Does escape ship trailers with full black and fresh tanks?

[Wunfiddy]

Just picked up our trailer from the shipping facility. Drove it home in some good cross winds. Very stable.
While setting it up and checking systems, the sensors read the black tank is full and the fresh tank is 2/3 full.
I went under the trailer to see if the sensor leads were damaged or something, and the fresh tank is full of a fluid (haven't drained some yet to see what it is) and I gave the black tank a smack and it's certainly full of fluid as well.
Does escape ship these things full of water or antifreeze or something?

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by Wunfiddy

Just picked up our trailer from the shipping facility. Drove it home in some good cross winds. Very stable.
While setting it up and checking systems, the sensors read the black tank is full and the fresh tank is 2/3 full.
I went under the trailer to see if the sensor leads were damaged or something, and the fresh tank is full of a fluid (haven't drained some yet to see what it is) and I gave the black tank a smack and it's certainly full of fluid as well.
Does escape ship these things full of water or antifreeze or something?

First I've heard of not getting an empty black tank. I'm guessing they put water in it to check for the integrity of all the fittings and forgot to empty it prior to shipment. Hold open the toilet flush valve and look down inside with a flashlight, will hopefully be obvious that it is fresh water and you can drain it out in your driveway or wherever.

They likewise certainly put fresh water in the fresh tank to check all the plumbing lines and fixtures. If you're not going to be using the trailer very soon you'll probably want to empty the fresh tank and refill it just prior to your next trip.

[Wunfiddy]

You were thankfully correct. It was just water. All three tanks, though fresh was only 2/3 full. The grass needed some water anyways.

It also explains why the trailer was so stable.

[MTDave]

We picked up our Escape 19 on Wednesday, and all the tanks were completely full. Asked Escape about this and they said the tanks were filled for testing and that someone forgot to drain the tanks before shipping.

[Mike G]

They're giving water away for free in B.C.!

[Shearwater]

Sorry to reopen this thread, but since it was only a 2-3 months old I figured no harm. We picked up our 5.0 yesterday at noon. Tonight at 9:00 my wife opened the door to the bath and found 4" of water on the floor. Looks like Escape continues to forget to empty those tanks after testing. We came from a Scamp 16 with much lower holding tank capacity, so we know this wasn't all from our 33 hours of camping. Yes, I know, we need to get in the habit of checking the tank monitors but really Escape, is it that hard to remember to dump the tanks before shipping out?

[bborzell]

Several of recent reports such as this (electrical wiring snafus, cooktop fittings, etc.) underscore the possibility that ETI’s commitment to increasing production might be moving faster than the provision of adequate training and QA/QC.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by Shearwater

but really Escape, is it that hard to remember to dump the tanks before shipping out?

Explain to me why Escape would fill the tanks and ship them out.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by Shearwater

.... We picked up our 5.0 yesterday at noon. Tonight at 9:00 my wife opened the door to the bath and found 4" of water on the floor. Looks like Escape continues to forget to empty those tanks after testing. We came from a Scamp 16 with much lower holding tank capacity, so we know this wasn't all from our 33 hours of camping....

Just so i understand what apparently occurred in your case (my 5.0 delivery is scheduled in a few weeks) ....

• The bath floor was seen by you to be dry when you took delivery (after the trailer was unloaded from the delivery truck)
• You filled the freshwater tank or connected to 'city water' during the time between pickup and the next-day 9:00 PM 'discovery'
• You ran greywater from the kitchen sink to the GW tank during that intervening time, apparently causing 'backup' of GW from the 'delivered full' GW tank to the wet-bath floorpan
• The 'backup water' was contained within the wet-bath floorpan (didn't overflow to a 'dry area')

Is that correct (or if not, please make corrections)?

Please understand, I'm not suggesting that ETI should deliver with 'test water in tanks' / fail to empty tanks before delivery, or assign any fault to you, just wanting to understand what occurred for my own 'surprise avoidance'.

Even if the GW tank is 'full', GW should not backup to the bath floorpan, absent 'overfilling' of the GW tank, is that correct (unlike my Casita, Escape does not employ a separate 'shower-drain valve')?

Thanks in advance for clarification, congrats on getting your new 5.0, I hope you are enjoying it!

PS - It's time to update your profile to reflect your 5.0 is no longer "on order"

[Shearwater]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Explain to me why Escape would fill the tanks and ship them out.

