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- CLOC-AdminI need help. We are now in Mission Texas. Left Ontario with unit all winterized. While in Yuma Tennessee, summarized unit. Put water in tank. Flushed system. Thought everything was working fine. Next stop, Texarkana overnight. Hook up city water. Everything seems find except I noticed when travelling and using pump, it pumps water back out the city use pipe. What is this? Next stop south of Dallas. Hook up city water again and everything appears fine. Next day, Mission Texas and Retama Village for winter. Cleaning up, look under trailer and notice fabric is bulging and water dripping out. Obviously have a leak somewhere while city water on. Cannot find any leaks at fittings or hoses. When using tank, pressure is held by water pump so obviously no leaks in plumbing. However, pump still pumps water back out through city hookup. plugged with screw in shutoff temporarily until I figure this out. Meantime, using pump and tank vs city. My problem, why is pump putting water back out the city inlet and where did all this water in my belly pan come from? What a mess. I know I will have to open up belly to dry this up but in the meantime, does anyone have any ideas of what is going on?Posted: 11:07 AM – Dec 02, 2015You now have a defective one way valve at the city water inlet. Only remedy is to replace it. In the meantime just terminate with a quick connector which will stop water coming out for now and allow a hook up for a water hose.Posted: 12:37 PM – Dec 02, 2015thanks for that. I am now both happy and mortified. I have pulled the panel at the back of the storage bin up front and have checked every line and and fitting. No leaks anywhere under pressure. Okay – so the water (lots of it) in the belly pan (insulation etc) is not as a result of leaking water lines. Now the question is; where did it come from? We drove through 3 days of heavy downpours all the way from Nashville to Dallas with the stops overnight as mentioned. So – is it possible the water came in through the coach? All floors are dry. Can the wheels splash up enough water to penetrate the undercarriage membrane and then be absorbed by the insulation? This occurred during those horrific rainstorms from Nov 27-30 in Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. This is a 2009 F35SB3 with the three slides. Puchased last July with very low mileage. I am stumped. Will purchase a new street valve for water intake to cure that problem.Posted: 12:47 PM – Dec 02, 2015On our 2011 Cameo the large slides had bows that allow rain while driving to come in, but nothing like what you are experiencing, we only had some damp carpeting. You might want to eyeball the slides to see if there is a bow. There is documentation on this forum on how to straighten the bow. After we had the repair done it solved our problem, just one other thing to check.Posted: 2:18 PM – Dec 02, 2015Which part of the belly is flooded? Is it the area under the fresh water tank and utility compartment?
If the one way valve is stuck open and you left the water pump on while driving, then you may have pumped a lot of fresh water into the utility cabinet, which can easily find its way into the belly fabric from there.
Posted: 9:50 AM – Dec 04, 2015The water accumulated in the area between the axles and back. When I undid the zippers for the access to slide motors, the insulation was soaked and poured water out. The pump was not left on during our travels. The tank had the same amount of water. I travel with about a third of a tank – 25 gallons? – but did notice any specific drop. One thing I did find the other evening, when I was looking in my bin for something, I heard water splashing. Looked across the drivers side and noticed the hose that is used for winterizing was spewing out water periodically onto my bin floor. I initially had this tube lying on top of the water tank but had moved it up and over the front bin panel so it was out of the way. First thing that came to mind was that this was the source of the leak. Thought that maybe while under city pressure during those evening stops, it had been pushing excess water up that tube and into the coach. Not a steady stream but a slow build up of water in the tube and then out into the coach. However, that would have meant that the belly pan in front of the sewage and gray water tanks would have been soaked and it was not. Presently I have fixed the street valve back flow with a new valve and put a stopper in the end of the winterizing tube plus turned the valve off to the on board water tank so no more water from that area. All plastic piping to the underbelly tanks are dry with no issues. I do believe I have become intimate with the plumbing and drain schematics of this coach. Like every coach we have owned and pulled for thousands of miles, there are always issues. This one still has me mystified. Thanks Traveler for the note on the bowing of the slides. I will check that out. No wet or damp carpets though. I also thought about the possibility of the fridge side vents (street side). Could they possible have allowed water in? However, if that was the case, I would expect to see water on the inside floor and carpet. Nothing. Dry as a summer in the desert. Geesh. We are here in Ratama Village, Mission Texas for the next 4 months so I have lots of time to figure this out. Guess I will have to pull back the under membrane and dry or replace the insulation. Think I will wait till we are home next spring to tackle that job. Geesh again!Posted: 3:14 PM – Dec 04, 2015rattlebear,Suggest you look up.
We’ve just experienced the same downpours (about forty seven thousand inches of rain) to which you referred and had a recurring drip at our shower skylite. So up on the roof I go with a fresh tube of Dicor to reseal and recheck the roof. After resealing the roof penetrations I was looking around and found that the Eternabond tape at the rear of the coach had deteriorated across about an 8 inch section and that allowed water in. It didn’t show up in the interior, but instead in the back storage area basement floor and the insulated area between the rear wheel and back of the rig. Since yours is a 2008 model as is ours, suggest you take a look up on the roof.
Let us know and best of luck.
