Fresh water tank pukes

[Rickie]

Hello I'm new to the forum. I bought a 2011 Jayco Octane 26y and I noticed that my fresh water tanks are doing the same as you described. Did anyone find a solution. The dealer says the same thing....It designed to do that. As you guys, When I get to my location I have lost about 1/3 of my tank. It's also aggravating sitting at the gas station adding fuel for the generator and the thing is leaking like a river. Any advice will be appricated.

[Crabman]

Originally Posted by Rickie

Hello I'm new to the forum. I bought a 2011 Jayco Octane 26y and I noticed that my fresh water tanks are doing the same as you described. Did anyone find a solution. The dealer says the same thing....It designed to do that. As you guys, When I get to my location I have lost about 1/3 of my tank. It's also aggravating sitting at the gas station adding fuel for the generator and the thing is leaking like a river. Any advice will be appricated.

Welcome to the forum, Rick!
Some have installed valves on the fresh water tank overflow pipes. Just remember to turn the valve on when filling the tank, off when traveling. Details are available earlier in this thread.

[SmokerBill]

Instead of installing valves, I just cut a 6 inch section from an old drinking water hose and use it to connect the two overflow tube ends. The overflow tubes fit nice and tight inside the white hose.

Bill

[Kenelz]

There are several fixes in this topic. I have a 2012 model and have the problem, so I doubt it is fixed from the factory yet. Here is my copy/paste from my post, cost less than $5:

>>Yesterday I went to Home Depot to figure out what I could do to fix. I bought two Pex barbed fittings with 1/2" treads, and two 1/2" PVC caps. I remove the >>caps when filling, then put them on for the trip. It would be easy to screw on a couple valves instead of the caps, but the caps are much cheaper.

I'm still happy with the caps, I have forgot to put them back on after camping, but they are only 39 cents each.

[Seann45]

I just plugged the line.. fill the whole tank and use it... no problems in the 2.5 years I have had this RV..

[SmokerBill]

The biggest problem my 26BH is that it has two fresh water tanks, and the way they are plumbed together doesn't allow for efficient filling.

The tanks each have two overflow/vent tube connections at the top. The two rear tank tubes are connected to the two front tank tubes with tee fittings. Sections of tube are connected to the third connect point on each of the tees, which are the overflow tubes seen pointing toward the ground.

The problem is, when filling them, the water fills the forward tank first. When it tops out, water starts flowing out of the front tank overflows. The flowing water prevents the air pressure building up in the rear tank from escaping, causing it to fill very slowly.

When I plug the two vent lines, quite a bit of air pressure build up in the rear tank. When I filled my tanks yesterday I had the lines plugged. When I removed the plug, air literally blasted out of the overflows.

To allow the pressure to escape, I'm going to remove one of the tees connecting a front tank tube to a rear tank tube. That will prevent any pressure buildup, and hopefully allow the tanks to fill evenly.

Oh, and I took it in for a warranty fix, and guess what they did? The added two more vent lines... to the front tank! Exactly where they weren't needed! If they added vents to the rear tank, all would have been well. I didn't make an issue of it, because I knew I could easily make it work right myself. I need to quit procrastinating and just fix it.

Bill

[clubhouse]

Originally Posted by SmokerBill

The biggest problem my 26BH is that it has two fresh water tanks, and the way they are plumbed together doesn't allow for efficient filling.

The tanks each have two overflow/vent tube connections at the top. The two rear tank tubes are connected to the two front tank tubes with tee fittings. Sections of tube are connected to the third connect point on each of the tees, which are the overflow tubes seen pointing toward the ground.

The problem is, when filling them, the water fills the forward tank first. When it tops out, water starts flowing out of the front tank overflows. The flowing water prevents the air pressure building up in the rear tank from escaping, causing it to fill very slowly.

When I plug the two vent lines, quite a bit of air pressure build up in the rear tank. When I filled my tanks yesterday I had the lines plugged. When I removed the plug, air literally blasted out of the overflows.

To allow the pressure to escape, I'm going to remove one of the tees connecting a front tank tube to a rear tank tube. That will prevent any pressure buildup, and hopefully allow the tanks to fill evenly.

Oh, and I took it in for a warranty fix, and guess what they did? The added two more vent lines... to the front tank! Exactly where they weren't needed! If they added vents to the rear tank, all would have been well. I didn't make an issue of it, because I knew I could easily make it work right myself. I need to quit procrastinating and just fix it.

Bill

That is interesting Bill. I too have a 26BH and don't experience that same issue. I have never looked closely at how they are plumbed, but I haven't had any issued getting both tanks full at nearly the same time. Yes my forward tank fills first, but only 1-2 minutes before the rear tanks fills. This is based on noticing when the first overflows starts flowing and then the second. We have dry camped several times where having a full load of water has been important and nothing has given me the indication I am not getting the tanks full. Right now it is in storage, but we have a trip planned after the first of the year and I'll take a closer look at how the two tanks are plumbed and vented.

[SmokerBill]

Originally Posted by clubhouse

That is interesting Bill. I too have a 26BH and don't experience that same issue. I have never looked closely at how they are plumbed, but I haven't had any issued getting both tanks full at nearly the same time. Yes my forward tank fills first, but only 1-2 minutes before the rear tanks fills. This is based on noticing when the first overflows starts flowing and then the second. We have dry camped several times where having a full load of water has been important and nothing has given me the indication I am not getting the tanks full. Right now it is in storage, but we have a trip planned after the first of the year and I'll take a closer look at how the two tanks are plumbed and vented.

Maybe Jayco redesigned the tank plumbing connections on the 2012 models. Mine is a 2011.

