Grey tank valve handle!

[Andy Smith]

Hi y'all! While camping in north Florida I was pulling out and going through my checklist and I noticed the galley grey tank handle seemed weird. I had left it open to drain the night before and was going to close it and the handle pulled right out. It's not broken, just looks like it came unscrewed. It goes through the coroplast and I couldn't for the life of me find the valve to screw it into blindly poking back into the hole. I screwed the sewer cap back on, and luckily the valve seems wide open so we're not backing up into the sink but I'm not sure what to do next. I really don't want to drop the coroplast, cutting seems like a risk of moisture entrance. Since the tank is draining, I was considering just a termination at the drain with a gate valve, but not sure if there's negative effects from that. I'm sure this has happened to folks before so looking for advice. Thanks for any thoughts or advice!

[Daryles]

Put a gate valve on it until you are able to drop the Coroplast and fix it. I put one on mine to prevent "surprises" when you open the cap.

[jcurtis934]

Andy, just cut a u shaped opening around the hole where the handle came out of. Make this cut so that the bottom of the u faces to the rear of the trailer. Make the size of the u about a foot square so that it is easy to see the valve with a light and easy to re-thread the rod back on. Make sure to put the rod through the hole first or make sure the handle comes off the rod. Your "flap" can be shut and sealed with black gorilla tape. Clean the bottom cover with isopropyl alcohol before cutting your flap and the tape will be secure on all kinds of weather for a very long time. You also may want to put some thread locker on to make sure your handle and extension rod doesn't depart ways going down the road. John

[jimcol]

When mine did that years ago I got lucky. Mine had the solid rod pull threaded on the end attached to the valve. Not the cable pulls. I remembered how far the rod went in and close to the angle it was at. Replicating the angle and the depth I was able to reconnect the rod to the valve. It took many tries, and beer, if it wasn't, should have been involved in the solution. jcurtis934 offers simpler and probably a much more expedient solution.

[5acresofchaos]

Funny but sad, I just lost mine and I did cut mine open to see the valve. It’s at about a 45 degree angle from the hole and behind about 10-15 wires laying on the coroplast so careful if you cut into there. I can take a picture tomorrow to help you get that handle back on without cutting if you want.

[Andy Smith]

These are great suggestions. I'm genuinely open to pictures of anyone has any. I've been considering just adding a gate valve to the exterior outlet but if it's safe to open up the coroplast and put the valve back in I'm down for it.

[RMcNeal]

You might try pulling a couple nails from the closest edge to get some light in there. I purchased an endoscope camera on Amazon a while ago. It has come in handy for a lot of things.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[5acresofchaos]

It’s only about an inch and a half past the hole, in theory you should be able to thread it past the cables and onto the valve stem.

[Hblick48]

When I had to drop the coroplast to re-attach my galley grey rod, I used some Locktite to make sure I didn't have to do that again.

[Bob and Jeannette]

Originally Posted by Andy Smith

Hi y'all! While camping in north Florida I was pulling out and going through my checklist and I noticed the galley grey tank handle seemed weird. I had left it open to drain the night before and was going to close it and the handle pulled right out. It's not broken, just looks like it came unscrewed. It goes through the coroplast and I couldn't for the life of me find the valve to screw it into blindly poking back into the hole. I screwed the sewer cap back on, and luckily the valve seems wide open so we're not backing up into the sink but I'm not sure what to do next. I really don't want to drop the coroplast, cutting seems like a risk of moisture entrance. Since the tank is draining, I was considering just a termination at the drain with a gate valve, but not sure if there's negative effects from that. I'm sure this has happened to folks before so looking for advice. Thanks for any thoughts or advice!

Mine rattled out in transit so I bought another and blindly screwed it in after finding the hole and making a calculated guess.