Poopy Talk: Macerator and Tank Probes

So, I thought I'd write a post about two items in the poopy department that we really appreciate. Nobody loves this part of RV ownership and use, but the convenience of your own bathroom while enroute and at various destinations sure is sweet and worth the trouble in our opinion.

First, we've been using our Flojet Macerator for almost a year and it sure makes tank dumping quick and clean.  Especially with the low profile of the Visa, we have run into a lot of sewer hookups that are higher than our outlet where gravity is not our friend.  After doing a "slinky juggle" one too many times we decided to cough it up for the Flojet.  Every time we use it, we're glad we have it.  We tapped into the wiring in the back of the refrigerator compartment and just pop off the access panel to plug in the pump.

Second, like everyone else in the RV world, we were constantly getting the misreads on the tank sensors.  Not an earth-ending sort of problem, just one of those things that bugs you.  We tried all sorts of stuff, from detergent, the spray wand, to the ice cubes in the tank trick, to no avail.  We pretty much have it figured out that we need to dump our tanks every 4 days, but still it bugged us a bit.  It didn't bug us hundreds of dollars worth and/or lots of tinkering worth, but when we came across Horst Miracle Probes we decided for $35 it was worth a shot (we only had problems with our black tank - gray has been reading fine for us so far.)  So far they seem to work like a charm!  We now get empty readings and 1/3 readings!  You still get the lack of preciseness of course, with the configuration of the 1/3 - 2/3 - Full sensors  (i.e. you could be well over 50% full but not quite at 75% and still reading 1/3) but at least a valid general idea is good enough for us!

And even if you don't plan to buy the miracle probes, their YouTube video explaining why sensors misread is super helpful in understanding what is going on: Why RV Tank Sensors Are Inaccurate

Motion Sensor LED Lights

I found a 2 pack of these light strips at Costco.   They are battery powered and light and motion sensitive, so it works great on our new bathroom shelf attached with zip ties.

Bathroom Shelf

I learned on the Visa owners Facebook page that some if the models have a nice little linen shelf in the bathroom above the potty...so of course I wanted to add something similar in that wasted space.

We noodled on it and decided to use wire shelving in the interest of weight and if used upside down it provides a nice lip.

As luck would have it, the right length was available as a packaged linen shelf at Lowes.  Of course it was the stock white plastic coated wire and I wanted an oil rubbed bronze finish to coordinate with the new shower enclosure.  Rustoleum makes an any surface, any angle paint that took care of that!

We had to cut the back right corner to accommodate the angle at the corner of the bathroom.  I had thought this was for the vent stack, but it is just for the rounded corner on the other side of the wall next to the fridge.  The vent stack is in the wall between the bathroom and hall...so if any 23BHD owners are reading this and plan to do this, just pull back the door frame trim a bit to pull back the wall material to see where the stack is as well as any wires so you don't screw through anything that you'll kick yourself for!

Shower Enclosure

If you went to an RV show this past year you may have seen a new style of shower curtain/door in some brand of campers (I don't remember which one)...we did and thought it was cool and left it at that.  But 'LaydBack' on the dogandtrailer.com forum tracked down the manufacturer and shared the contact information to buy one direct from the distributor.  They really should sell these things to the public, because they are slick.  After seeing 'WillingtonPaul' put theirs in at the rally in May, I ordered one up as my mother's day gift :)

  It is a nice thick and heavy vinyl that rides on tracks on the top and bottom, with a magnetic strip the full length of the door where it meets.

The top bows out like the stock shower curtain rod, so it gives a nice amount of space.

And the bottom is straight across so it fits nice and neat next to the sink cabinet.  No more floppy shower curtain, and more importantly - no more water all over the floor!

"This is Not a Storage Compartment"

OK, OK, I get it.  We shouldn't be storing stuff in the dead wasted space between the converter and the water heater...but we decided to anyway.  In our camper this is under the back bottom bunk.

You know those extra lengths of hose and power cord that you should have with you for "just in case" but have never touched?  We decided this dead space would be perfect for them.  Not super easy to access, but close enough if we ever need to get to them for some far-away utility post.  To avoid the hoses/cords from hitting against anything in the compartment we zip-tied them in their neat coils and hung them from a big hook screwed into the back upper frame of the compartment.

 Then Kevin cut a little access door into the plywood base.  

The thumb hole he made is right next to the "This is Not a Storage Compartment" sticker, which makes us feel like rebels ;)

Tongue Box and Power Jack

A huge thanks to Bob on the Visa owners Facebook page, who posted the details on his tongue box...they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Bob should feel flattered :)  The box is a truck box from Lowe's and I think it looks great with the diamond plate on the front of the trailer.  We can stow our Flojet macerator and hose along with the pack of Lynx leveling blocks, and for now the single stock battery and the towing mirrors (the mirrors will need to find another home when we upgrade batteries.)  We installed trays for dual group 27 batteries, so we're keeping an eye out for a good price.  Until then we will "run what we brung."

