2011 32BHDS Rear Kitchen plumbing issue

[chrisvandette]

Hello

We just upgraded our 2009 28bhs to a 2011 32bhds with the rear outside kitchen, very nice unit.

We did a couple short weekend trips after we got the unit with the first trip to a full hook up camp ground and found out that the rear kitchen sink drains into the black tank , we had to drain the black tank daily

Now the black tank fills up really fast and the grey tank hardly gets used as we use the outside kitchen a lot.

Is this normal for the outside sink to be plumbed to the black tank

I think jayco should have installed a second grey tank

We mostly dry camp at a provincial park camp ground for a week at a time and never fill the black tank with our old trailer, but have to drain the grey every 2-3 days , it's only soapy water so no big issue

now it is a daily duty to drain and do a honey wagon run with black and grey water

We talked to our local Jayco dealer and they where not aware that the outside kitchen drained into the black tank, they emailed Jayco and where told that is the way they did those models

the local dealer will do anything we want to fix the issue at our cost of course , i think jayco should pay for it.

we called jayco also and where told to put a buck/ tub in the rear sink to do dishes then dump that bucket into the inside kitchen sink , they said basicly too bad your stuck with it , not a waranty or design issue in there eyes


any thoughts , call jayco again ???

thanks

[Seann45]

lots of manufactures do that... have one sink that drains into the black to help with flushing

[usmc616]

Since it was designed that way I don't see how Jayco was at fault. I would not of thought to call Jayco and I would of assumed it drained into the grey tank. I believe your only solution is to pay the dealer to replumb the outside kitchen drain to the grey tank.

[Denise]

Hi Chris and welcome to the Jayco Owners Forum. I can see how frustrating it would be to have to drain the tank quite often. Nice that you could post the info on that particular set-up so others shopping for the same model will know ahead of time how the plumbing drains. Have ya got pics of your outdoor kitchen? Post some pics when ya can.

[ByDesign]

I was thinking that just last weekend. How nice it would be if the gray tank drained through the black tank, of course only when the gray valve was pulled.

Dump the black, then shut valve, then dump gray to black, then open black again if you want a soaking effect, or leave black open and gray would run through black to sewer.

Just was thinking ......

[chrisvandette]

Hello

A update , I had emailed Jayco about how the back kitchen drain

they where extremly polite, here is what they said

It is the intended design and any modification of this system is not recommended and must be at the customer expense as this modification could void the warranty in regards to any issues that it may cause. In this I am not able to assist you in your request. This is simply not something Jayco will participate in. I do apologize for your disappointment.

At least they where very polite this time

I will look at running a line from the rear sink to the grey tank my self with a couple shut off valves , so i can drain the back sink into either the black or grey tank

here are a couple pics of the rear kitchen

this unit is really nice

I have included a few pictures of the outside, the inside kitchen area with big u shaped dinnette that extends and the j-sofa plus and rear bedroom with the trundle bed option , you can see this option gives you 3 drawers for storage just above the trundle bed , the j-futon you do not have the 3 drawers, i have also included a couple pictures of the outside kitchen

[chrisvandette]

Sorry they only allow 5 pictures per upload , here are a couple more pictures

The add a room is from our 2009 28bhs ,it fit on the new trailer pretty good,we really love our add a room , gives you a lot more space when company comes over or if you just want to keep your stuff out of the rain , in colder weather he have a propane heater in the add a room and it heats up the room quite well , lots of ventllation still so no issue of carbon monoxide

not sure how much use the add a room will get with the bigger floor plan

Added a wind block to the door for the outside kitchen

love that the bathroom has a outside door.

still want to add a extra outside light by the outside bathroom door, the only outside light in under the awning and when you have the add a room up , you can not see the outside light if the flaps for the add a room walls are down

[ByDesign]

Beautiful Unit Chris !!! Like the Add on room too .... and Ive always been a fan of the "U" dinnette. I'm sure your 'very' happy with that unit !

Hey, is that a guinea pig cage I see ???

[chrisvandette]

Yep

that's elvis , my daugthers guinea pig

we love the u-shape dinnette a lot , fits 5 people just the way it is , no problem with room to spare , extend the seats and there you go 2 more spots

Our 2004 8U tent trailer had the u-shape dinnette and it was great for playing games

everyone has a little more elbow room with the u-shape dinnette

On our 28bhs we where always hitting each others elbows , and it only had room for 4 people

[Denise]

That's amazing Chris! Thanks for sharing!

