Black Tank Flush

[Skillet]

Does anyone use or have used the San-t-Flush port on the driver's side (at least on my Concourse) rear to flush the tank once you've emptied it? Supposedly jet cleans the interior walls when hooking a hose up to it. I attempted it for the first time and barely any water comes out the dump. I figured the jets or something must be clogged. Also, is it supposed to have a cap? Mine doesn't and I can see stuff getting in it over time.
I used my cheap borescope to peer down the tube and while it looks open for the first 6", I can see build-up on the walls like calcium or something. I can't shove it any further down. The exterior has screws and I was tempted to take them out to see if I can see any better but it was getting dark and I didn't want to start a project without much light. I was thinking of pouring vinegar down the line and letting it sit for a day or two.

[SMan]

On my Premier I use the flush port most times when I dump and it works quite well. Water flow is good and the black water always runs clean afterward. Mine has a cap that screws in as well. Seems odd you don't have but a trickle. Something must be blocked.

[Blue~Go]

I can't speak to its use, because mine was damaged when I bought it (some of the PEX tubing leading to it was broken), and since an RV-ing buddy said his never really worked all that well (non-Chinook RV but same flusher style), I decided not to repair it but just to remove it.

So why am I even responding? Well, just to say that if you haven't taken a look yet, and presuming yours is close to my '99 (sounds the same from what you have described), you can see/get to all of the PEX tubing that leads from the outside fitting to the black tank. It's mostly behind the driver's side "wall" of the outside compartment that is just ahead of the stock spare tire location. You can remove that wall with just a screwdriver, and put it back easily as well. The PEX tubing that isn't in that area is underneath the rig where you can also see/get at it. Then it goes into the aft sidewall of the black tank.

If/when you are in that sidewall area, you will see all kinds of interesting things: Much of the grey and black drain/vent piping (1-1/2" ABS); quite a bit of wiring (heading over to the other side of the rig via over the back door - taillights; etc.); the 1-1/2" drain piping as it goes into the tops of the black and grey tanks (through the floor), supply tubing to the toilet (1/2" PEX); and lots of empty space alongside the shower basically begging for insulation. Well worth a look!

Side note is that when I did this early on in my ownership (went into the wall area), I then saw how much wasted space there was in the "tire locker" forward of the forward wall (i.e. back side of the bathroom sink wall). I thus put the side walls back, but not the back (forward actually) wall. Instead I put some coated insulation board up against the backside of the bathroom sink wall (where the removed wall used to be further out), and then built a little wooden "box" (two sided) to cover the ABS drain piping and protect it. As a result my "tire locker" is probably 30% larger, and I can get to the little "tunnel" under the shower (this will make sense when you see it), which is where I store my spare belts and torque wrench. Naturally I saved that "wall" for future just in case (and/or if you still have the stock interior and have any water damaged panels this would make matching repair stock).

I noticed that in the newest Chinook 21-ers (say 2003 and up) they re-designed that forward wall to take better advantage of the space.

BG

PS: Meant to add that if you haven't worked with PEX before, it's super simple. Makes plumbing work go from a nightmare to like working with Tinker Toys. Basically you just cut it and mechanically join it. The cut needs to be straight, but an inexpensive cutter does the job. You can buy all this at a Home Depot/Lowe's etc. because it's used in houses as well now. To join it you can use "expensive" options like brass, push together "Shark Bite" fittings (but not that expensive in the numbers we need, and very easy to work with), medium priced options like plastic push together fittings (various brands), or the least expensive which are like Oeticker clamps (sort of like hose clamps in a way) that you clamp closed with a special tool.

The latter are the cheapest, and take the least space (which can be key in certain areas), although you have to be able to get the tool in. You can see these, plus the plastic push-fit (on valves) in the stock Chinook setup. After working with a few of the different ones, I like the Shark Bites -- although you'd go broke doing a whole big house with them, we don't have to care about that.

Last note is that the push together fittings can be removed/replaced. The Oetiker style clamps you cut off and then re-do if you want to remove/replace.

Any of them are like child's play compared to other plumbing types, at least IMO, a non-plumber.

PPS: There is an older style of similar tubing ("PB" if I remember correctly) that ended up not being as viable in the long run (for RV's or houses), so is no longer used. This would not apply to your rig, and even my '99 has PEX from Chinook; but I mention it as older rigs (mid-90's or older) might have PB. My previous 1997 camper van did have PB. It's typically dark grey. The connection methods look similar but the push-on fittings are not exactly the same inside. However there are special joiners at the stores so one can transition from that to PEX when doing new work.

