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RV living
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I self reported the post 'as a suggestion' ...
AHM
NES Member
Back in the day (at least), there was an aftermarket holding tank cleaner:
A length of (supple?) hose with holes along the side and probably plugged at the end.
You mounted it on the bottom of the holding tank, and the outside presented a female
garden hose fitting. You'd hope it had a check valve/anti-backflow frob; but, whatever.
The idea was that at a dump station, you'd attach fresh water to the fitting after emptying the tank.
The hose was supposed to flail around inside the tank
like Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man,
and the streams of water were supposed to knock down any cling-ons.
Not obvious they're still sold. The modern equivalent has a fixed spray head,
and probably has a greater reliance upon prayer that the streams hit everywhere.
Amazon product ASIN B000BUU5TUView: https://www.amazon.com/Camco-40126-Tornado-Rotary-Rinser/dp/B000BUU5TU/
Don't know how well they work, because my father didn't suck for that design.
Instead he fabbed a 3'-4' spray wand out of a valve, female fitting, copper pipe,
elbow, and a short length of pipe hammered down into a duckbill-sprayer.
Stomp on the toilet pedal to open the flapper, stick the wand down into the tank,
turn on the spray, and move the wand up and down and spin it 360°.
I don't know if he was inspired by a commercial product or if he invented it himself,
but they sell them now:
Amazon product ASIN B0006IX7YCView: https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Flexible-Powerful-Dislodges-40074/dp/B0006IX7YC/
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HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Back in the day (at least), there was an aftermarket holding tank cleaner:
A length of (supple?) hose with holes along the side and probably plugged at the end.
You mounted it on the bottom of the holding tank, and the outside presented a female
garden hose fitting. You'd hope it had a check valve/anti-backflow frob; but, whatever.
The idea was that at a dump station, you'd attach fresh water to the fitting after emptying the tank.
The hose was supposed to flail around inside the tank
like Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man,
and the streams of water were supposed to knock down any cling-ons.
Not obvious they're still sold. The modern equivalent has a fixed spray head,
and probably has a greater reliance upon prayer that the streams hit everywhere.
Amazon product ASIN B000BUU5TUView: https://www.amazon.com/Camco-40126-Tornado-Rotary-Rinser/dp/B000BUU5TU/
Don't know how they work, because my father didn't suck for that design.
Instead he fabbed a 3'-4' spray wand out of a valve, female fitting, copper pipe,
elbow, and a short length of pipe hammered down into a duckbill-sprayer.
Stomp on the toilet pedal to open the flapper, stick the wand down into the tank,
turn on the spray, and move the wand up and down and spin it 360°.
I don't know if he was inspired by a commercial product or if he invented it himself,
but they sell them now:
Amazon product ASIN B0006IX7YCView: https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Flexible-Powerful-Dislodges-40074/dp/B0006IX7YC/
I put the Tornado in one of my previous TT’s and it worked well. I positioned it directly across from the tank level indicators. My last trailer came from the factor with one already installed which also worked fine.
I never got into the wand method because you have to store that crappy wand somewhere between uses and I didn’t care to deal with that.
Every dump station I have ever used had a piece of hose with no fitting on the end to rinse out your hoses with non-potable water. If there was a hose fitting on the other end every Tom, Dick, and Harriet wild spend a half hour flushing their tanks until they were spotless and you would never be able to get to the dump station.
Bob
AHM
NES Member
Golden Beach Public Campground has a water connection with hose fitting.
Don't recall whether or not it's graded as potable,
but of course the city folk are going to attach to it
regardless of whether the standpipe has backflow preventers, etc.
They just don't care.
If my father realized he'd be faced with an unthreaded connection
at the dump station, he would have fabbed a slip-on adapter
using radiator clamps within the hour. After all, he was the guy who
faced with a Sunbeam electric razor in 6 million acres of park,
all of whose campground rest rooms only had naked light bulbs and no duplex outlets,
carried this to the bathroom every morning:
Amazon product ASIN B001PCVTFCView: https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-125-2-Pole-2-Wire-Adapter/dp/B001PCVTFC/
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We have to need potable water real real bad, near life or death situation,to even think about getting it in/near of any dump station-sure I have issues (wear gloves and water resistant shoe covers while dumping) but using the hose that has been stuck up someones else hose for drinking water-its gross, beyond gross plus big signs usually state that the water is not to be used as potable BECAUSE of where people have stuck the hose.
I can still see a guy holding a sandwich place the food in his mouth, use both hands to hook up the sewer connection-lift the receptacle cover and begin the dump then take the food in one hand munch on it, put in in the other hand munch on it, then he tried to jamb the hose (just used to flush the slinky) into the holding tank gravity fill, having no luck he stood back and aimed at the fill- its impossible for me to ever un-see this.................
I can still see a guy holding a sandwich place the food in his mouth, use both hands to hook up the sewer connection-lift the receptacle cover and begin the dump then take the food in one hand munch on it, put in in the other hand munch on it, then he tried to jamb the hose (just used to flush the slinky) into the holding tank gravity fill, having no luck he stood back and aimed at the fill- its impossible for me to ever un-see this.................