I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that Escape tests tank integrity by filling them and looking for leaks and in rare cases neglects to empty the full tanks. If there is something we did to cause this, I would be interested in learning so we don't have a recurrence.

[Donna D.]

If water was in the shower pan, there's a good chance it's from the grey water tank.

On my Big Trip, my roomie filled the gray water tank in three days. She was used to her monster 5th wheel and I wasn't paying attention.

So yes, you can fill it quickly.

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Explain to me why Escape would fill the tanks and ship them out.

Your question was answered by MTDave in post #4.

[Shearwater]

Originally Posted by Centex

PS - It's time to update your profile to reflect your 5.0 is no longer "on order"

Thanks for the reminder, I've updated my profile.

Your recap is correct. I am assuming that in the event of a full GW tank, back up will occur in the shower as it is the lowest drain open drain.

[Shearwater]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

If water was in the shower pan, there's a good chance it's from the grey water tank.

On my Big Trip, my roomie filled the gray water tank in three days. She was used to her monster 5th wheel and I wasn't paying attention.

So yes, you can fill it quickly.

Thanks, yes that's good to keep in mind. In our case, we came from a Scamp with much smaller tanks. We were lucky enough to be in a campsite with full hook ups so when we discovered the wet floor, we immediately drained the black tank first, as is our normal practice. It was quite full, certainly more water is it than we had ever seen in our Scamp BW tank. Then we dumped the grey tank. Without going to deep into our toilet habits, I will tell you that it's been our practice to use the campground restrooms during the day and limited use of our own toilet to overnight trips. As of last night's incident, we had used the toilet just three times, so that couldn't have been full just from our usage.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by Centex

Just so i understand what apparently occurred in your case (my 5.0 delivery is scheduled in a few weeks) ....

Originally Posted by Shearwater

Your recap is correct. I am assuming that in the event of a full GW tank, back up will occur in the shower as it is the lowest drain open drain.

Thanks for confirming .... insofar as preventing recurrence, methinks you already identified that .... watch the level monitor

Congrats again on your new 5.0!

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

If water was in the shower pan, there's a good chance it's from the grey water tank.

If the shower drain is screwed in (closed) where does the water go? The early 19's (not sure about others) have a gray tank overflow in the passenger side wheel well but newer trailers do not. I hope it will come up into a sink before overflowing somewhere else.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Shearwater

Thanks, yes that's good to keep in mind. In our case, we came from a Scamp with much smaller tanks. We were lucky enough to be in a campsite with full hook ups so when we discovered the wet floor, we immediately drained the black tank first, as is our normal practice. It was quite full, certainly more water is it than we had ever seen in our Scamp BW tank. Then we dumped the grey tank. Without going to deep into our toilet habits, I will tell you that it's been our practice to use the campground restrooms during the day and limited use of our own toilet to overnight trips. As of last night's incident, we had used the toilet just three times, so that couldn't have been full just from our usage.

So it sounds like the shower drain was open and it was just graywater on the floor. Unfortunately and just an FYI Escape has been known to pipe their systems on newer trailers where black water will overflow to the gray tank. I don't understand why they would do this. I hope they changed this. If you don't have underfloor foam you can probably see if the tanks are interconnected or not.

[rmitch]

When we picked up our 5.0 in 2019 I started noticing water on the bathroom floor, after being hooked up to city water. The problem was that the clamps on the toilet supply line were loose. The one on the wall is simple to tighten, but the one on the back of the toilet is a real pain to get to and tighten!

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

Unfortunately and just an FYI Escape has been known to pipe their systems on newer trailers where black water will overflow to the gray tank. I don't understand why they would do this. I hope they changed this. If you don't have underfloor foam you can probably see if the tanks are interconnected or not.

The interconnection was in venting, so on the black tank side it would be above the floor, as Bill reported:

Originally Posted by Bill R

Surprisingly, adding water over 13 gallons to the black tank overflowed into the gray tank. Our 2018 Escape has 1 roof vent for both the black and gray tanks, and apparently this allows black tank overflow. Our 2014 19 had 2 roof vents and I don't remember any overflow.

Further discussion Black Water Leaking to Gray Water. I don't think anyone located the actual location of the offending connection.

[Centex]

Just FYI, when I picked up my 'delivered' 5.0 yesterday it yielded ~1 cup of 'test water' out of the grey tank, zero from the black.