-
Renewing my plumbing bay on 97 Royale
I’ve had this coach for about 6 weeks. After the first couple weeks I noticed there was always a wet spot below the plumbing bay, and eventually I noticed a smell that would not go away. When parked at home for several days, the smell was so bad that it would permeate inside the coach. I also did not dump the black & gray tanks before coming home.
What I discovered was that the leak came from the 3″ blade style valve. I bought a replacement center section for that valve, drained the tank, and intended to replace it. What I discovered was that 2 of the 4 corners of that valve’s mounting flange were broken. That flange with the broken corners was also on the tank-side and glued in. There was no apparent way to remove that flange and replace with a new one.
So, I had to make a decision, try to replace the flange, or do something else. I did not want to remove the tank, which I think would have been necessary to replace that flange, so I turned to “something else”
I have never really been pleased about using the “stinky slinky” anyway, and I was hoping for a better experience in connecting, dumping, and disconnecting the black/gray tank hose. I had some limited experience using a macerator pump on my previous coach, and thought if I could make that setup a bit more robust it might be better. And so that’s what I have set out to do.
IMO the main problems with stinky slinky method is that it’s a bit unwieldy, you have to find a place to store it, and getting all of the stuff completely out of the hose can be kind of gross. I wanted to change this to be as hands-off a possible. I wanted a hose that does not have to be stored somewhere, but simply retracts on a reel. I wanted to avoid all rinsing of this hose, and I wanted to make this as clean as possible.
So, I have bought a hose reel made for black/gray tanks: shoreline-sw20d01r-reel, and I have bought what I hope is a far more robust macerator pump that will last many years (vs those super cheap 12v pumps): jabsco-macerator-pump
Both black & gray tanks will use 1.5″ outlets with 1.5″ full flow ball valves plumbed to the macerator pump. There will be another ball valve just ahead of the macerator pump and a ball valve on the end of the discharge hose.
I am also replacing the wood facade in the bay with 8020 style aluminum extrusions and probably stainless steel panels. A new faucet with sprayer will be installed with a new soap dispenser.
Right now I am working out the black/gray plumbing with the 2 hose reels (one fresh water in, the other black/gray discharge)
The attached picture shows the planned layout. The wood supports below the hose reels will be replaced with aluminum extrusion. Behind the left hose reel you can see the old 3″ outlet on the black tank. I cut off the remainder of the flange and found a 3″ pipe plug used for pressure leak testing to seal it off. The 1.5″ outlets from the black/gray tanks join then feed into a 1.5″ ball valve up front. The location of that valve is important, as I want a very convenient spot in order to close prior to driving and open when arriving/setting up. The hose reels are positioned to have the hose point out to make hose extension as convenient as possible, as well as having the fresh water (white hose) more forward (left in the picture) than the black/gray (blue hose), as in my experience the sewer connection is the farthest back on RV lots, and so the hoses might never have to overlap. Not present is the connection from the front ball valve to the pump inlet.
I am going to get this plumbing in order, then work on the rest of the bay, including the faucet, new filtration, and the new facade. I’ll try to document my progress here.
-
8 Replies
-
I like the idea, may try something similar in the future.
While replacing stuff would you want to make everything controllable either from inside or via bluetooth on a phone / tablet? I find at least a few times I have to go out in cold & rainy weather to pull the blade valve or turn on the fresh water hose.
-
Yes, I do want it remote controlled, at least the pump-out. I plan on using Home-assistant from central control and remote, networked relays from Shelly
-
Keep us updated! When I get time I plan on doing a lot of automation using home-assistant or ervin/firefly customization. Starting with lighting first using pixelblaze devices that are in my mailbox.
Instead of Shelly you might want to look at other 12v relay boards and arduino, you can get a 8 or 12 channel controller pretty cheap.
-
I guess I am too old (or too young) but I only want my poop to leave the valve when I pull the valve. I guess if you are staying at one site for months at a time it would be easier to push a button, but I would rather just dump and fill on my schedule and with my eyeball on the “stuff”. Since I would know the weather forecast ahead of time it’s unlikely I would get wet and even if I did, it’s unlikely that I would melt.
2000 Featherlite H3-45
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Leesburg, FL -
Couple tips. Get a shampoo/conditioner wall mount thing and put hand soap in one and some good type stuff in other. Then put a paper towel wall mount where you can pull without needing 2 hands. Just makes life easier
-
Bill, there will still be valves, and most likely all dumping will be done while at the controls at the water bay
-
A little more progress including the aluminum extrusion and hose reels.
-
First test of the pump on a real trip went well. What did not go well was letting the black and gray tanks mix while having no p-trap on the clothes washer. Holy hell did it stink when driving. Not sure why there’s no trap on the washer. Later on the trip I discovered another problem with the washer, the water dump backed up and flooded the bathroom and bedroom. Once home I discovered a wadded up rag at the very end of its drain pipe, right where it connects to the gray tank. Finding that was not easy.
Log in to reply.