Draining Water

Hullo all. So, I went to drain my fresh water tank tonight, and looked first in my owners manual. It showed a petcock to turn to empty the tank, but I could not find hide nor hair of a petcock anywhere. I did see a white hose and a blue hose at the rear of the trailer on the slide side. The blue hose had a twist off cap. I twisted it off and got a dribble of water. White hose was uncapped. Much to my surprise, I also found another valve handle. Thinking this may drain the fresh water tank, I pulled it. I heard the gurgle at the front of the trailer and immediately closed the valve. Hmmm. So, I've heard of the 3 waste tanks on a lot of newer campers before, but no one showed me or mentioned to me that mine had that. Only 2 valves in the waste cabinet (black and gray). Well, I pulled the cap off the sewer drain (I know it was clean from the last trip out), and sure enough...out came dishwater. I went in the trailer and looked at my guages again, and sure enough, there's a "galley" button that showed 3/4 full. So I got to my sewer drain and finished draining the water. Smelled nice and clean, like soapy dishwater. Now I know! No sticker or arrows or anything in the owners manual about that one!

So anyway, back to the freshwater. As I noted above, the guages showed all empty now. My question is (since I ran out of daylight and had other stuff to do), is the blue hose sticking out at the rear of the trailer the drain for the freshwater tank. When I get a chance again, I'll put more water in the tank and see, but figured I'd ask, and relate the other surprise.

On my Cat the blue hose is the drain hose. You unscrew the cap and let it drain. The white hose is the overflow hose. I have put a stopcock in mine as it would siphon water from the tank while we were driving. Open stopcock when filling, as it is also the air release when water is coming in. Close the stopcock when tank is full.

Makes sense Gary. AS I said, I was going to try in the next couple of days, to confirm that but thanks. I feel better knowing.

Our 05 Cat had a valve there when we bought it. Our 09 did not. I went to Lowes and bought 3 screw on, PVC valves. I put one on there and one on both low point drains. I just couldn't see my self crawling under there to unscrew that cap. Not sure why Forest River got so cheap that they just put a cap on vice a valve.

I over flowed that Galley tank one time on our 05 Cat while I was back flushing it. The vent for it was under the sink, not on the roof like the black tank. It overflowed all over the kitchen floor. Flowed right out from under the cabinet. I couldn't figure out why water was coming from under the sink until I got under there and looked. A vent pipe went right up under the counter top and dead ended with a vent on it. I haven't looked out our 09 to see if it is the same. I assume it is.

When we get home from our next trip, I intend to relace the caps with valves/stopcocks. The caps are hard to get tight enough to not drip, and you'rs must be like mine -- nearly impopssible to reach.