Bill

[dewey02]

It is amazing to me that this hasn't been fixed at the factory yet. We KNOW that the company reads these posting...are they just ignoring such a dumb engineering mistake as this?
This problem has been going on for several YEARS now. C'mon Jayco, this is an easy fix, so FIX it!!!

[33 RLDS]

Well add me to the list. I have a 2013 33 RLDS and lost 1/3 of my water from the fill station and the 1/2 mile to the site. I lost even more as the site was un- level and I had to lift the front all the way up with 6 inches of wood under jack to get off it off my TV. Searched and found this thread. I will probably do the remote valves as my vent hoses are pretty far under behind the tires.

I also gashed my thigh open getting out of my chair at the table as the bottom edges are razor sharp.
Other than that, we had a good time first trip out !!!

Mike

[Tail_gunner]

I'm a little late on this thread, but I thought what I found out on my 2005 Jay Feather LGT was worth mentioning.

When we took delivery of it as a new camper in 2004, the vent/over flow hose went from the vent fitting on top of the tank directly around the side of the tank and out through the underbelly enclosure. The first time or two we used the camper, we lost a lot of water due to sloshing/siphoning out the vent hose.

Later I noticed on the water tank fill cap panel on the side of the camper, there appeared to be what I assumed to be a fitting for a vent hose with a barbed hose connector on the inside of the camper. Everything was accessible enough to where I was able to pull the vent hose back up from the under belly, cut off the excess length and connect it to the barbed hose connector on the water tank fill panel.

Now that the height of the vent relative to the tank was now much higher, my water loss went away.

[33 RLDS]

My vent hoses are to far under and behind the wheels to use hose clamp pliers and such. I decided to cut one of my 1/2 water hoses and use barbed connectors to extend them out to where I can reach them. Maybe about 3 feet. Then use 2 males garden hose replacement ends to attach to the other end and use a couple of screw caps on them. Hopefully we can get to our site with all 80 gallons next time

[Chakara]

I had the same issue - lost over 1/3 of my water over a 2.5 hour drive. Silly - and frustraing as we needed that water! I have a 55 gallon tank.

My overflows are about 5 inches long - so i cut off 1/2 inch of one and took it to the hardware store where I found a valve that fit. Bought 2 of them and now only open them when I'm filling so I know when I'm full.

Interestingly, when filling, if I just let it fill until they both run at "full bore", it will keep running after the water is turned off for several minutes. To me that confirms siphoning as the issue.

-Chak

[33 RLDS]

Originally Posted by Chakara

Interestingly, when filling, if I just let it fill until they both run at "full bore", it will keep running after the water is turned off for several minutes. To me that confirms siphoning as the issue.

-Chak

Ours did the same thing. Even if i was level it just kept coming out. I extended my vents hoses 3 feet to right under where the fill cap is. I can reach the caps without getting on my hands and knees. Filled it until it came out of the fill hole and gauge indicates full with no leaking :hihi:

[Fred Korz]

After reading this thread I can see the issues of siphoning the fresh water have
been going on for YEARS! Come on JAYCO, you must have Engineers that could design a fix for this. I've recently went on our first camp out with our new 29 RKS Jay Flight. About an hour and a half drive. I knew I filled at home before I left and when we got to the Park, I spent three days trying to figure out where I was pulling in air to the pump. All the symptoms showed, sputtering faucets etc. Never thought of checking the gauge for how much water I had because I put in 80 gallons at home. We used the park showers so I was SURE we had surplus water. BOY was I surprised to find out my tanks were empty! Since my hoses are located behind one of the TT wheels, I guess I'll join them to a hose running out to the edge of my trailer near the fresh water drains where I can see them and won't forget to open their valve on arrival at camp.
I've had a 2005 Jay Flight, a 2010 Super light Eagle Fifth wheel, and now a Jay Flight TT but never have I had such an obvious issue with siphoning.

[Jagiven]

I know the solution for the air vent line puking all your water out, and Jayco could fix the issue with just a small amount of cost (~5 cents per unit, by extending the hose length). My vent hose extended down below the tank level, sounds reasonable. The peak of the vent tube unfortunately was only 5-8 above the floor height. I do not have an enclosed underbelly, so I pulled the hose up into the cabinet so only a small amount of hose is through the floor and now I have a high point in the loop about 16” above the floor. Since changing the vent tube height I have never had any puking or siphoning issues.

[oldmanAZ]

Originally Posted by Jagiven

I know the solution for the air vent line puking all your water out, and Jayco could fix the issue with just a small amount of cost (~5 cents per unit, by extending the hose length). My vent hose extended down below the tank level, sounds reasonable. The peak of the vent tube unfortunately was only 5-8 above the floor height. I do not have an enclosed underbelly, so I pulled the hose up into the cabinet so only a small amount of hose is through the floor and now I have a high point in the loop about 16” above the floor. Since changing the vent tube height I have never had any puking or siphoning issues.

Excellent solution! I'd do the same, but my underbelly is enclosed.

Since you do not have an enclosed underbelly, can you see where the vent hose comes out of the water tank(s)? I suspect the vent exits the tank along one of the sides allowing water to slosh to that side and start the siphoning. If that is true, then another '~5 cent solution' with a longer hose might be for Jayco to have the vendor move the vent to the center of the tank.

[Jagiven]

The vent tube comes out of the top of the tank next to the pickup hose for the pump.

I bet even on an enclosed underbelly, if they extended the hose to have a loop up higher up would help.

[tawoo]

Mine does the same so I added two shut off valves. I close them up to travel and open them up at the campsite.

[Jjdavidjr]

These fixes won't work for my 2013 248rbs. When I fill the tank, I get to 1/3 full and the overflow/vent tubes siphon the tank empty. Any ideas?