Words you should never utter !!!! - Printable Version
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Words you should never utter !!!! - Richard - 08-12-2017
"This trip has been without any coach issues"
It summons the curse of the the coach deities, and brings in Murphy's grandpa for good measure.
We are 4500 miles into this years tour, and except for a nail in a tire, have been without major incident. I had puffed up my chest and bragged to Rhonda about how effective the winter projects had been in producing a smooth sail.
So, the baby boy (all 6'3" of him) and his significant other flew into Montana to stay with us at Glacier National for a week. On the first night they arrived, the son flushed the half bath potty in the middle of the night and it jammed. I awoke in the morning to step into an inch of water. Oops.
Ok, first step is send them and Rhonda out hiking so I can dry out the basement. I have a small wet dry vac so that helped get the water out of the basement carpet, and for good measure I removed all the basement ceiling foam panels to let the underneath dry also. That wasn't too bad.
Next I decided to rebuild the sequence valve in the potty cause it was sticking. This is where the curse hits. I put in new o rings from my o ring kit obtained at Harbor Freight. I could not get the valve to work properly even after three rebuilds and installs. I can tell you that the first time the removal rebuild and install took over an hour. I can know do it in fifteen minutes. But all the effort was to no avail. I finally figured out the o rings that I had were not sized as marked in the kit. I now suspect either poor quality control or that they simply put the closest metric o ring in the SAE kits.
Just to make things interesting, I remove the top on the working potty to check a dimension on the valve, and I hear air. Lots of air. It's coming from where the air supply fitting screws into the valve. Ok, that seems simple enough. Remove the tubing, tighten the fitting, and air leak should go away. Well, that's what should happen but not when the valve body (old style, black injection molded version) actually has split where the fitting is screwed in. Those of you who play with fittings know they are tapered, so when you screw a tapered fitting into an already split part, the split grows. Now, we have a leak that the aux pump can't keep up with.
So, a quick recap. Two guests, no potties, one stressed Richard.
Ok, so the solution appears to be to drive to the nearest hardware store and obtain proper 3/4 X 9/16 X 3/32 orings Oh yeah the nearest store is in Browning, 35 miles away. And oh yeah, that's the closest place our phones work too. So off we traipse to get the o rings. Like an idiot I did not take an old one. I thought that as the lady fished them out of the parts bin that they didn't look like the right size, but I clearly saw the size printed on the lid.
I don't like to throw money at problems, but I knew the split valve was FUBAR (fouled up beyond repair) so while ordered a new valve from Mullaney, I said send TWO.
Drive forty miles back to the coach and install the o rings obtained at the hardware store, hoping to get one functioning potty. I have dead ended the air lines to both so the air doors will work and at least we can shut the doors at night. Reassemble and lube the valve, install, and voila, the same negative result. It doesn't seal off at the end the stroke. I may have invented some new bad words at this point.
We take the kids back to the airport and I get more o rings at HD. When we get back to the coach, the sequence valves have arrived. I take one of them apart and measure the o rings. Yep 3/4 X 9/16 X 3/32. Hmmm, the Harbor Freight o rings don't measure out to be exactly this size, and guess what, neither do the hardware store o rings. Arrrggh. The Home Depot rings do measure to be the correct size, however it's a moot point since I now have new valve assemblies.
The new valves had the potties functional in about thirty minutes. So don't worry that we were holding it for five days.
I can't tell you how happy Rhonda is to have indoor plumbing again.
We have returned to cell phone land and internet, we are in Kalispell tonite.
Never will I utter those words again.
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - Chester Stone - 08-12-2017
A disaster explained very well. But for the grace of God, go I.
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - encantotom - 08-12-2017
as much time as you spend hiking and outdoors, going outside should feel normal to you. ha
tom
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - RussWhite - 08-12-2017
I have just completed my first Mulllaney/toilet experience. Not bad really for two units and 8 years of full-time use.
I lost power to the coach when I was not with it for several days. No biggy as refrigerator was emptied, it didn't rain, and inverter was set to off so batteries did not even drain. But, you knew that was coming, air eventually decreased to the point the flapper on the toilets was not held closed. In my exuberance to get things working again I used the flush handle a bit too quickly I think and anyway, the bottom of one of the old style ( black ) sequence valves on the guest toilet just separated below its threads. Nope, not going to try gluing that back together. So I hook up with AnnaMaria at Mullaney and we discuss the options. A new sequence valve ( new style gray ) is like $400 bucks. Ouch! I moan and complain and she comes up with a rebuilt option for $200. I like that much better. So I now have my merit badge in toilet repair.
Just curious Richard - were you connected to city water when you had the flood, or was that all water from your onboard tank?
Remember, it's always something. Russ
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - HoosierDaddy - 08-12-2017
My toilet sets over the waste tank....There are times I'm tempted to go back to the old fashioned gravity toilet.
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - Richard - 08-13-2017
Endless supply of city water, of course.
I do have the practice of turning off the water when we leave the coach for more
Than a day outing.
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - RussWhite - 08-13-2017
Let me add just a bit of an explanation for any newbies that might read this thread in the future. We were all newbies once!
Beside the two options Richard mentioned - City water ( endless ) and turning the water off ( and I presume the pump too ) there is another way many of us manage the water supply.
It has a couple, maybe slightly hidden advantages and an obvious disadvantage.
You have the option to fill your onboard potable water tank and then turn off city water. Most of our coaches have a very capable onboard 115vac pump capable of supplying all the needs at sufficient pressure to give you that nice shower that feels so good.
Some advantages I see for doing this: Kind of implied in my previous question - you limit the amount of water that can spill into your coach. If you dump your holding tank when you fill ( my practice ) you will never overfill your holding tank. Using the potable tank on a regular basis keeps the water in there fresher. The disadvantage - you need to monitor the level in the tank and refill occasionally. Russ
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - encantotom - 08-13-2017
i do it the same way as russ.
tom
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - House Divided - 08-13-2017
I have learned to take the same approach. My water pumps are more than adequate.
An additional factor for me is the remaining grey polybutylene tubing in our coach. I am converting to PEX as i update fixtures, but have yet to eradicate all of it.
As most know, it can decay from the inside out, making potential leaks difficult to find. The thought of being hooked to an endless supply of city water is too scary for me until all of the polybutylene is gone.
We have become very good at listening for the barely audible water pump - making sure it's running for a reason.
RE: Words you should never utter !!!! - Chester Stone - 08-13-2017
I follow this practice also, but there is an additional benefit. Years ago I hooked up city water in Las Cruses, NM, and then went to dinner. When we returned, the 110 lb. pressure had flooded the coach. Didn't think of using a pressure regulator and one was not provided in the coach as with Newell.