1999 model holding tanks
Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:16 pm
Hi, all. New 190 owner, and new to this group. I look forward to gleaning a lot of information and, hopefully, contributing some eventually.
This will be our first season with our 1999 190, and I have yet to find any other 190's or owners with the same holding tank dump set up that we have. I've had this discussion at airforums.com, but nobody there recognizes my setup.
The late model 190's with the stand-up shower and the toilet on the driver side facing center (~1997 and later), seem to all have a smallish black-water holding tank directly beneath the toilet (above floor level), and a very large grey-water holding tank at the rear beneath the floor, where the spare tire would be on a standard E-350 van. The factory specs say the black-water tank is 9 gallons, and the grey-water tank is 27.5 gallons. Just eyeballing my tanks, I tend to agree with the specs.
Generally, it appears that late-model 190's have two dump valves: one in the outlet line from the upper black-water tank (accessible from the side of the van, just aft of the hookups panel), and one in the outlet line from the lower grey-water tank (accessible from behind the van, beneath the left side of the bumper). These valves both allow flow to the same eventual outlet for dumping. I assume in this configuration you'd hook up your sewer hose, pull the black valve to dump that tank, then close the black valve and pull the grey valve to dump that tank. Does this sound familiar to other late-model owners?
My 1999 model (March 1999), has only a single dump valve, right at the sewer hose connection point (see attached photo). There is no other valve in either the black or grey water dump lines. So, anything going into the toilet goes directly through the upper (black) tank and down into the lower (grey) tank. The grey lines from the sinks and the shower all go into the lower tank, as you'd expect.
To dump the tanks, I would just hook up the sewer hose, and pull the one valve to dump the lower tank. The upper tank should already be empty by virtue of everything flowing immediately into the lower tank.
You'd think I'd welcome the simplicity of this setup, but I have a couple of concerns.
The most vexing concern is that there is no way to hold liquid in the upper (toilet) holding tank, which means solids will have trouble flowing out on their own. In fact, there are significant solids sitting in there right now from the previous owner. It seems like I will have to aggressively rinse this upper tank with a wand before dumping, and maybe even in between dumping, if solids accumulate too much or start drying out. I can't even dump ice cubes in and drive around to break up solids, as I have seen suggested, since the ice cubes will just slurry right down the drain into the lower tank.
The other, less significant, concern is that my total holding tank capacity is effectively reduced by 9 gallons, since I can't actually hold anything in the upper (toilet) tank, other than whatever solids don't immediately drain away.
Are there any other late-model owners with this single-valve dumping setup who can confirm all of the above, and give me any advice on managing that upper (seemingly pointless) tank?
Thanks!
This will be our first season with our 1999 190, and I have yet to find any other 190's or owners with the same holding tank dump set up that we have. I've had this discussion at airforums.com, but nobody there recognizes my setup.
The late model 190's with the stand-up shower and the toilet on the driver side facing center (~1997 and later), seem to all have a smallish black-water holding tank directly beneath the toilet (above floor level), and a very large grey-water holding tank at the rear beneath the floor, where the spare tire would be on a standard E-350 van. The factory specs say the black-water tank is 9 gallons, and the grey-water tank is 27.5 gallons. Just eyeballing my tanks, I tend to agree with the specs.
Generally, it appears that late-model 190's have two dump valves: one in the outlet line from the upper black-water tank (accessible from the side of the van, just aft of the hookups panel), and one in the outlet line from the lower grey-water tank (accessible from behind the van, beneath the left side of the bumper). These valves both allow flow to the same eventual outlet for dumping. I assume in this configuration you'd hook up your sewer hose, pull the black valve to dump that tank, then close the black valve and pull the grey valve to dump that tank. Does this sound familiar to other late-model owners?
My 1999 model (March 1999), has only a single dump valve, right at the sewer hose connection point (see attached photo). There is no other valve in either the black or grey water dump lines. So, anything going into the toilet goes directly through the upper (black) tank and down into the lower (grey) tank. The grey lines from the sinks and the shower all go into the lower tank, as you'd expect.
To dump the tanks, I would just hook up the sewer hose, and pull the one valve to dump the lower tank. The upper tank should already be empty by virtue of everything flowing immediately into the lower tank.
You'd think I'd welcome the simplicity of this setup, but I have a couple of concerns.
The most vexing concern is that there is no way to hold liquid in the upper (toilet) holding tank, which means solids will have trouble flowing out on their own. In fact, there are significant solids sitting in there right now from the previous owner. It seems like I will have to aggressively rinse this upper tank with a wand before dumping, and maybe even in between dumping, if solids accumulate too much or start drying out. I can't even dump ice cubes in and drive around to break up solids, as I have seen suggested, since the ice cubes will just slurry right down the drain into the lower tank.
The other, less significant, concern is that my total holding tank capacity is effectively reduced by 9 gallons, since I can't actually hold anything in the upper (toilet) tank, other than whatever solids don't immediately drain away.
Are there any other late-model owners with this single-valve dumping setup who can confirm all of the above, and give me any advice on managing that upper (seemingly pointless) tank?
Thanks!