MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS - *M* Macerator (a.k.a. PoopEater!)

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter M now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER M

Mascerator:

We all do it.

Yup.

We sure do.

We use the toilet.

Well, most do.  Some prefer to do the natural thing in the woods. That's okay I guess.  But when you have a motorhome, it usually has a bathroom that contains a toilet.  And that stuff has to go SOMEWHERE~  Right?

When our black tank is just about full (the toilet stuff is called the black tank) then we need to find a place to dump it.  Also our shower and kitchen sink water (the grey tank). Our black and grey tanks each hold 50 gallons, and our freshwater tank holds 100 gallons.

Now, most folks have to pull up stakes, stow the gear, and look for the nearest dump station.  That usually involves a monetary fee to whatever campground is nearby.

Steveio has this SUPER DOOPER POOPER TOY to play with.... called a Macerator! It's similar to a garbage disposal.  It grinds up the errrr ummmm tank waste, and pumps it out a hose with pressure. Enough pressure to go uphill and over humps or even into a household toilet!

It pumps it out of a long skinny 3/4" hose, even uphill, to dump at far away locations like an inground septic tank, and then we follow up the process with the grey water from the sinks and shower to rinse out the dedicated hose.

It is great for many RVing situations, besides saving on dump station fees:

• -Many RV sites with sewer provided are only designed if your RV is backed into the site.  But our motorhome has a solid back wall in the bedroom.  If there is a pretty view, we may pull in forward so the view is out our front windshield in the living area of the rig.  That puts the sewer opening on the wrong side for us.  The macerator can help with that.
• -Or if sitting in someone's driveway it can dump tanks into a septic or even a toilet. (done that)
• -Or if at a poorly designed dump station that is too slanted to dump properly by gravity. (seen that)
• -Or if at a campsite with sewer available but the sewer pipe is a foot off the ground (seen that)
• -Or if at a curved road leading to the dump station and no way to line up 40 foot rig at their hole (seen that)

We do not use the "blue" RV holding tank deodorizers anymore as they can introduce bacteria-killing products into our septic tank.  Septic tanks and sewer systems need certain bacteria to keep them running properly.  We pour in a few tablespoons of RidX liquid septic tank treatment into our RV tanks to keep them working properly until they are dumped.

Here is a link to one like ours on Amazon that is for a marine use: Jabsco-18590-2092   Steve chose the marine type one over the ones available thru RV dealers because some of their impellers are only plastic.  Here is what it looks like.

Steveio took a standard drain cap that goes on the bayonet mount of any RV drain pipe.  He cut an inch and quarter hole in the middle of the cap with a holesaw bit on the drill.  That allowed the cap to fit right over the opening on the bottom end of the macerator in the pic above (he removed and discarded that grey elbow fitting in the photo)

He also drilled four small screw holes in the cap to line up with the four holes in the housing, using screws to hold it tight, along with a bead of silicone between the cap and the housing.

The discharge end on the left side of the machine has a 1 inch barbed fitting.  He attached a 1" piece of clear plastic hose (to be able to see the "progress of material" going through the hose)  At the end of the clear hose he attached a piece of threaded hose fitting to screw a black 3/4" hose that is 50ft long that goes into a septic, drain hole, sewer system etc. That long black hose is dedicated to dumping only, never to be used for anything else. Coils up in a 5 gallon bucket for storage in the motorhome basement.

The electrical line of 12 volt power was wired up to a 12volt plug cigarette lighter type with an ON/OFF switch on the line.  He installed a 12 volt powered outlet in our compartment near the drain valves to power the macerator when in use.

Now the macerator can hook onto the bayonet mount of the RV drain pipe when in use. It can then be removed and stored in a tote in our basement compartment when not in use.

With the adapted cap, it just hooks onto the bayonet mount

of the drain outlet on the motorhome. 

We last used it when we were in Florida a year ago.  We were parked for 6 weeks in Mom's backyard. There isn't any septic cleanout or septic tank access close to the house. So Steve chose to run the black hose up and into the bathroom through the window and have it flush right into the toilet.

Once the black tank contents are done running through the machine, the motor changes sound in pitch and it's done. We then shut it off and close the black tank handle.  Next comes the grey tank (shower and sink water) valve is pulled and turn it back on and run through the machine.  This also helps to rinse the hose out before storing it away.  It is a good idea to screw the two ends of any hose together during storage to prevent leakage or intrusion by insects. 

