Eagle HT 26.5BHS fresh water tank problems

[DCtruckin]

I recently purchased a very gently used 2017 eagle 26.5bhs fifth wheel from the original owner. First trip out we seamed to run out of water by the second night, I thought maybe my 3 yr old was playing with the water so didnt think much of it. Second trip out we ran out of water by Sunday morning(got to the campground Friday afternoon). This is all with very liberal use of water. My fresh water capacity is 42 gal according to Jayco's specs. Using my flow meter after running out I only put in 30 gallons before it started gushing out of the over flow tube. it actually started leaking down the little flap that is next to the hose, just before it started coming out of the hose itself.

On the way to camping my dad was following me and said every right hand turn on the highway, the trailer would dump water from the left side of trailer. it was "full" before I left home, and put only 6 gallons in right before I hit the camp spot, but it started dumping a lot of water after putting in those 6 gal so I don't know how much it actually retained.

Im wondering if this sounds like possibly a cracked tank? how big of a can of worms am I up against if I pull the black cover off the bottom of the trailer to access that drain hose? and are these water tanks fairly easy to remove and replace?

[DCtruckin]

Here is the “flap” I’m referring to that the water trickles down seconds before it flows from the hose. Is it safe to maybe put a valve of some sort on this hose to prevent from leaking down the highway or does this sound like a bigger issue?

[TxLoser]

Same with many of these trailer. I use some large binder clips and double over the flap to keep the water from flowing out when underway. They work great and stay in place for miles and miles.

[DCtruckin]

Originally Posted by TxLoser

Same with many of these trailer. I use some large binder clips and double over the flap to keep the water from flowing out when underway. They work great and stay in place for miles and miles.

Attachment 74020

Still makes me wonder why I ran out of water, then put in 30 gallons in a 42 gallon tank?

That’s not a bad idea though!

[TxLoser]

Did you fill until it started to come out of the overflow? Weird. I had the same trailer. Same year too. Can’t recall how many gallons I thought I had. I also never measured what went into it. But, like you I recall losing a big chunk of it headed out to dry camp once or twice till I figured out the paper clip idea.

[DCtruckin]

So what is the white hose going to? I now realize the “flap” thing is actually the discharge for the over flow. I also wonder how this thing is plumbed, as In where exactly is the filler hose? When hooked up to the truck it is nose high not level. It’s sitting level now in the yard and seems to have filled the tank completely after adding 16 more gallons.

[White Ox]

I have the same unit - even the same year.

The large hose (with flap) is the overflow - and it's designed to let the water out once the tank is full. For some reason or another, lots of fresh water tanks continue to drain well past the safe "full" stage, and pull extra gallons they don't need to... then throw into the mix, the sloshing under way, that drains out even more.. I can see it loosing a fair bit of water.

The white hose is your vent - which allows air back in as you pull water out via the water pump. If this weren't there, you would collapse the tank.

There was a post recently about someone adding a one way check valve and a rubber stopper to his setup so that IF he over filled it, the rubber stopper would pop out pretty easily and the one way check valve would easily allow air to enter the tank when pulling water from it. If I run across it again, I'll snag a link to it and come back here and post it.

As for where your filler hose is - it's the blue handle on the back of your rig in the utility compartment (black). I can't recall the valve positions, but there is only one connection for "potable" water.. and the valve position determines whether that connection becomes your "city water" connection or your "fresh tank fill" connection once it's turned on. I can't recall, as I've yet to use mine to fill the tank - I've always been @ campgrounds with water supply. I'll try and refresh my memory tomorrow.

If you have questions, feel free to ask. I'm actually in ours for the next 9 days....

P.S. Congratulations!

P.S.S.... as for why you only put in 30 gallons into a 42 gallon tank, I'm at a loss...... However, I have heard of rigs being built with the wrong size tanks before. Now I need to check mine as well. I did check the grey and black tanks to make sure they did in fact hold 30 each......

[DCtruckin]

So today I completely drained the tank, and even partially dropped it to check for leaks. Nothing seems to be damaged or cracked. Put it all together and filled back up and it took 40 gallons this time before it started overflowing. Filled it with trailer level. Then raised front of trailer to simulate it being hooked to my pickup. Got up to the 44 gal mark and it hadn’t begun to overflow yet, so i didn’t want to test my luck there. Lowered it back to level and still no overflow. Not sure on that one.

Wondering if maybe the pickup tube isn’t sitting on the bottom of the tank? I will try clamping the overflow flap closed and install a petcock valve on the vent tube and close them next time I travel. Next place we’re going has water hookups so I’ll be able to experiment how much water we go through.
I’ll keep you posted after next trip. Thanks for the info maybe it’s just the notorious jayco overflow problem...

[DCtruckin]

So here is my $10 fix(hopefully). Just clamped off the over flow flap and put a 1/2” barbed valve on the breather hose. I’ll report back in about 2 weeks.