[DesigneRx]

I love Elvis!!

I have several guinea pigs (is 8 considered several?) but I always figure that most of them will have passed on by the time we retire and are "fulltimers". Although, I suppose we could have 1-2...especially if we have a big enough rig!

[ByDesign]

Well ,, tell Elvis that Norbie, Ally, Sweet Pea, Bella, Willow, Nacho, Chip, and Molly said Hi !!

[rescuebub]

Very nice, we have the same unit except with the futon option. I found that the rear kitchen door leaked water around the door frame, between the frame and the fiberglass door. It was easily remedied by a bead of caulk, but I'm curious if yours has the same issue, or if I just got lucky on that. Thanks for the info about the rear sink going into the black tank, I would've never thought to check that. How do you like this unit for dry camping? I've never tried it, but would like to. Have you ever tried camping without electric or a generator? I wonder how long the battery would last? Great pics and congrats on the new unit!

[chrisvandette]

Hello

I do believe we also have a issue of the rear kitchen door leaking like you do , I will soon be adding a bead of caulking also

We have not had this new unit long enough to know how well the batteries will last dry camping without power or generator .

I added a second #24 size 12 volt battery , so the trailer has 2 - 24 series sized batteries, i would have liked to get 2 -6 volt batteries ,but that costs a lot

The 2 slides take a lot of power to slide out .so you can keep the trailer pluged into your tow vehicle while you put the slides out , then disconnect from the tow vehicle wiring.

then it all depends on how often you use the pump or have the ho****er going running , and lights, power awning also , how often you open the fridge

the fridge when running on propane still uses battery power to keep the propane running, safety system , different than the tent trailer fridges

we have battery operated fans and lights for the trailer from or tent trailer ,and when we dry camped with our 28bhs trailer, so it really saves the main batteries , and a couple rechargable coleman lamps

we also have a propane heater that is certified for indoor use, to help heat the trailer when it gets cold, our new trailer have the thermal package so it shold stay warmer longer , a lot better sound proofing noted so far

stove top coffee maker also helps .

So it varies a lot by battery use.a solar panel may be a good modification to add, we have 2 different generators we can take camping , 900 plus watt generator that is good enough to run the electric coffeee and charge the battries plus a honda eu2000 with extended run time fuel tank

we only need to run a generator every day for a hour or so to keep the batteries fully toped up, run it while making breakfast - wife prefers here electric drip coffee

if you post this question as a new thread you may get more answer

Happy camping

[Seann45]

Hey Chris..hope you dont mind me saying this....
If using your sink fills your black tank on a daily basis... I really think you have to learn water conservation... not leaving taps running while washing dishes or peeling spuds etc.. I get a full week on a tank of water.. and 4 on my black tank.. I boondock 6 months of the year...

[McMonk]

Wow Sean - that's conserving water well...I'm impressed. My biggest issue is the Grey tank. After about 5 days I'm emptying the dish-bucket into the toilet. To be fair, that's with two young kids...

[rescuebub]

Thanks for the reply and info. I don't think I have the thermal package, my tanks are exposed underneath. I may try to get some tank heaters for them if we do some late fall camping, but that will be with hookups, so power shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure if I can talk the DW into dry camping, so i'll leave the mods till I know that they'll be needed! Happy camping!

[chrisvandette]

Hello

we did not conserve water at all on that trip where we found out the back sink drains into the black tank.

it was our first trip with that unit , other than the back yard, we had 5 people in the unit using the bathroom ,etc,(not usually 5 people) we wanted to make sure everything worked, we where only a couple miles from the dealer so any issues could be addressed real easy,as we live a hour away from the dealer

we have since changed how we use the black tank , the person who always runs you through the new trailer set up(orientation) always says add about 10 gallons of water to your black tank then add your chemicals , we add about 8 gallons , never a issue with our 2009 28bhs , never showed on the gauges, our new 2011 32bhds shows 1/3 of a tank used , used the same blue water jug to dump the water down the toilet for each trailer , figure the gauge in the new trailers black tank are set lower- will get back to this later

