We have a 2007 KZ Montego Bay 5W and are having trouble with gray tank valve. It requires extreme force to open and close the valve. The wire from handle to valve appears to be +/- 18" to 24" long. Have been using lubricant in tank and squirted lub down cable with little success. Have just read comments on using veg. oil in tank but not tried it yet, sounds like a good solution.
Would like to know if anyone has exp/knowledge with this problem and any other solutions other than valve replacement.
Thanks,,,,,, Cindy & Bob
Terry and Jo said
08:57 PM Jan 7, 2012
Cindy and Bob,
First of all, let me welcome you to the RV Dreams forums. There are a lot of knowledgeable folks here that are friendly and helpful. These folks all are in different types of RV's, so there is a lot of advice available.
I've heard of the vegetable oil thing several times. I think the concensus is that it works. It is certainly worth trying before going to the expense of replacing valves.
In the past, when many thought the had a problem with the lubrication of the cable, the vegetable oil fix helped most of them as well.
Terry
RickandJanice said
10:43 PM Jan 7, 2012
Cindy & Bob,
Yes, Vegetable oil works great. Had same problem this fall with our black tank valve. Bought a gallon of the cheapest oil available, drained and rinsed tank with on board tank rinse until water ran completely clear and then poured oil in tank in tank through the toilet. You will need to work the valve several times as the oil is released to work it into the seal as it drains. I actually caught ours in a bucket and ran it through the black tank twice before disposing.
Hope you are as amazed by the results as I was. Valves actually work better than when new.
Alie and Jims Carrilite said
10:07 AM Jan 8, 2012
I used the veggie oil flush as a last resort to taking a 16 year old system apart. It worked great!
Bill and Linda said
12:03 PM Jan 8, 2012
The Vegi-oil thing may work and please give it a try.However, we have, as you can see below in the sig, an almost identical trailer as far as the holding tanks valves are concerned so I provide this information should it help.
KZ put the valves inside to avoid freezing; that’s the good news.The bad news is the cables were run in such a way that after this long a time, with the wear on the values, these cables bind and the valves can’t fully close.
We chose to have the values replaced at the factory service center after 6 years of almost full-time service.The technicians rerouted the cables and advised us that it was their experience that this re-routing, not possible during construction, would work better.It has thus far for us.
If you would like some direct contact names and numbers for KZ service please PM me.Any good RV repair technician can do the job.But if by any chance your able to go by the factory service center it will most likely cost much less and they have a habit of taking care of small issues for their trailers at extremely, at least in comparison to most, very good pricing.We have been extremely pleased with our service from KZ.
Safe travels
Bill
rclvnv said
02:47 PM Jan 8, 2012
Veggie oil sounds like a great idea. How did you dispose of the oil when done?
Richard
skipwest said
08:52 PM Jan 11, 2012
Cpaxton,
Hi, and welcome! This year when I took our shiny new Coachmen Brookstone out for its first shakedown cruise and then came home to dump, I was using a macerator for the first time. It has a clear body where it attaches to the coach. The dump valve was very sticky and it took a lot of force to open and close it several times. Finally it opened fully and to my surprise I saw two small disks, one round black and round white flapping around in the fitting. When dumping finished, I flushed the line and disconnected from the dump line. There were these two disks which were obviously the remnants of the "install" that had been done in the factory. Some doofus had let the disks fall into the tank and left them there from attaching the lines. Haven't seen one since and hope to never see one again. I wish you luck with your problem. Wish I had a great solution, but thought I'd throw this in as a possibility.
NorCal Dan said
12:20 PM Jan 12, 2012
Another welcome to the forum. You can clean the valve. I took mine off to clean it, but I've read others used a coat hangar to clean the slot. The valve is like a disk that slides back and forth in a slot. It's very easy for "junk" to get trapped in the slot just from normal dumping. Then when you close the valve the "junk" gets crammed into the slot, then drys to a hard crust and after a while you will find the valve very hard to both open/close. After I cleaned my black valve it worked like new. If you want to remove the valve for cleaning I recommend you dump and flush the tank real good, then if possible, tilt your rig to the passenger side before removing the valve. On mine it was only 4 bolts to remove the valve.
We have a 2007 KZ Montego Bay 5W and are having trouble with gray tank valve. It requires extreme force to open and close the valve. The wire from handle to valve appears to be +/- 18" to 24" long. Have been using lubricant in tank and squirted lub down cable with little success. Have just read comments on using veg. oil in tank but not tried it yet, sounds like a good solution.
Would like to know if anyone has exp/knowledge with this problem and any other solutions other than valve replacement.
Thanks,,,,,, Cindy & Bob
Cindy and Bob,
First of all, let me welcome you to the RV Dreams forums. There are a lot of knowledgeable folks here that are friendly and helpful. These folks all are in different types of RV's, so there is a lot of advice available.
I've heard of the vegetable oil thing several times. I think the concensus is that it works. It is certainly worth trying before going to the expense of replacing valves.
In the past, when many thought the had a problem with the lubrication of the cable, the vegetable oil fix helped most of them as well.
Terry
Yes, Vegetable oil works great. Had same problem this fall with our black tank valve. Bought a gallon of the cheapest oil available, drained and rinsed tank with on board tank rinse until water ran completely clear and then poured oil in tank in tank through the toilet. You will need to work the valve several times as the oil is released to work it into the seal as it drains. I actually caught ours in a bucket and ran it through the black tank twice before disposing.
Hope you are as amazed by the results as I was. Valves actually work better than when new.
The Vegi-oil thing may work and please give it a try. However, we have, as you can see below in the sig, an almost identical trailer as far as the holding tanks valves are concerned so I provide this information should it help.
KZ put the valves inside to avoid freezing; that’s the good news. The bad news is the cables were run in such a way that after this long a time, with the wear on the values, these cables bind and the valves can’t fully close.
We chose to have the values replaced at the factory service center after 6 years of almost full-time service. The technicians rerouted the cables and advised us that it was their experience that this re-routing, not possible during construction, would work better. It has thus far for us.
If you would like some direct contact names and numbers for KZ service please PM me. Any good RV repair technician can do the job. But if by any chance your able to go by the factory service center it will most likely cost much less and they have a habit of taking care of small issues for their trailers at extremely, at least in comparison to most, very good pricing. We have been extremely pleased with our service from KZ.
Safe travels
Bill
Veggie oil sounds like a great idea. How did you dispose of the oil when done?
Richard
Hi, and welcome! This year when I took our shiny new Coachmen Brookstone out for its first shakedown cruise and then came home to dump, I was using a macerator for the first time. It has a clear body where it attaches to the coach. The dump valve was very sticky and it took a lot of force to open and close it several times. Finally it opened fully and to my surprise I saw two small disks, one round black and round white flapping around in the fitting. When dumping finished, I flushed the line and disconnected from the dump line. There were these two disks which were obviously the remnants of the "install" that had been done in the factory. Some doofus had let the disks fall into the tank and left them there from attaching the lines. Haven't seen one since and hope to never see one again. I wish you luck with your problem. Wish I had a great solution, but thought I'd throw this in as a possibility.