"not having enough water in the black tank can lead to a pile under the toilet which can plug off the toilet long before the tank is actually full"
I recently had this exact problem at then end of a long trip. Solids backed-up to the bottom of the toilet and not even water would go down. The tank did not dump - at least nothing much came out - and there you are - stuck.
I initially tried to clear it by running clear water up the dump valve using a cap with a hose fitting, letting the hose run for 10-15 gallons to get some clear water in the black-tank. Shut off the hose then close the black-tank valve keeping the clear water in the tank. This alone was not enough in this case but might have worked if I was driving for a while after filling it. Be careful if you do this to make sure the black-tank valve is open when the water is turned on as the waste drain pipe is not designed for water-pressure and could easily burst!
Next I took an 6' section of old garden hose, shoved it down the toilet into the tank, and turned the water on. Moving the hose up and down and around eventually freed-up the clog and I was able to flush the tank normally.
A real hassle that likely could have been avoided by keeping enough water in the black tank. Won't do that again :-)
Danger to an overflow is can you really get all of the water up.
I had a similar problem and thought that I had cleaned up all of the water, not so.
Some of the water seeped down under the floor where there is another problem. There is like a tar paper covering protecting the flooring from road stuff. However, this tar paper also serves to keep the water in where the floor boards take a drink and you end up with floor rot. I didn''t discover this for a year or so.
Just cleaning up the water inside may be all you can do, but it would be a good idea to check what is underneath and watch the floor.
GeneKiwi
2006 Silverado 2500HD
2005 Scion XB (the lunchbox)
2007 Jayco Jay Flight 28RLS
bluwtr49 wrote: We were in the Park Office yesterday and a lady came in looking for a carpet cleaner. Seems her black water tank overflowed and soaked the carpet and etc. There was an additional problem as the carpet cleaner wouldn't touch the job because it was an environmental hazard.
In thinking about this, I can not figure out how BW tank can overflow into the living space. Has anyone else heard of this happening?
The most common cause is a leaky seal on the toiltet or the pedal not stopping water flow when done flushing.... combined with the black valve not being open. When we leave camp I tend to make sure all the water is turned off to avoid this happening.
Another one I witnessed last weekend was caused by a owner hooking his city water hose to his tank cleaner instead of the city water inlet. He turned on the water supply and left for the day.... once we saw water running out the front door of his trailer someone went over and turned off the water supply. He had mistakenly hooked up to the wrong inlet... Fortunately his tank was relatively clean and for the most part empty so it was a matter of drying everything out and cleanup. His wife said it wasn't the first time either.
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