[caconcourse]

Does anyone use or have used the San-t-Flush port on the driver's side (at least on my Concourse) rear to flush the tank once you've emptied it? Supposedly jet cleans the interior walls when hooking a hose up to it. I attempted it for the first time and barely any water comes out the dump. I figured the jets or something must be clogged. Also, is it supposed to have a cap? Mine doesn't and I can see stuff getting in it over time.
I used my cheap borescope to peer down the tube and while it looks open for the first 6", I can see build-up on the walls like calcium or something. I can't shove it any further down. The exterior has screws and I was tempted to take them out to see if I can see any better but it was getting dark and I didn't want to start a project without much light. I was thinking of pouring vinegar down the line and letting it sit for a day or two.

Sounds to me like a simple clog, since the cap was missing. I would try poking with a piece of wire to get through the block. Maybe even spin the wire with a drill to work it out. I use the flush port with a hose all the time and it works great. Once you get it open, find a plastic hose plug to keep it covered. Vinegar probably wouldn't hurt either if it is calcified.

Good luck.

clay

[Skillet]

This is what it looks like at around the 7-8" area from the outside. The big pieces fell and I can't knock them out of the way. My mechanical fingers can't go past the initial narrowing of the tube so I can't use that to grab 'em. Something is keeping my scope from moving foward and I don't have anything stronger than a long zip tie that will fit. I need something bendy like a thick copper wire. I'll probably end up dumping vinegar down. I'm assuming some kind of hose or faucet bib cap would close it up. The square in the center is the reflection of my camera lens.

[Skillet]

Blue: So you're saying from the port inwards, it should be PEX tubing? I'm thinking if I can't clear up the clog, I could cut it out and replace it relatively easy. If I take out the screws on the port, does that just remove the collar for the hose attachment? I wonder if I can see those jets. They must be clogged...
On my next free break I'll play around with this stuff and take a look at that rear storage area. I never noticed a screw back there but I wasn't looking either! Thanks for the detailed explanation too.

[Blue~Go]

As I remember it, it's just all made up of PEX, with the Oetiker clamp type fittings. I'll see if I can find some photos. I'm kind of straining my memory here, but I think the outside fitting on mine had some type of flip cap that wasn't very secure. Since now that I've removed the PEX, any leak through the outer flush port would come into the tire locker (I kept the outer fitting), I closed it off with a white plastic threaded cap that's "solid." It's readily available from RV shops (white cap with grippy type things so you can screw it in by hand).

I think it's this cap, but not at my Chinook right now to check for sure. I picked it up at a hardware store that had a decent RV aisle, so nothing exotic. I didn't use the keeper strap at all. Hasn't come loose in the 2-1/2 years since I put it on.

http://www.valterra.com/product/hose-pl ... at_id=1356

[Blue~Go]

Okay, here are some photos. I don't have a complete "before" photo, but this should make it fairly obvious. In a nutshell, a section of PEX pipe comes in from the backside of the fitting on the outside of the rig. Then it makes a 90º bend and goes down to the floor and continues straight through the floor (hole in carpet/plywood floor). After it comes through the floor on the underside of the rig it makes another 90º bend and there is a straight section that's around 8" long (we're horizontal now), and then it makes another 90º bend (now we are going back up and are close to the wall of the black tank) and goes directly into one of those hand-tightened fittings -- and then a short straight bit long enough to line it up with where they wanted to be on the black tank, and then lastly a 90º elbow and into the spin-welded female fitting that's in the wall of the black tank.

See photos for clarity (I hope, anyway).

We'll start at the fitting on the outside of the rig. Mine looks like this. This shows the original "flip off" cap that tended to flip off on mine.

Here is the back of that same outside fitting. As you can see, this is after I removed the PEX tubing from the back of it. This is what is behind the "side wall" of the tire locker (what I call the compartment that's blocked by the original spare tire location) after you remove it (just screws). Although I did remove the rear wall of that locker (forward wall actually as the rig drives), I put the two side walls back. They come out and go back in easily.

After the PEX tubing came in from the back of the fitting, it made a 90º turn with an elbow fitting, and then went through the floor to the underside of the rig. Here you can see where that was (the round cover with the three fasteners):

More next post....

[Blue~Go]

One of the reasons I decided to remove the flusher in the first place is that - although I never saw one sign of mice ever having been in my rig - something had chewed on the PEX pipe that was exposed under the rig at some time before I bought it. So I needed to repair the flushing tubing if I wanted to use the system. I decided that, at least for starters, I'd just remove it. That said, I kept the outside fitting, plus the fitting in the side of the black tank; so the system could be put back with just some PEX tubing and a few 90º elbows.

This first photo continues along where we left off. So this is the underneath part of the vertical section that would have come through the hole in the floor and then the 90º elbow into the cross (horizontal) piece. You can see where someone snacked on it.

Then here is the cross (horizontal) piece that comes off that elbow. The elbow to the right in the photo is the one you can see in the previous photo.

And lastly, here is the bit that goes back upwards to the tank fitting (spin-welded female threaded fitting in tank wall).

[Skillet]

Thanks for the detailed pics. So many elbows that loose crap could be backed up in any number of them. No wonder I just get a trickle hitting the tank when I hook a hose up.