Water pressure regulator/tank fill valve mystery solved

[Gregory OConnor]

The mystery is why was the garden hose installed?

The potable water tank fill is an appliance on the citywaterhookup
line. like an icemaker or sink. On 91 and newer birds the sporlan
is a diaphram valve like a automatic lawn sprinkler valve. the valve
is closed passivly then opened when the valve is energized by the
switch. the problem with the notion that it is closed all the time
is that when there is no pressure pushing into the input side of the
sporlan tankfill valve, the diaphram that keeps the valve closed
floats open. since ther is no pressure, water doesnt pass but air
gets in the valve.

when the plumbing system in the bus is not hooked to city water and
the automatic 12 volt pump is turned off, some one is sure to open a
sink valve and depressurize the plumbing lines which will float the
valve open. when this happens and the bus sits for a month or two,
scum builds up on the rubber and the valve will not shut closed. if
the valve does not shut closed, hooking up to city water the potable
tank will overfill. with the valve failed open, running on the
12volt pump you will keep removing water from the tank and refill
the tank with that water so removed.

Fulltimers have frequent or constant pressure up against the valve
thus have not this problem but us monthly or bimonthly users
welcome your "hose through the wall upgrade"

One caution I see with filling the potable tank too fast via a non
Bird-engeneered design is if you fill it faster than the air or over
fill pipe can exhaust the air or water you build pressure in
the 'not designed to be pressurized', plastic tank. This may cause
the potable tank to split. talk about wetting the bed!

GregoryO'Connor
94ptRomolandCa

--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Gideon"
wrote:
>
> On our recent visit with Ralph and Charolette in our 89FC35, Ralph
and
> I performed the obligatory 'walk around' of our coach. I opened
the
> utility hookup door, (street side rear) and Ralph immediately
spotted
> the non standard piece of garden hose added by a PO. Ralph's
comment
> was "get rid of that" as I tried to explain I was not the guilty
party
> responsible for this re-engineered method for filling the pure
water
> tank via a 1/2" hose protruding through a 1" hole bored through
the
> backside steel bulkhead of the utility compartment.
>
> Now settled down after our South Texas travels, I'm doing
preventive
> maintenance on the bird, 3208 & ZF service, AD4 dyer rebuild, new
D2
> air governor.
>
> We've had this 35FC 18 months now and that dangling piece of fill
hose
> has bugged us long enough...previous owner told me that's the only
way
> to fill the fresh water tank. Turns out, the first night we spent
in
> the coach when bringing it home from GA, the regulator /fill valve
> leaked like a sieve (through the 2 small holes where you insert
snap
> ring pliers for service) and the first repair I made to the coach
18
> mos ago was replacing that regulator assembly. This fixed the
leak.
>
> Previous owner related he did not ever hook to 'city water' but in
lieu
> always filled the tank through this stupid hose and like a dummy
I've
> continued to use the "hose thru the wall" instead of filling by
> flipping the fill switch to energize the sporlan valve. Hose is
gone
> now and I plugged the hole with a chrome plug purchased at Lowe's.
>
> My lesson here is simple; try to keep the original systems fully
> operational when practical! This case of the water hose added to
> bypass the factory regulator could have been avoided by merely
doing
> the preventive maintenance on the regulator and the city water
function
> as well as the electric fill function could have remained intact.
>
> Ralph, thanks for helping us keep the Blue Bird systems working;
also
> thanks to all who contribute to the forum.
>
> Dick Gideon
> Freedom Bird
> 1989 35FC
> Rolla, MO
>