Posted: 7:50 AM – Dec 06, 2015Do not wait until you get home to remove the wet insulation. The longer it us in there the more mold will accumulate. ASAP at least remove it, and, until you replace it, be careful to run the main heater if it gets anywhere near freezing. If you are in a dry western state, that insulation, if left draped over a picnic table in the sun will dry out in a little over a day of you rotate it once the water has stopped dripping.Posted: 7:25 PM – Dec 11, 2015I open up the belly and pulled back the membrane to the left side of the coach, all the way from the front holding tank back to behind the spare tire. Soaked. Has all dried out – took several days and a fan blowing air across the insulation. Total dry today so I put it all back together and buttoned her up. Went to the area in front of the plastic pan under the holding tanks. Totally dry up there, thank you. pulled back the access panel to the plastic pan. Insulation soaked. I do not have the tools to start cutting the plastic so it will clear the dump pulls and then the 4 inch dump tubes. Why would they make it that way? Appears the large plastic pan is cut and may clear the above fixtures. So – the only insulation left that is wet is under those tanks. I have opened up the access panel and letting air at it. Any other suggestions? Still befuddled about where all this water came from. My one theory as noted in another post is only that and not definitive. Thought maybe the winterizing tube had dumped street service water under pressure but then I would have expected the front insulation to be soaked since that is where the fresh water tank is. Nope – dry. I was very concerned about the mold John especially under the body. That is not a problem anymore. BUT – the holding tanks are still wet – insulation that is. They are NOT leaking. Nice clean water we are dealing with here.Posted: 8:49 PM – Dec 11, 2015My Cameo and my current Lifestyle has a poor design where the water hose and cable come up through the bottom into the utility compartment.
If water was dripping from the hose at the city water inlet, any water that spilled out of the hose disconnecting the fresh or black tank flush, or water from filling the fresh water tank all collected in the bottom of the utility area and seeped under the access flap ring and soaked the insulation near the holding tanks.
When I took delivery of the LS, I immediately removed the ring which was poorly secured. I reinstalled it a heavy, heavy bead of waterproof caulk AND screwed it back into place with nuts and bolts. Now the water has to out over the lip and down through the hole for the hoses, etc. Since I’ve done this, I have not found the insulation in the holding tank area to get damp.
This may or may not be related to your issue but if anyone has not sealed-up this area as I’ve described and gets water in the utility compartment, it IS getting the underbelly insulation wet. I hope this helps.Posted: 11:51 PM – Dec 11, 2015Have you dumped the black tank? I appear to have a problem where the black tank flusher enters the tank. If you’ve used the flusher and have a similar issue, you may have gotten clean water on top of, and running down the tanks. In my case, it’s just in the belly pan. Perhaps yours is getting over the gray tank and wetting things further backOn my unit, access to the flusher on top of the black tank is behind the main basement wall. I have a tech coming Tuesday to fix it.
Posted: 9:34 AM – Dec 12, 2015Thanks jdpm. Will check that. Also – going back to Jim’s suggestion about the bowing of the slides. I am now convinced that the water did not come from the winterizing tube and now suspect the slide (s) seal not being tight when brought it. Water is an odd commodity, like air, it can seep into even the tightest places and not been seen until the damage is done. Thinking back, travelling down the highway at 60 mph in a rainstorm with all the pressures that are building around the coach, this seems like the more logical conclusion. There was no moisture in the coach itself anywhere, but – perhaps the water could seep down the inside of the walls somehow into the basement underbelly area. I have to figure this all out before we head back north at the end of March or I will probably be faced with the same soaking problem when we arrive home after 2000 miles. For sure we will hit rainstorms in the spring.Posted: 11:15 AM – Dec 12, 2015I did pull the back panel of the storage bin and everything was dry and I have not seen any water anywhere from the flusher. However – I went back to the seals of the bedroom slide. Pulled the slide in checked seals. The front side seal is not tight at the top. It is at the back. The top black “U” shaped seal is tight at the front but as it comes back to rear, raises off the slide and there is about a 3/8 inch gap. Conclusion, – if travelling down the highway in a rainstorm, water could flow down the top of the bedroom slide from the front until it reaches where the black seal begins to rise from the top of the roof. It could then leak towards the inside of the slide until it reaches the inside seal which is barely touching the top of the roof. From there it could enter the area between the fixed wall and the slide. I would expect then that the inside floor of the bedroom would be wet where the slide and wall meet but it is not. Could the water find a trough down the wall and into the belly without touching either the bedroom floor or storage bin floor? How do I fix this black seal so it is tight all the way along? Did the factory not install the seal level on the wall above the slide where it attaches? All questions. Anybody have any answers?Posted: 11:36 AM – Dec 12, 2015In our case the two large slides had bows at the bottom, when retraced I could put two fingers in the middle of each slide and the ends were touching. If I looked down the slide I could see the bow. Carriage had a repair that required using angle iron on the bottom of the slide and that solved our problem.We found when we first got our Cameo that if we let our gray tank fill up that we had water dripping out the bottom. Not a fix, but when our tank is 2/3 full I empty it, as I said not a fix but I’ve not had a water problem since starting this.
Posted: 6:21 PM – Dec 17, 2015We ran our 2008 carri lite through torrential rains from Winsor to Toronto down the 401. I found plenty of water bulging the fabric with soaked insulation behind the wheels. I cut a 2 foot slice to allow water out and air in to dry it up. I noticed the insulation there was muddy dirty. I suspect every time this thing goes down the road in rain, it gets wet In there. AND that foolish hole in bottom of water cabinet allows water to run right into the belly fabric. Lots I really like about the rig, but the underside button up job sucks!! Hope you can get her straightened out!!B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX
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