Waste Water Tank Lid

[mikewallace]

My waste water tank lid (even though its underneath the tank) has sprung a leak and water is dripping out of the 'lid' that has a small crack in it - maybe ice in the winter and a small drop of water that frooze

Any way - glued it with Araldite as a temporary measure and fitted it back on but water is now seeping around the edge of the lid - even though I have tightened it up as much as I can by hand

Should I be using something to 'seal' the lid to the tank?

Mike

 

[Hobbyt600]

Mike

It might be helpful to have details of the make, model and age of your motorhome.

The 'lids’ (inspection/cleaning hatches) fitted to the water tanks of motorhomes are normally of the screw-in plastic type with the seal between the lid and the tank itself comprising a rubber gasket/O-ring.

As your tank’s lid is cracked and the seal is (probably) damaged, you really need to obtain a replacement lid and seal. GOOGLE-search on "motorhome water tank inspection hatch” (omitting the quotes) and see if you can identify a match for your tank’s lid. CAK Tanks may well have a suitable product

http://www.caktanks.co.uk/
If the present leakage is due to the seal no longer being watertight, it should be possible to use an adhesive sealant (eg. one of the Sikaflex products) or a plumbing sealant (eg. Fernox LS-X) to fix the leak - but then it would not be straightforward in future to access the tank’s interior and (in any case) the lid is cracked and your Araldite repair is unlikely to last long-term.

 

[mikewallace]

Thank you for your helpful reply

The Motorhome is a Trigano Challenger year 2003- so made in France many years ago!

- I have started the search on Google and sent a message to CAKTanks
I did purchase a 5" lid from direct- tanks but it was a UK thread and had no gasket seal - and as you say the rubber seal on my lid is cracked so probably would need to be replaced

I also packed the inside of the lid with bathroom silicone sealant which seemed to reduce the flow to a small drip although water does come out of the rim of the lid - so probably the gasket

I'll post any progress I make on the forum

Mike

 

[Hobbyt600]

It’s possible to obtain these ‘lids’ in France (Called “bouchon de visite” or "trappe de visite”) and there’s an example in this French advert.

https://www.mon-camping-car.com/article/5203/bouchon-de-visite-diam-140mm
The snag is that these things come in different diameters and (as with the CAK-marketed equivalents) are suitable for specific makes of water tank (and they may or may not be sold with a rubber seal).

If you can tolerate not being able to remove the lid to access the tank’s interior, you might be best to repair the lid and then seal it into the tank.

If you remove the bathroom silicone sealant you put inside the lid, cut a disk of thickish plastic to fit snugly inside the lid, and then glue the plastic disk into the lid with a very liberal amount of an adhesive/sealant like Sikaflex 512 Caravan, that should strengthen the lid, deal with the crack and make the lid watertight. Then - having cleaned the mating surfaces of the lid and the water-tank - put plenty of the sealant on the lid’s thread and screw the lid into the tank. That should prevent potential leaks, but, once the adhesive has set, you’ll never be able to unscrew the lid.

Presumably you’ve tried contacting a UK Chausson dealer, as there’s a fair chance Chausson will have standardised on the make of waste-water tank they’ve used over the years and that the tanks all have the same lid.

 

[mikewallace]

AN update - purchased a new O ring via eBay (and a spare in case) and used some vaseline to 'seal' this and used even more silicone to fill the inside of lid as a temporary measure - this seems to have worked so will keep it in place while I continue to search for a genuine replacement

Thanks again for your advice and interest

Mike