when we got after the dealer about the back kitchen drain issue, as they never told use it drains into the black tank so we filled the black tank so fast our sales guy and head sales guy said we where adding to much water to the black tank with the chemicals to start with , our sales guy said add 4 flushes worth of water with the chemicals to the black tank that is all that is needed , plus they gave use a new black tank chemical to try out-liquid stuff much better than the powder stuff we where using

so this other way puts a lot less water in the black tank right off the bat, than what the guy giving the orientation said , on our 2009 28bhs we never filled the black tank in the week camping with just the 3 of use camping

we went camping again the other weekend where we had to use the honey wagon on the grey tank , since everyone had showered 2 days in a row(daughter had a bath the one day) and dishes and some trailer cleaning,these weekender trips we don't worry so much about water in the trailer -to many line up at the comfort station shower.

anyhow i had to empty the Grey tank since the nice little gauge said it was full, we have a 32 gallon grey and black tanks with 84 gallon fresh water tank , the honey wagon is also 32 gallon , so i emptied the full grey tank into the honey wagon , expected a full honey wagon - wrong it was only a little more then 2/3 full we had only about 20-25 gallons of grey not 30ish like we thought, so i figure the grey and black tank gauges are set really low in the tanks, our 2009 28bhs you would get almost a full honey wagon for a full tank of grey or black water

the fresh water tank on the other hand is only full when it is full. filled it as full as possible- really slow and it only says full when its full

I have since re plumbed the rear kitchen to run into the grey tank or the black, just turn a couple valves and the rear kitchen drains to the grey, turn the valves the other way and it drains into the black tank

since i had the extra thermal cover opened for the under belly by the grey tank to run the plumbing line i looked at the grey tank sensors and yep the sensors are grouped lower in the tank, 1/3 sensor is about 1/4 the way up the tank then full is about 1/4 from the top of the tank, so the gauges are not set the way we had expected

the rear sink is only a bar sink in size and when we do dishes in that sink we only part fill the sink then wash and add water as we rinse the soap off the dishes a little, never over fill the sink , use about a gallon of water or less


got to love those sensors

And yes our rear kitchen door leaks , after it had rained and you open the door water comes out around the inside bottom edge of the door as you raise it

adding a couple outside lights to the trailer, one by the outside kitchen then one light at the rear of the trailer , also ordered a tank monitoring panel with lead wires so i can add a second monitoring panel to the rear kitchen - ordered the stuff off of ebay, all new $58 with shipping for 2 outside lights and a double light switch and the monitoring panel with leads

now to add a couple 12 volt outlets for charging the cell phone and running the 12 volt tv and dvd player and 12 volt portable battery pack and lights in the storage bay are next on the list

Happy camping everyone

[namusmc65]

I was pleasantly surprised on our unit to find three dump handles. The kitchen and the bathroom each have their own separate grey tank for dumping. And we have the black dump tank so that makes three. The grey dumping into the black must have caused enough problems that maybe they have quit doing that?

[Malibu Jay]

Hi all
Picked up a new Eagle Super Lite 314bds last week and it's my first trailer so I'm learning on the fly here. Brought it home and re did a PDI just to make sure it's all good befor dropping it off at the lake for the next 5 months. I found the usual stuff I've read about and expected with how fast these trailers are put together.*

The unit came with an outside kitchen and yes the door leaks so thanks for the tip to correct it before it becomes a problem. The PDI check list I used recommended filling the tub half way to check the piping and gauge to the grey tank. Found a leaky P trap under sink. *Then to fill the toilet to test the seal in it's base at the floor. Well the black tank gauge would only read to 2/3 full. So I would add more water but it would not show full on the gauge or fill the bowl any more. Well then it happened and thank goodness there was only water in the black tank. The outside kitchen sink had filled up and over flowed, soaking a section of carpet in the bunk room.*

At first I really questioned this setup because grey water is grey tank and black water is black tank. The dealer claimed no prior knowledge of this setup. After reading the reply here from Jayco I understand it's their design and are standing by it as a non issue.*

I would say with the unit sleeping 10 and being a base station for my family and guests using it having a tank gauge that worked accurately in leu of potential over fill running out of sink in outside kitchen soaking the kids bunk room carpet shouldn't be to much to ask for regardless of how it was planed.*

So I guess this is a heads up for the other owners and buyers out there. Also I will add it's still one heck of an awesome trailer especially with the door to the bathroom going outside. *