97 Coachmen Catalina Plumbing Problems

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howardmcc

Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Posts
18
Location
Crystal, MN
I recently bought a 97 Coachmen Catalina and on our first trip I used the bathroom sink and noticed that as I ran the water it would come up in the shower and until I turned it of it kept filling up.

Since that time I have tried four different things:

1. Used a RV safe drain cleaner, which did nothing.
2. Used a plunger to clear the line and nothing changed.
3. I took a 25' hand auger and snaked the shower drain, bathroom sink drain and nothing changed.
4. I used the same drain snake and ran it down both of the vents and nothing changed.

Before taking the above steps I made sure that the gray water tank was empty and I checked to see if there was any clean outs and there are none.
I worked as a plumber many years ago and I have never been faced with this problem or anything like it. Has anyone had this same problem in the past? If so, how did you fix it, what did you find and what should I be looking for? I am open to all suggestions?
We are taking off on a 5k trip west in 19 days and would like to resolve the problem. Any help or suggestions?
 
Is this a motorhome or a travel trailer?
How many gray tanks do you have. It's possible you have another tank and that tank is for the bathroom sink/shower.  Look around for another drain valve handle. Most RV's have a gray water tank for the kitchen and a gray water tank for the bathroom. And then of course a black water tank for your toilet.
Can you contact the previous owner?
 
Thank you Rene for getting back to me so quickly. 

This is a Class A motor home and I am not able to contact the previous owner since they have changed their number.  I have searched the underbelly of the MH and have found only two tanks and I have looked for a value, clean out or anything  that might give me access and I have found nothing.

Howard
 
howardmcc said:
Thank you Rene for getting back to me so quickly. 

This is a Class A motor home and I am not able to contact the previous owner since they have changed their number.  I have searched the underbelly of the MH and have found only two tanks and I have looked for a value, clean out or anything  that might give me access and I have found nothing.

Howard
Click to expand...

What model is the RV?

Hopefully they'll be a member with the same MH and will be able to shed a little light. I'm still leaning towards another tank. It's highly unlikely that the piping is plugged.

All the drain valves are not necessarily in the same area. This one could be in another compartment. Chances are, it will be on the drivers side someplace although I did have a 5vr one time with a rear kitchen and the valve for that tank was on the passenger side.
You could try opening the gray tank valve you have and run water down the kitchen sink. If you get water out of the sewer pipe, you'll know that the sink is for that drain valve. 
 
The plumbing is very simple, even though the problem is perplexing. The sink and shower drain into a "gray water" tank, probably a single common one in your rig, so any back-up shows up in the lowest point (the shower drain).  You took some good steps, but with no success so far.

Question #1:  Are you sure the gray tank is actually empty? It may well be that the drain valve is not opening when you pull the handle and the tank is actually full. This is more common than you might guess!

Question#2: With the gray dump valve open, can you get any water at all out the drain? With one or more faucets on? There could be a blockage at the entry to the gray tank and somehow your snake missed it, or #1 above could apply.

Question #3: Will any sink drain into the tank OK, i.e. what happens if you run the kitchen faucets? Does that also back up into the shower? Or the shower itself?

 
Most RV's have a gray water tank for the kitchen and a gray water tank for the bathroom.
Click to expand...

I know there are some (perhaps many), but I've never had one (in 5 RVs over the years), nor actually seen one, so I question "most." All I've seen or used have a single gray tank.
 
I also called coachmen service department this morning and they said that it is a full tank issue. So based on what coachmen alluded to, what is the best approach to resolving the issue? How do you clean a plug/clog from a black or gray tank?  Any advice would be very helpful
 
Hi Howard,
Same vehicle, same problem.  How did you resolve yours?
Piet
 
No idea if or how Howard got on with this...but, most likely scenario is that the grey water tank is full.  As suggested by Gary,  hook up to a dump site and pull the grey tank drain and see if it empties.  Once open, run water from sink or shower and see if it runs out.

You should have something like the photo somewhere.  Grey is the smaller of the two.
 

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    We had a Catalina for 14 years, and as stated above the only time there was a problem was when I had not drained the grey tank.  So, as Gary had stated, either the grey tank shut off is not opening, or there is a blockage at the top of the tank.  It is the smaller of the 2 outflows, and you should be able to tell if water is flowing out, if not wear your oldest clothes, and remove the trap or try to jimmy the trap door up.  The water will stink and won't be clean, but it won't be dangerous like the black tank.

Ed
 
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