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Old 04-07-2020, 01:42 PM   #1
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How to fill water tanks from inside my 2010 E-350 EB50?

Sorry if this got covered on another thread, but if so I couldn't find it.

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Here is a pic from my SMB manual showing how to fill a single water tank from the inside. Easy enough. But as we so often found, our SMB manual did not match the SMB we bought. The manual showed a much simpler single tank set-up.

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Our 2010 Ford E-350 EB50 has two 16 gallon tanks under the rear bench seat/folding bed. Each tank has a PEX pipe outlet, both come together in a T-fitting which then leads the single outlet pipe up to the yellow-handled big brass "Apollo" valve. Water goes through the valve and on toward the water pump. The brass valve seemed to have a third direction the water could go, which would be straight up, but this route is sealed with a garden hose style screw cap.

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So I had always assumed (I know, to ass-u-me is to make an ass out of you and me!) that by attaching a garden hose to the top fitting and flipping the valve handle then water could gravity feed down into the two tanks. Way better than the funnel system shown by SMB and mentioned in several previous thread. So after owning our rig "Moby" for a mere 8 years I finally got around to rigging up the blue jug and hose system shown in the photo. This was going to be great. I was already patting myself on the back for such great work.

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But it was a big fat fail. With the valve handle in the normal up position no water flowed out of the blue jug, just as I figured.

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But when I threw the valve 90 degrees to the down position no water flowed into the tanks. Instead the water flowed from the blue jug, through the hose, and into the pipe leading to the water pump. It was as if I had installed an IV-like system to take the place of the SMB water tanks. To confirm it I unhooked the garden hose, and of course the pump soon ran dry. By re-attaching the hose, or by throwing the valve back to the normal position the pump soon had water again.

So it seems like some sort of three-way valve needs to be here if this is going to work. Or am I missing something? Please somebody, slap me up the side of the head and tell me what I am missing here!

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Old 04-07-2020, 03:22 PM   #2
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Is it possible that the 3 way valve is a mixing valve?

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Old 04-07-2020, 03:23 PM   #3
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Does the yellow handle turn 360 degrees?
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Old 04-07-2020, 03:24 PM   #4
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https://www.sportsmobileforum.com/fo...tml#post228614

maybe post 2709 will work
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Old 04-07-2020, 04:38 PM   #5
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Thanks Ben. It looks to me like that is the valve that SMB should have installed. But the one in my rig definitely doesn't work like that. Probably so few people ever try to fill up from the inside that I am the first to notice.
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Old 04-07-2020, 04:40 PM   #6
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Ben 10281 - It only turns 90 degrees.
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Old 04-07-2020, 05:01 PM   #7
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What happens if you only turn the handle 45 degrees to the right? Also, do you have a larger picture of the 3 way ball valve, or a close up of it?
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Old 04-07-2020, 05:50 PM   #8
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The Answer!

Quote:
Originally Posted by snomad View Post
snomad steered me to the post that solves my problem. Thanks snomad.

DesertSMB had the answer in his post from 2018, as per the link above. Thanks Desert SMB.

My problem was assuming it was supposed to be a gravity feed system, as shown in my SMB manual. Instead the water pump does the work. Once you throw the yellow handle, AND open the small black tank filling valves the pump sends the water into the tanks. So my apologies to SMB for thinking they installed the wrong valve.

So now I have a beautifully crafted gravity flow system but no place to use it. Once again, I managed to take hours to solve a problem that could be done in minutes.
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Old 04-10-2020, 08:45 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lchukar View Post
Sorry if this got covered on another thread, but if so I couldn't find it.

Attachment 32621
Here is a pic from my SMB manual showing how to fill a single water tank from the inside. Easy enough. But as we so often found, our SMB manual did not match the SMB we bought. The manual showed a much simpler single tank set-up.

Attachment 32622
Our 2010 Ford E-350 EB50 has two 16 gallon tanks under the rear bench seat/folding bed. Each tank has a PEX pipe outlet, both come together in a T-fitting which then leads the single outlet pipe up to the yellow-handled big brass "Apollo" valve. Water goes through the valve and on toward the water pump. The brass valve seemed to have a third direction the water could go, which would be straight up, but this route is sealed with a garden hose style screw cap.

Attachment 32623
So I had always assumed (I know, to ass-u-me is to make an ass out of you and me!) that by attaching a garden hose to the top fitting and flipping the valve handle then water could gravity feed down into the two tanks. Way better than the funnel system shown by SMB and mentioned in several previous thread. So after owning our rig "Moby" for a mere 8 years I finally got around to rigging up the blue jug and hose system shown in the photo. This was going to be great. I was already patting myself on the back for such great work.

Attachment 32624
But it was a big fat fail. With the valve handle in the normal up position no water flowed out of the blue jug, just as I figured.

Attachment 32625
But when I threw the valve 90 degrees to the down position no water flowed into the tanks. Instead the water flowed from the blue jug, through the hose, and into the pipe leading to the water pump. It was as if I had installed an IV-like system to take the place of the SMB water tanks. To confirm it I unhooked the garden hose, and of course the pump soon ran dry. By re-attaching the hose, or by throwing the valve back to the normal position the pump soon had water again.

So it seems like some sort of three-way valve needs to be here if this is going to work. Or am I missing something? Please somebody, slap me up the side of the head and tell me what I am missing here!
So you were almost there. Connect that hose, open that valve, open the fill valves on both tanks and now turn on the pump. The pump will now move the water from your water jug into your water tanks. You don't need to put the jug higher than the valve. The jug can sitting on the floor and the pump will suck it dry. You do not need to gravity feed it.
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Old 04-10-2020, 08:49 PM   #10
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I didn't notice that someone had linked to my previous post explaining how this worked before I responded.
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