We also installed a power tongue jack.  I've always kind of poo-pooed the idea since we're strong able bodied folks who enjoy a little extra workout here and there...but with the up-down of the Equalizer hitch procedure and a lost bracelet because I took it off to do the cranking (and set it on top of the tonneau cover on the truck and forgot about it - major OOPS!) we decided to just do it.  We bought a Husky HB3000 and it has a built in plug guard for the power cord when it is being stored.   Since we wanted to use that feature we left the propane tanks where they were on the tongue and didn't move them forward for the box install...but the big plastic cover for them won't fit in this configuration, so I have a vinyl zip-up cover on order.  If we decide we don't like it we can always move the propane forward and remove the plug guard and use the big cover again.  So we'll see..I'll add a pic when the cover arrives.

The Hoppy Hitch Level still fits too, so that was good - I really like it! (it is the hockey puck looking thing in front of the jack...it has the cover on in the pic.)

So, in doing some research it sounds about 50/50 whether or not people like to cover their power jacks to protect from weather when being stored.  I saw a cool idea on RV.net where someone used an inverted wastebasket and installed some hooks to store the safety chains on when stored...looked like a great idea to me so I copied it.  Note the drainage holes drilled in the lip so water doesn't collect and get gunky.

And lastly, a couple of niceties in the chains and emergency break-away switch: hooks for the chains and a coiled line for the emergency break-away line:

The vinyl propane cover arrived and fits very nicely!  Here's the end result: 

And it even fits with enough space for the wastebasket cover:

Addendum: so we needed to move the L brackets for the Equalizer Hitch in order to add the box, still within their specs for minimum recommended distance from the hitch. But after towing for a bit, we both agreed that we could feel the difference and decided to get the L's back to the original spot. Kevin made a little deck with cutouts for the brackets that we then attached to the frame then attached the box to it. Nice and solid, and the ride is better again.

Door Maintenance

Well, we have 17 nights under our belts camping with Kansas and a couple of breaks in the screen on the screen door to show for it.  So in looking for a solution I found that they make a pet-specific replacement screening that is available at the big box stores.  So I replaced the bottom portion with it.  It does seem very sturdy and gets good reviews.  It is some sort of plastic rather than fiberglass.  So time will tell if it holds up to someone scratching at the door.  Side note: he was so cute napping in his bottom bunk the majority of the time we worked on mods this weekend!

The other things I did were to put springs on the screen door to make it close automatically (I had done it before, but let's just say I didn't read the directions and installed it all wrong.)  So this time was a success, and since I had to remove the gas strut door opener to get to the hinge screws we decided that we liked the ability to open the door all the way rather than the 90 degree angle that the strut allowed.  It is easy to put back on, so we'll keep it in the camper in case we change our minds.

More Kitchen Cabinet Space

The space under the kitchen cabinets is dead space used for heating and plumbing, but there is still a decent amount of usable space left under there.  So I unscrewed the access panels and added some strips of magnetic tape on the cabinet side, and some strong little button magnets on the removed panels.  For a way to open them I just used Gorilla Tape (my favorite stuff!) and taped a little ribbon pull on the top of each one.

I would have liked to add matching doors or something, but this will do for less frequently accessed stuff and is most certainly more cost-effective :).

Silverware Drawer

Since we don't have drawers in our kitchen (only cabinets), I decided to add a small drawer under the dinette table for silverware.  It is made by Rubbermaid and is just called Small Drawer.  I found it at Lowe's, but it is also here on Amazon.

Here it is in the open position...

...and closed position.  It kind of "locks" into place so I think it should do well in transit.

City Water Inlet Replacement

So when we pressurized the freshwater a couple of weeks ago we noticed some water dripping from the city water inlet.  Upon some research on the web, it sounds like it is not uncommon for the check valve in there to get nicked or lodged during winterizing (we took the "easy" way out and had it winterized last fall...we'll be doing it ourselves from now on.)  Someone online on one of the RV boards even said they always keep a spare on hand.  Anyway, we sourced a new flange from Amazon and that took care of it.  Easy fix, but I thought I'd document in case it helps someone.

The old one -after playing with it for a little bit, I found it just wouldn't pop into the correctly seated position...you can see it is a bit off center.

The PEX connection, ready for the new one.

The old one and the goods to install the new one (except the caulk for around the flange after it was screwed back on)   Luckily we had butyl tape on hand from the roof fan install last fall, since I only needed a small hunk of it.

