Today I discovered the main reason we kept losing water to the new toilet was the water supply line had a “burst pipe detector” and for whatever reason that kept shutting off the water to the toilet.
We took that line back and exchanged it for a typical line and got the recommended screws to attach the water valve properly and now it appears the toilet is functioning at 100%.
I have spent far too much time on this toilet.
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Posted in what the hell needs to be fixed now?
We had been wanting to get a new toilet for a while, but we just did not want to deal with the hassle of it.
That is until I walked on a soggy carpet.
Lucky for us, it was the water supply line, it pretty much just rotted off, and we really hated the toilet, it was a original 2002 el cheapo plastic that took up too much damn room and was too low to the floor and looked nasty.
We bought the “Dometic 310 Series” from Camping World which was having a huge sale at the time, originally it cost $209 but we paid $157 so that is pretty cool. I was worried it would be a all day installation but reality was, it took all of 5 minutes to take the old one out and install the new one.
That is of course it would have taken 5 minutes to install had I paid closer attention to the water supply line.
Hard unbending plastic 9″ too high with no threads.
Due to my work schedule, Pauline had to run to get the needed parts, and of course, they give her one part plastic, one part brass, which I messed the plastic threads up by not getting the brass part on straight, so she once again had to go get more parts, this time all brass.
The toilet worked great for a few days and just stopped. She called the manufacture and from the sounds of it, this is a known design flaw, just needs two screws to hold the valve in place, so I took the valve out to look it over and inserted it back in and it worked for a few times then once again, stopped.
Took it back off, no water. Started taking the supply line apart and it had water, reinstalled everything again and it once again works.
Sigh…
So at the moment we have a nice and new working toilet that takes up less space, looks nice and sits higher.
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Posted in what hell kind of changes are we making now?, what the hell are we learning?, what the hell needs to be fixed now?
We still do not have a sewer line installed here at our Host site. So every Monday or Tuesday we pack everything up and drive the 200 yards or so to the sewer dump, dump our tanks and drive back and set everything back up.
It normally takes an hour. An hour we would love to be doing something else, but it is what it is.
This past Tuesday I was trying to bring the bedroom slid-out in, but when I pushed the switch, nothing happen. I pushed it a few more times, still nothing, I told Pauline that we had a issue, but when she tried it, it worked just fine.
Hmm. Ok.
We went to the dump station, dumped and came back and started to set things back up when I tried putting the slide-outs out, the main one again had no issue, but the back one hesitated, but after a minute or so it started going out, but stopped completely about 2″ from being 100% out.
After that, we had nothing at all.
Grrr….
We went over every fuse we could find, all of them was fine and after a hour or so of trying to figure out what to do next, Pauline called our dealer and they suggested it could be the slid-out circuit board. After a quick search we found the circuit board, and when the switch was pressed we could hear a “click” from the circuit board. We checked the fuse on it, but it was still good.
Our dealer then told us that we should have another one, find that, start swapping parts, and figure out what it is, and if its still not working, its the circuit board itself.
We started our search for the second circuit board and found nothing, they told us they are usually where ever there is space, and at times, its in a non logical space, like under the refrigerator, or under the hood etc, but we still couldn’t find it.
We tried to google an answer, but no search term we used came up with found anything useful. So we said the heck with it and spent $97 + shipping and ordered a new circuit board.
We got the new circuit board on Friday and was pretty confident it would work, I went outside and plugged the new board in and Pauline pressed the switch and…. Nothing.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Ok, what now?
The only thing I could come up with was, take the bed apart and see if there is anything noticeable.
We stripped the bed and took everything out of the storage and took the bottom panels off the bed frame and saw what we had seen the last time we looked under the floor panels when we first bought Ackbar well over a year ago, nothing but 4 bundles of wires going in various directions.
However, this time I started to see what I was really looking at. There was not 4 bundles of wires, there was only 2 bundles of wires and 2 conduits that use to be where the 2 wire bundles use to be inside of. I fallowed the wires and saw a plug was under the bed frame itself.