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
If I had a nickel for every time I have watched campers put their slinky, and adapters, and supports on the picnic table while they were dumping their tanks before leaving.…….
Bob
AHM
NES Member
I got to see someone put their slinky on US 20.
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
ditto-advice to new rv owners the covers and hatches have a lock-which does NOT guarantee that the lid will remain latched- for a reason:
if someone pulls up along side of you and tries to get your attention-acknowledge them with a smile/wave (perhaps do the Pope thing) and pull over immediately to check things out...........
if someone pulls up along side of you and tries to get your attention-acknowledge them with a smile/wave (perhaps do the Pope thing) and pull over immediately to check things out...........
I get a kick out of the stories of people trying to siphon gas from an RV, but stick the hose in the wrong tank and get a mouthful of raw sewage.
TZCHRIS
NES Member
After my real life experience I would do some more homework, maybe 10 years ago, but new stuff today is crap from most of them. And if you are planning on full time, make sure you get the bugs worked out before you start! They wanted 4 weeks to fix my brand new Thor and I was living in it! Just ended up trading it in.
It was the case before covid and recent times, but more now.
Some brands/models/years you knew were better than others.
There is no way to keep up.
You always take a chance when buying and RV, you must be handy and creative and fix things yourself.
Inspect your own prior to purchase. look for simple things like missing caulk on roof vents and roof seams etc.
I had missing screws from frame to unit (typically wood), some of these are made loose and dropped on a frame when the frames come in.
You know these are not well built when your towing and pass by one that's flipped on the interstate that is in splinters (seen more than one) you see more contents (clothes and kitchen crap) then what's left of the trailer.
If you buy one with electric slider and jacks learn how to fix, repair which means diagnose including electric problems which leads to how to bypass it to get you by and not stuck on the road.
my fathers motor home as some electro/mechanical lockup with they hydraulic Jacks, manual release is mid coach dead center right under the middle of it, best place you want to be to release a jack, who thought of that.
That's was on a 1/4 million $motor home with Cat diesel pusher of a well know brand on a very common chassis.
they travel 6 months a year and probably have 250kmiles on it in 15 years
They have seen people this year with $1 million type that don't know how the hook up the power.
come full circle, they helped someone hook up the shit pipe.
They were told to leave the valve open all the time in their black water tank, NEVER LEAVE YOUR SHIT PIPE VALVE OPEN, even the gray water, save that for your shit pipe wash water
TZCHRIS
NES Member
You're a 100% correct about being able to fix yourself. I have done wheel bearings on the side of the road, I have also made lippert slide bushings using PVC fitting and dremel! Just sucks when you overpay for new and have to start fixing stuff week one!
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AHM
NES Member
That'd be worse than running 100 yards of garden hose out of the rest room
to top off the fresh water tanks instead of a bucket-brigade, 2 gallons at a time.
Another pro-grift was that we got to know a different state campground's caretaker
well enough that he let us put the trailer storage battery on our charger plugged in to
an outlet in the tractor barn.
If we had had the Intarwebs, we'd surely have rigged a charging station in the Galaxie's trunk
so that we could re-charge the trailer battery while driving around.
But that was never really under consideration.
Connect with Teachers in San Francisco. They have a lot of teachers sleeping in their cars or a street side RV during the week because they can't afford anything within a 3+ hour rush hour commute of the school.
For a few months I had a 90 minute commute. Some nights I stopped 3/4 of the way home for bowling league night.
Up at 3AM. At the YMCA to swim at 5AM, office at 7:30.
Now we live about half way between the office and bowling leagues. A bit closer to bowling. With WFH, my commute is 15 seconds max.
For a few months I had a 90 minute commute. Some nights I stopped 3/4 of the way home for bowling league night.
Up at 3AM. At the YMCA to swim at 5AM, office at 7:30.
Now we live about half way between the office and bowling leagues. A bit closer to bowling. With WFH, my commute is 15 seconds max.
I wonder how many of them are crapping in the streets ???
AHM
NES Member
Friends of my mother's family had a waterfront house on Delaware Dr.
The bane of their existence was stupid city people in rental canoes
who thought there was a sign on their back lawn that said
"Stupid City People Picnic Area".
Once in the 70's, they had a self-identified NYC school teacher
stand knee deep in the river, stark naked,
shrieking his entitlements and erudition at them.
So, I don't wonder how many San Francisco school teachers
are crapping in the streets.
HorizontalHunter
NES Member
Agreed. An RV forum would be great.
allen-1
NES Member
Mesatchornug
NES Member
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I'd probably start by being a paid member.
Mesatchornug
NES Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2011
- Messages
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- 27,793
When the suggestion means more work on the part of owners and moderators? I think that's a perfectly reasonable minimum demonstration of personal investment in the site, yeah.
I could create a camping/rv forum. I'll work on it.
Perhaps a sub forum in the members section ? No doubt folks will be posting pictures of their rigs and those less cautious might talk about up coming trips.
That would be my recommendation…then if there’s enough interest maybe expand.