Bedside Shelf

Well, it is above the bed, but you get the idea.  We wanted a place to put glasses and cell phones (that we use as an alarm clock as well) so we added this little shelf.  Just a pair of rosettes and a length of casing just to length (62").  The casing has little ridges that are perfect for holding our phones at a viewable angle and the whole thing stands off the wall enough to run a charge cord behind it to the phones when we have shore power.

Instant Off Water Saver

I installed these Instant Off Water Saver things on both faucets to save on gray water (not to mention, just to be a little more green).  They work great!  You just push the little stick when you want water flow and release when you don't, or for dishwashing you can twist it so it stays on without pushing against it.  Home Depot is about half the price of what you find online.

Combination Locks on the Hatches

We changed out the keyed cam locks on all four hatches for combination ones, sourced from Amazon: Combi-Cam.  Since just about everyone and their brother has the CH751 keys, this adds at least a little more deterrent.  Plus, it allows us to hide a door key in one of the hatches so we don't have to carry camper keys when hiking/kayaking/etc.

Bathroom Organization Stuff

The Visa didn't come with towel racks or a TP holder, so we installed them - the hand towel ring and the TP with wall anchors (the lightest weight cheapies we could find at Home Depot or Lowe's...can't remember which one) and for bath towels we have an over the door rack.  We tried the over the door hooks first, but that didn't work well when traveling as the towels would be in heaps on the floor if we had done a bunch of turns.  So that rack faces outward now for jackets and stuff.

The toothbrush holder is self adhesive and is called Hang Away, available on Amazon: Toothbrush Holder  and the divided basket and kleenexes stay put with blue poster tack under them.

New tires!

Yay, the Visa's new shoes arrived and have been mounted.  Not cheap, but it wasn't worth risking a blowout while out having adventures.  We got the Maxxis M8008s.

Tire Troubles

We are pretty fanatical with safety and inspections and do a walk-around at each stop when traveling, which includes a visual check and heat check on the tires.  At literally our last stop on the way home from FL we noticed cracks in the sidewalls of the tires.  More pronounced on two of them, but they are present on the other two as well.   These are Trail Americas with a manufacture date of 2011.  We keep them inflated properly, don't have crazy weight added to the trailer, and even keep the tires covered when in storage.  So, yeah, it looks like they're just crummy low-quality cheap tires.  We also aren't the only Visa owners with tire woes, so apparently this is one place where Gulf Stream skimps (though in researching it sounds like this is common to most manufacturers, editing to add that we've found a boating forum with similar complaints on boat trailers with Trail Americas.)  They also have a  reddish oxidation thing going on where when you rub them, the rub mark is Redfish brown.  Not sure what that means.

So, anyway,  we determined that it was safe to continue home, but we researched and ordered new, better tires toot sweet.  We have 4 Maxxis M8008s on order.  It will be nice to be running on radials.
We both decided not to even bother replacing them under warranty since they would more than likely just give us direct replacements of the same quality (or lack thereof!)

New Kitchen Faucet

I prefer a single lever faucet for several reasons, but especially in the camper for water conservation when dry camping...your hand can be busy soaping and scrubbing and your forearm can flip the water on and off.  I found this faucet at IKEA (it is named Lagan and was all of $20)  I especially liked that it was for a single hole so I could install a soap dispenser...one less thing to clutter up the small amount of counter space!  Also, I mounted it in the leftmost hole so there is no problem with reach whatsoever in either sink bowl.

Closet Shelves

We tried hanging fabric shelves, which worked fine but wasted a lot of space behind them in the front closets on either side of our bed.  I found wire locker shelves (in dark pink, oh well) at Big Lots for $3 each.

Cushion Covers

Although I was a little bit better with the diamond pattern on the cushions in the Visa than I was with the floral in the Aliner, I still decided to cover it.  It was actually starting to show signs of fraying on one edge already, so I figured I better get it done sooner than later.

I went in search of some sort of plain tan or brown, which I found...but when I saw the red gingham-ish fabric that reminded me of the shirts the staff at Fort Wilderness wears, I knew I had to use it somewhere!

Laundry Chute

OK, so it's not really a chute per se, but ever since I saw a laundry chute in the Wolfwood 5er (Hi Judy and Kathy!) I wanted to come up with something clever for stowing laundry in our new camper.  And wouldn't you know, there's a spot that was perfect for a pretty simple mod...

 inside Theo's closet!

I didn't snag a "before" photo, but the same false panel from below extended to the upper framed opening as well.  So I popped it out, cut it to size and put it back in, covering just the lower section that is visible when the door is closed.  When it is open it reveals the opening that now goes into the strorage hatch that is accessible from the outside. 

 Here's a view from inside the storage hatch.  And as luck would have it, I found a folding bin at the Christmas Tree Shop that fits the space perfectly!  The bin folds up when not in use, which is perfect since this is the space that the Weber Q rides in during travel.