We got the job done, and our tanks are now empty.  I did not take any pics of the ummm errrr process, as you can use your own imagination.  The clear section on the macerator hose is there to observe the situation, and once both of the tanks are emptied, then we run some fresh water to flush everything out. The machine and the black hose are dried off and stowed into a separate bin away from our other compartments.

That is the poopy way to handle your RV holding tanks!

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It has been rain rain rain on and off for the last three days.  I have been doing some sewing, but it's a secret so I can not say anything yet until after next Saturday.  I don't think my kids or grandkids ever read this blog, but you never know. They might.   I wish they would.  If they wrote blogs I would read theirs, faithfully. 

Oh well, I know my darling dad-in-law Paul does, because he comments on mine all of the time!  He thinks I should publish my motorhome modification blogs into a DVD format and sell it. Hmmmmm I wonder? 

We spent a busy Sunday afternoon going from store to store (we both HATE shopping!)  going to Lowe's, Home Depot and Menards.  We were comparing prices and getting ideas for all of the upcoming projects on Steve's Honey Do List!   We got a lot of ideas, and figures and help and fun stuff in our brains.  Now for the warmer weather, some official stuff, some deliveries and then find a few more pennies to pay for it all!   

Our son Dan and wife Heather, along with their kids and their Auntie Kim and Grandma Peggy just got back from a fun filled week in Florida at Disney.  We have been having such a time reading along on Facebook and watching videos and seeing pics of all their adventures.  What a great vacation for them! I can't wait to hear Allegra and Mason's excited re-telling of their exciting vacation. 

School is out next week so we are going to take the oldest grandson Jameson for a day or two.  I think we will find some projects for him, and do some cooking, and just hang out and have some time together.  He hasn't had an overnight since camping last summer, so it's his turn now. Gotta be fair and take them all, but space them out a bit so they don't wear US out!  LOL 

Tuesday is going to be an exciting Loom Getting Day for me!!!! A long time ago I sold a wonderful table loom to my friend Linda.  She has had a lot of other looms come and go in her studio in Tennessee and decided that this one was not in high demand.  So she offered to sell it back to me.  It is all boxed up and on it's way on the UPS truck, destined to arrive on Tuesday at my house. Wheee heeee!   It is a favorite of mine, and I always kinda regretted letting it go.  It's the smaller 4 harness  Tools of the Trade that I sold her when I got the heavier 8 harness one.  Now I will have both, and honestly the smaller 4 harness is easier to take along camping. 

The 4 harness on the left and the 8 harness on the right....

Well, the cozy fire is going on a damp wet rainy night.  We are thankful that it's warm 42 degrees and not freezing rain and ice.  March is almost over, but we are known to get snow and ice in April too.  Steve leaves early tomorrow morning for his Old Fart Party Bus job, and I am glad he is not driving on icy roads. 

RV Macerator prep and HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY Chelsea

Yes, Steveio is a very happy man.... He had another motorhome project to work on~!

The macerator arrived this weekend, so he is busy busy busy adapting the cap, figuring out which length drain hoses he wants to make, where he is going to wire in the 12 volt outlet for it, etc.   The only problem is with the near zero weather, he can not be out there rewiring that compartment in the motorhome yet to have the outlet powered to operate the thing.   I am thinking he can wait till we head somewhere south where it's warmer, rather than working in the cold and kneeling in the snow.

For those non-RVers... the macerator is kinda like a garbage disposal that chops stuff up before it gets rinsed away.  The only difference is that this goes on the outlet to our waste tanks and chops up the *poop* into tiny pieces so it can be pumped uphill,, downhill, wherever via a 1 inch hose.  That is opposed to the normal big 3" Stinky Slinky hose being gravity dumped into a hole in the ground.

(this is a stinky slinky below.. that just lays on the ground and gravity feeds the dump stuff into a hole.  It works ok, but you can see if unlevel terrain or too far away, the stinky slinky is not a good option)

So why did we buy it???   With a macerator, we can pump the holding tanks out at strange dumpstation locations,  or into a higher located septic drain, or and up into an outhouse hole at a national forest campground where they don't have dumpstations.  Even in our yard, we can pump it a longer distance around the corner of the house and down into our septic system with a long hose.  Our motorhome could never drive down there across our lawn to dump the tanks.  This will save us on dump station fees, usually $5-10 each time you go to a public dumpstation.

