Hello Scampers, just seeing if anyone else has encountered this problem. Last weekend when we were camping my wife was showering in our 13' Scamp with the shower/toilet combo. I noticed water was dripping underneath the Scamp. Upon closer inspection I could see the water was escaping the Scamp right next to the black water drain underneath the trailer. I called the Scamp service line and they said there is a wax ring under the black water tank to keep the water from escaping the Scamp. Therefore the wax ring must be compromised allowing the water to escape and not run down to the shower drain. They advised rather than attempt to remove the toilet and black water tank to replace the wax ring, to instead caulk all around the bottom of the black water tank. I'm pretty handy most of the time however the Scamp employee is afraid of me opening another can of worms removing and re-installing the black tank/toilet. Hopefully this makes sense and any advice would be highly appreciated. Unfortunately I cannot find any diagrams, pictures or information on this topic. Thanks all!!
Tue, 04/22/2025 - 16:55
#1
Shower water leaking under black water tank
It does make sense. Removing the black water tank means removing the whole toilet assembly. At least that is the way it looks on my 19 footer. In mine one wall is so close to the tank that I do not think I could apply any caulk there. Hopefully it is better in your 13er.
-Paul
2004 Scamp 19 Deluxe,
2021 Tacoma, Double Cab, 6 cyl. 4WD
Colorado
Paul O. thanks for the reply. I decided to caulk around the black water tank. It was a bit of an undertaking like you said because of the very minimal room between the the black water tank and the wall to kitchenette is maybe 2 to 3 inches. It was a bunch of putting caulk on the finger and do my best to transfer it to the floor/tank seam. Also behind the tank is hard to caulk well but I used my phone camera to view the area as I proceeded to look for any missing areas that I was not thorough enough on. I let it cure for 48 hours and ran the shower and sprayed a bunch of water back there and low and behold no leaks! Knock on wood. LOL Hopefully this holds up for a while because we use the Scamp around 20 to 30 nights a year. Hopefully this info helps somebody in future. Happy Scamping
Scamplife
Glad it is working but I'm confused. I would have thought the wax ring was to keep black water from escaping, just as a wax ring does in a home toilet. does that mean black water is somehow leaking into somewhere?
How is that related to shower water?
I'm sure everyone is correct. Just trying to understand for myself.
Hello, from the best way I can describe it is the toilet sits on top of the black water tank. Then the black water tank is set on top of the elevated part of the bathroom floor. The black water tank sits on a wax ring that connects to the black water drainage pipe under the scamp. The wax ring makes two barriers, essentially one to keep the black water tank contents contained within the tank and drainage pipe and it also acts as a seal for the grey water from the shower to not leak around the bottom of the black water tank to the exterior below the scamp. Kind of confusing but it makes sense to me. Hopefully this helps.
Scamplife
Hello, from the best way I can describe it is the toilet sits on top of the black water tank. Then the black water tank is set on top of the elevated part of the bathroom floor. The black water tank sits on a wax ring that connects to the black water drainage pipe under the scamp. The wax ring makes two barriers, essentially one to keep the black water tank contents contained within the tank and drainage pipe and it also acts as a seal for the grey water from the shower to not leak around the bottom of the black water tank to the exterior below the scamp. Kind of confusing but it makes sense to me. Hopefully this helps.
Scamplife
Thanks. That's about what I figured in terms of the black tank to pipe seal. Keep that stuff where it belongs!
Keeping shower water contained within the trailer also makes sense. But I'm surprised the design lets it get as far as that ring. It seems like you wouldn't want water accumulating under the black tank area. Or put another way, I'm surprised there isn't a seal of some sort around the perimeter of the black tank. That's in fact what the folks at Scamp advised the OP to do.