?????? Grey Tank Valve & Toilet Flapper Seal

[golf_bears]

Have two issues and could use some advice from those who have dealt with these problems before. In advance, thanks for all your help.

1st problem. By grey valve is stuck open, good news right? I think the cable is either broke or disconnected at the valve. I know the black box cover thing beneath the RV is the area I need to access. What can I expect when I get that cover off? Also, it has 4 hex screws holding it up but two of the screws are covered up by the gas line going to the fridge. Can that gas line be lowered without disconnecting it?

2nd problem. Toilet flapper seal won’t hold water anymore. I have cleaned it a number of times in the past and it resolved the problem, but that doesn’t work anymore. I need to replace the seal. Anyone else out there don this themselves? Do I need to remove the toilet to replace the seal? Any advice or words of wisdom will be welcome.

[RickandJanice]

You might see if you can look through the access door in the basement and see if you can see what the issue is. On our rig, the gray water valve is not very far inside this door and I can see the gray water valve quite easily just by lifting up some of the insulation. Have never tried to lower the gas line but the screws to our valve cover are not under the line either.

As for the toilet, I replaced the flapper valve seal on ours within the first year. Dometic sent a rebuild kit at no charge because our serial number was in a group that they knew had a material issue with the seal and a defective spring on the valve. First remove the plastic pedestal cover by pulling straight forward on it. It is held in place with Velcro. You will then be able to access a plastic clamp that holds the ceramic bowl to the pedestal. By loosening the screw on the back side of this clamp, you can remove it. The bowl can then be lifted off the pedestal and you can service the valve and the seal without removing the pedestal from the floor. The seal is actually located between the bowl and the pedestal and is easy to replace by just lifting off the pedestal.

[Stripit]

Yes the gas line can be loosened and slid over for access to the screws it covers up. Once the screws are removed for the black cover I had to use a wide bladed puddy knife to split the caulking sealant they used to stick the cover in place. Then it will drop down a bit and slide rearward to expose the tank valves and cables. Mine was wrapped in insulation and you can just pull that out of the way.

Our toilet seal is still the original but it has been removed and cleaned at least 20 times over the years. The rubber gets calcium deposits and what I found is the plastic ball also get calcium crust and it has to be scraped clean.I use a small flat blade screwdriver and carefully scrape as to not gouge the plastic ball. Whole job on the toilet is less than 15 minutes and if you don't position the seal/two halves of the toilet correctly the water won't stay in the bowl. If that happens just loosen the clamp and reset. Not a big job at all.

[Motor31]

Most everything has already been covered. The only thing I'd add is that you'll have a real fun time threading the new cable up and around to the water control box area for the grey valve. Make sure you lube up the new cable assembly before you install it. Getting to it is a PITA later on and it is difficult to see the lube extends beyond just the handle and valve locations. You are going to get covered in fiberglass for this so wear long sleeves, tape the cuffs, button the top button and wear heavy latex or rubber gloves. Don't forget protective eye wear as glass fibers in the eyes is no joke, it WILL hurt your eyes.

My toilet had a leaking flapper valve issue for quite some time no matter how often I cleaned it and tensioned the bowl band. Last year the spring mechanism failed completely while on the road. Thetford makes a cartridge replacement as it is not repairable. It was a 5 minute repair job. The part comes in 2 "flavors". One with a new flapper valve and without. In your case I STRONGLY suggest you get the pack with both the flapper valve and spring cartridge. It cost us about $65 IIRC. In our case simply replacing the spring cartridge took care of the leaking issue entirely. It shouldn't have but somehow it did. I have the new flapper valve in my "spares" box now.

I also carry a new water control valve with me for the toilet as well. Since the "brilliant" design folks at DRV failed to put a valve between the toilet and inlet water line there is no way to shut off the water to the toilet if the valve fails without turning off the house water entirely. If it fails and the bowl does not leak into the black tank, it will overflow the toilet into the trailer. If you are like me that will happen in the middle of the night. No fun waking up to use the toilet and finding you are standing on a wet floor. Fortunately the valve replacement does not require toilet bowl removal.

In my rig there is also no valve at any of the water line junctions at the sinks either. When I replaced the kitchen faucet a few months ago I bought a couple inline valves so I could shut the water off without having to close it at the main line inlet. Yeah, drv saved a few pennies there.

[porkchop]

I don't know about 05, but I've had 4 DRV's since 07 and they all have individual shut offs on all hot and cold lines. Not under the sinks like a s&b but in the basement.

The absolute best set up I've seen is in Peterson's Excel. All of the water related stuff is an easily reachable compartment on the off door side. My neighbor has one and I really like the set up. Big door and nicely labeled and accessable. I've noticed very few manuf. with shut offs of any kind.

Bill

[47hook]

Apparently those "brilliant" design folks came to work while my unit was being built. Open the off door basement door, slide the cover for the utilities area and there are all the individual water lines with labled shutoffs for each area in the coach. Plus, they figured out how to drain the fresh water tank more quickly.

By and large, this unit is much better than my 07. This isn't to say that I don't have some issues, I do, just tired of all the sarcasm.