Sometimes, even when parked at a campsite with hookups and sewer, the dump hole is on the wrong side of the campsite for us.  This happens a lot because many campsites have the nice view out the back of the site and the utilities and dump hole are often located to the right of the site for back-in type campers and trailers.  But with a motorhome, our big windows are in the front... we have no windows in the back over the bed.  So to take advantage of these great views, we have to pull in forwards.  That puts the hookups on the *wrong* side for us.  (RVs generally have their dump and hookup items on the driver's side of a rig)
Having a macerator will help allow us to stretch a narrow 1 inch hose across under the rig and still dump easily both our grey and black water.

This device will hook onto our drain port via bayonet tabs, plug into a 12 volt outlet (that Steve is going to wire up himself soon)  and then get removed each time when the *job is done*.   He bought a higher grade of marine macerator with metal blades as opposed to the cheaper RV version with plastic blades.

These babies run upwards of $200!  Wow.. who knew that dumping your poop could cost so much?  But never fear, my bargain hunting husband found one on Ebay from a salvaged boat that was being parted out.  It looks like new and operates, so that is what he wanted, for the bargain price of $68.00 plus $12 shipping. He is going to Fleet Farm to buy good quality 1 inch farm hose for drainage.  Our kids gave us a Fleet Farm gift card that we need to use up, so yes, the kids bought us a Pooper Hose for Xmas!

Now for the gushy Granmuddah part of my blog post today...  

Yes.. our smallest grandbaby is turning ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!!!!  

 Little Chelsea will be here soon for the day for me to take care of her.  We will sing Happy Birthday and let her have some treats.  Her big party will be this weekend at Erin and Mark's ... so she will get presents then.

I took her Friday to her little story hour at the local library.  She sits with all the Big Kids in the pit area, and is walking quite well now, and scrambled off to join the Big Kids in line after each story.

The Big Kids were gentle with her and helped her. 

All these girls were petting her head like she was a new pet!  haha  

She is the youngest one there.  

They line up in front of the librarian story teller and get a sticker to put on their nametag.  It shows they sat quietly and listened to each story.  At the end of each story they line up, get a sticker, and then sit back down.  Three stories, three stickers!  Here she is picking out one from the sheet for her self.

(I know...gushy granmuddah posts...  but hey, it's important to me!) 

Gosh, hard to believe she has been here in our world for a YEAR!    

She isn't a baby anymore... she's a TODDLER.   Oh my!  

Good thing our daughterinlaw Heather is pregnant with another grandbaby, 

so we will still have tiny babies to cuddle again.   

Hey kids... keep those grandbabies coming! 

RVing- Macerators, Containers and Wardrobe

Okay, enough blogs about family, friends, grandbabies, holidays and such nonsense.... back to RVing!  
We are gearing up for vacation mode- about 7 weeks worth.


NOTE--- TO ANY ROBBERS READING THIS:  OUR NEIGHBOR ON ONE SIDE IS A COP, AND THE OTHER SIDE THEY ARE VERY NOSEY.   AND OUR DAUGHTER IS TAKING CARE OF OUR HOUSE.  WE ARE TAKING ALL OUR VALUABLES WITH US.  NOTHING WORTH ANYTHING LEFT IN HOUSE TO STEAL.  EVEN OUR TVS ARE 10-15 YEARS OLD CRT's .  LOL!



Okay.. back to the motorhome prep.  Steve has been in and out and in and out of the motorhome that is parked out in the driveway.  He is gearing up and prepping.  The oil is changed, everything is lubed, the hub oil is checked, the fluids are all checked. The fuel filters are changed.   I even helped him lift up the bed to do the hard to reach grease zerc on the fan shaft.  Being a king sized bed with a heavy household mattress, it takes two of us to lift it up and set the prop pole.  Some mechanics never bother to find that zerc, or don't even know it exists. Causes huge problems when the fan seizes up and overheats the engine.  I am soooo glad Steve does all of our own maintenance.


