumbing most recently and on those trailers the pipe has to be cut to unthread the tank tailpiece.
Eddie

[Donna D.]

Got it. THANKS EDDIE!

[Carol H]

Thanks Eddie for the explanation. Your right mine is a side bath and not only that put a previous owner made some changes under there so that my discharge pipe and gate valve are straight down - no turn in the pipe ... easy to remove no clearance issues.