Toilet Blew a Fitting

Michigan_Mike

So I was adding water to the trailer for the first time today, fired up the pump and my wife said we had a problem in the bathroom of our T@B 400.  Water was pouring out the back side of the toilet.  On closer inspection I found that the male fitting on the back of the toilet (where the supply line attaches to) had blown out of the toilet.  And of course we are getting ready to go camping for the next 4 days.  🙄  Isn’t that what normally happens at these precious moments of packing, de-winterizing things, etc?  I’d contemplated just capping off the water line entering the bath area to the toilet as there’s no way I could find a new toilet in time to replace the fitting.  But low and behold I grabbed some JB Weld, mixed up some of the adhesive, applied it to the fitting, set it in place and let it adhere for about two hours.  Reattached the supply line, fired up the pump and so far things are pressurized and holding.  We will keep our fingers crossed for the next week and hope that things remain intact.  Thank God I had the JB Weld available!  

 

BrianZ

Do you not have a shut-off valve where the toilet water line is connected to the water supply line?  If not, you should install one, so you can easily shut off just the toilet water in the event of a leak.  And a leak is possible if the toilet valve is not adequately winterized.
See here..
https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/9137/a-modified-hybrid-winterizing-method-pump-toilet-shower
But yeah, JB Weld is a great product that can repair many things!  I used it to repair our roof A/C air intake cap when it got ripped off by a low hanging tree branch, among many other things.
Also, I'm not sure about the 400, but on a 320 you can replace just the plastic toilet valve part, without replacing the whole toilet, and it's not very expensive.

Horigan

Couple of things.
There is a shutoff valve under the closet (or 3-way fridge in its place) for that year 400.

The toilet valve should be removable and replaceable with out changing the toilet.  Now whether you can remove valve while the toilet is still installed is a good question...

Michigan_Mike

Horigan said:

Couple of things.
There is a shutoff valve under the closet (or 3-way fridge in its place) for that year 400.

The toilet valve should be removable and replaceable with out changing the toilet.  Now whether you can remove valve while the toilet is still installed is a good question...

Two things here, the repair failed as the system water pressure blew the fresh water fitting out of the back of the toilet.  I ended up capping off the FW supply line as it leaves the wall so that we could go camping.  Inasmuch as this repair did work I noticed that there was water dripping out alongside the freshwater supply line at the base of the wall alongside the sink. I removed the access panel to the fold-down sink, tightened the water supply line fittings and did not see any water coming from the fittings. However I did find that the P-trap fitting was broken, allowing water from the sink to escape.  I replaced the P-trap and do have a new valve on order and arrives on Monday.  

For those who encounter similar issues, the toilet valve is a pretty simple replacement task but you will need to remove the toilet to accomplish this task.  There are YouTube videos out there that show you this process, but after removing the toilet (2 nuts to remove) you basically remove one screw, use a flat screwdriver to lift up the front edge of the valve seated on a plastic holding pin, carefully pry off and remove the clear water line that shoots water into the stool and once loose, carefully remove the metal valve arm that allows water to flow into the stool.  Once removed you install the new valve in the reverse order.  

One other tip - When winterizing you should drain all water from your trailers water lines and unscrew and remove the water line from the toilet to remove any residual water in the valve and flush the toilet a few times as a safety precaution as I’m sure this contributed to
my problem. This is the first time I’ve encountered this issue and hopefully the last.  The valve is relatively cheap (approx. $20-25) and comes with a replacement seal for the base of the toilet and much less costly than a new toilet.  But if you do replace the toilet, remember that the dimensions may be different than the current toilet as you are working in a confined space area so that is another consideration if you consider let’s say a highline toilet or something larger than the current stool that is installed in the bath area.