Silly guy, he even filled up a 5 gal can of diesel fuel last night at the station and put it in the trunk of the car.
WHY?   I asked.
He said that he will top off our tank of the motorhome with it to bring it right to the top.  
WHY?  again I asked.
He said since we used it last few times for exercise, he figures that we used some.
WHY?  again I asked.
So then, he surmised, that when we take off on vacation with a full tank, those extra five gallons will get us 40+ miles further down the road without having to stop as soon!  

hahahahahhahahaha

(I then reminded him we do have to stop every 200 miles or so to start the Tracker towed behind, 

and run it through it's gears to slosh around the tranny fluid at the proper intervals) 

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Next on the list is a macerator.  For those non-RVers reading this, it's a machine similar to a garbage disposal in a house.   But in RV use, it is attached outside on the drain pipe and it grinds up the poop from the black tank so its able to run through a 1 inch hose and pump uphill or into an otherwise unreachable septic or drain location.  Makes dumping the tanks a much easier endeavor.

We have wanted one for a while and read about them.  Seems many of the RV types are made with plastic blades or less horsepower compared to the Marine grade for boats.  Sooooo  on the advice of our good RV friend Airplane Roger, we shopped for a marine grade one.  Steve bought a Jabsco marine macerator and it should be here in a few days.  He is putting together a series of 1 inch hoses now to have a variety along in a tote for any length needed.

He is a Happy Poop Disposal Man.

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Now for *my thing* ... we were shopping last night at the Clearance Sales in the local Shopko store.  They had these neato containers that are rectangular in shape instead of circular.  Think... on a shelf... flat sides of containers stack next to each other better than cylindrical. So we get more storage and less wasted space.    I bought a set of 8 of these great containers from Gourmet Living.

They have vacuum seal lids by flipping down the little ring type levers on the lids, which create a suction.  We will use the larger ones for flour, sugar, brown & powdered sugar etc.  The smaller ones for coffee, rice, pancake mix etc.  Less cardboard boxes and bags in the cabinets is good to avoid bugs in the south when we go next month.  

These are normally $15-20 a container ---

WHEW!  

But they had an 8 pc set of the sizes I wanted for the mere price of $79.99  

... so that is down to $10 a container.... 

still a WHEW! ---

You know me, a cheapie shopper.  

Well, the set was on sale for only $29.99.  

That comes out to less than $4 a container.  

More in my budget range, teeeheeee

So this afternoon I will go out and play in the motorhome and try out putting these into place.  We can't put in anything that will freeze or attract mice, until the night before we are ready to leave for vacation.  But for now, I can play, can't I ?

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At Shopko, there were such great clearance sales on the men's clothes too.   Steveio has been severely lacking some new clothes.. ya know.. ones without the stains on the front from eating in his chair?  

He didn't get any clothes for Christmas, instead he got an electric chain saw for the motorhome (better than hauling along a gas can, oil and stinky gas chain saw in our clean carpeted storage bins)    He also got a special vice and bracket that slides into the hitch receiver.  Why?  So if he wants to fix something that needs a vice to hold it or bend it or whatever, he won't have a vice on a tool bench like in his garage.  So while in a campground, he can use a vice this way.  Don't ask me, it's what HE put on his list for Santa if he was a Good Boy.   Guess he was, huh?

When we saw the sale signs at 70% off on a lot of clothing, I started pawing through the men's things and found some nice stuff for Steveio.  He was being obstinate about some 100% cotton Tshirts about how the size L fit fine.  But what about after they shrink, I ask?  He would not understand that they would be M once they were washed.  So I swapped them all out to XL when he wasn't looking.  We found him some nice long sleeved solid colored cotton button down shirts too, as he is trying to get away from plaids and stripes now.  We filled the cart.  So he was happy.

Fellow RV blogger Al at The Bayfield Bunch  was just lamenting about how he got hauled into a J.C. Penny by Kelly and before he knew it, he was totally outfitted in new duds too.   So perhaps if we get to meet up with them somewhere out west, he and Steveio can compare wardrobes????

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I read other RVing blogs from folks down in Florida in shorts and Tshirts, I see photos of desert terrain on other blogs about Arizona and on more blogs about the sunny skies in Texas.  Then I look out of my windows at the gloomy grey woods and snow and ice.  

Yes, we need a vacation.