Black Tank Near Disaster

If you have a 179 (or any R-Pod model) you may really want to watch this. We had to deal with the black tank drain pipe coming loose from the frame of the 179 while driving back from Florida recently. If you have an R-Pod you really should check this and even reinforce it before any longer travel. My temporary solution failed, and I was fortunate to make it home without a real disaster. ~PP

Yikes! As they say is its always something so be prepared! Glad you were able to make it home John without catastrophic damage. 

We didn't fare so well. The end of ours sagged down and was scraping the pavement. When we stopped at a rest stop, the cap was missing and part of the outlet was worn off. I did a temporary fix and got home where I had to drain the tank (not fun) and then replace the outlet. The valve was not damaged, so it was not as bad as it could have been. When it went to the factory for repair, a second support was added. I added a second support to the gray water drain. It should never happen again.

Hey P2,

Good catch. There has been several posts on this issue and I believe you and I talked (by post) when this originally happened, as mentioned in that post I added a second 3" strap to my drain, which means two would have to fail for drain to drop. I bought the drain strap at Lowe's here locally. I did that when people first started reporting this problem.

We had a black tank disaster while on our first outing with our 189. The strap that holds the black tank pipe to the frame broke while driving in downtown Tucson. When we finally could pullover i had lost the cap the gate valve and all the fittings. I was able to cut the end of the pipe off and install a new gate valve. I then strapped it to the frame. All this was done in 109 degree heat. The strap showed metal fatigue  where it had been bent. One little strap is not enough to support that whole pipe especially if there is black water in the pipe. Does Forest River look at these posts? This needs to be corrected.