Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => Tips and Tricks => Topic started by: Bruce on April 29, 2017, 02:17:14 pm
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Can the electrically operated dump valves be opened manually? We had a rear tire blowout that wiped out the Sanicon system and switches to open the valves.
We made it to our intended campground and plan to stay here two days before going home. Would like to use the manual dump method to empty the tanks, but I cannot seem to open the valve manually.
--Bruce
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Wow, that's some bad luck. I'm glad you are OK, though!
When I broke my macerator, the electric valves still worked. I was wondering if I could bypass them and do everything manually, though, so I called Phoenix and spoke to Kermit. He said it would be possible to pull those valves on the black and gray tanks manually but it would be really hard and you could possibly damage the motor in the electric valve system. Besides, I would have to crawl way far underneath to get to one of them. So, basically, is there any way you can at least repair the part that got damaged that affects the electric valves? I hadn't realized it, but it is a separate device from the Sanicon system even though they occupy the same compartment. If you can't and you absolutely have to manually dump before getting somewhere where they can fix things, then, yes, you can pull those valves out yourself if you are strong and desperate enough.
Good luck!
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This may be the ultimate solution to the incident....redundant switches controlling those two valves from inside.
I wish I could blend our tanks from inside the motor home because I always find the need to blend the tanks while taking a shower roflol
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Bruce
I could be mistaken but I thought on one of Earls how to videos he talked about a manual override ability. In rushing a winterization once on the road I stupidly pulled one of the tank valves instead of the sewer hose connection valve and it ended up with the internal gears out of synch. I was able to disassemble the valve and get the gears back to where they belong, but it wasn't fun.
Best of luck.
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Bruce
Just found the video. It's the one comparing PC to the poorly disguised mystery coach. Kyle indicates that if there is a problem to loosen the gray clamp and pull the handle to open the valve. Just looked at mine and not sure how that will accomplish the override but its probably worth a try.
Again good luck and let us know how you make out.
Bob
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Carol,
Thanks for relaying Kermit's caution in trying to override the electric operating valves. We'll get by for two more days in this fully equipped campground by putting as little as possible into the tanks.
Ron,
Yes, having redundant control switches would solve the problem.
RKS,
Yes, Earl's video does show how to bypass the Sanicon system to dump, but we still need to open the individual tanks valves. We can't do that before rewiring a control switch for them.
We'll make a separate post later on how this problem happened.
Bruce
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Valves can be operated manually, but will take a bit of crawling under the vehicle to access the handles. Once under there, one can see that the electrical driven ratchet arm, can be unscrewed from the Valve shaft. Once separated, the valves can be used in a manual mode lake any other.
Denny
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As previously mentioned it is not very difficult to unscrew from Sanicon valves. Good Luck
Syd