I also noticed this the last time we was under the bed well over a year ago, but I gave it no thought at all, I was just looking what was there, not trouble shooting. I tried to pull the plug from under the bed frame, at first it was very tight and hardly moved, but it soon loosened up and with some work, I was able to free it from under the bed frame, and when I finally got all the wires free, the two ends came apart rather easily, in fact, they came apart too easy.
Now it all made sense.
I joked with Pauline “Could it really be this simple” and plugged the two ends together and asked Pauline to press the switch.
BOOM! Worked perfectly.
I discovered a factory defect.
The wires come up from the cargo area through a hole under the bed, the wires have to be about 18″ long so they move with the slid-out and don’t pull out of the motor. The bed frame sits on top of the carpet and runs over the hole.
The moving in/out pulls the wires in/out under the heavy bed frame, its being ran over and ran over and ran over, that is why the conduits separated from the wires and why the plug itself was under the bed frame.
After looking over the situation, I decided to put the wires back into the conduits, and taped them both up with electrical tape, then tape the 2 conduits together.
I had Pauline move the slide-out in/out a few times as I sat and watched what the wires would do. My tape job made the wires stiffer and they slide under the frame with little resistance. While not perfect, I think this will work.
I also had to tape the plug itself, the locking part of the plugs were bent from being ran over multiple times, so the plug would not lock into itself.
Of course since the new circuit board is electrical, it’s non returnable, so we paid $97 + shipping for nothing but a spare part, we discussed putting it on ebay or craigslist, but honestly, we are not too concerned with it, you never know when you might need a new one.
As a side note, we ordered this from Monaco Parts, they also told us our RV only has one slide-out circuit board.
I really wish we could find a Haynes Repair Manual or similar for our RV, I hate feeling clueless on my own RV/Home. While we are getting better, we still have a long way to go.
I had planned to take more then just 2 pictures of this mess, but you know how it is when you are focused, you just want to fix it and get it done.
May 29, 2014 – South Whidbey State Park – This plug coming undone cost us $97 + shipping.
May 29, 2014 – South Whidbey State Park – The conduits being ran over by the bed frame is a design flaw.
We left Fort Flagler State Park a few hours earlier then we had planned. We was told the (only) bridge off the island was getting inspected and was having delays up to 20 minutes long and since we had to get propane we left at noon over the planned 1:30pm.
We got off the island with no issue at all and even got our propane and was able to make the U turn back on the road which was a stress since traffic there can be tricky but all was well and we went to the ferry terminal and tried to get on the 2pm ferry but they was full due to low tides canceling 2 earlier ferries so there was a backup of sorts.
The ferry was also running late, our reservation was suppose to leave at 3:30pm but it was after 4pm before it finally took off. We arrived at South Whidbey State Park just before 5pm.
We parked Ackbar in our space, and since we wanted to use our awning we backed up farther to avoid a tree only to start sinking, lucky for us, we was able to get out. So at the time being, there is no chance we can use our awning.
As we was setting up I smelled propane, and sure enough the relief valve wasn’t all the way close… Grr… I paid for that, the least the propane person could do is make sure she closed it.
I then started to set up the dish for the tv. We was told multiple time that this spot has great DirectTV access… After 3+ hours I gave up. I did not even get a bump of signal.
Good thing there isn’t any NBA playoffs or NHL playoff game 7’s that went into OT or anything… I would be ticked if I missed that sort of thing.
We showered and then “ate” what few leftovers we had left, somehow this week “meal planning” has been completely ignored, normally we have plenty of food to choose from, but this week the fridge seems more bare then usual.
After I showered I went outside to make sure I closed a compartment door and as I was walking past the propane I heard the HISSS and smelled the propane, Pauline brought me some light and together we discovered the T mount we had installed last Fall and still have never used, was leaking at the end of the hose. (The end you screw into a propane tank) I have zero clue why or how, but it was leaking.
Ok. Fine. Whatever. We got the wrench set out and took off the hose and put the plug on and we will just add this to the ever growing list of “what needs to be fixed now”.
I can’t say this has been a bad day, but it for sure was not a good day.
I better not miss the Pacers game tomorrow night…