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tewitt1949's avatar
tewitt1949
Explorer II
May 17, 2013

installing a house toilet in our trailer

Hi All....My wife has never liked the toilet in the trailer. It's the same as any other trailer toilet made. After 15 years of listening to the complaints, I took it out and installed a low water consumption house toilet. Seems to work good, but some say there will be problems. I realize that it probably uses more water than the orginial, but 99.9% of the time we have full hook up where we stay. I also realize we will have to flush it before traveling to keep water from sloshing out.
Is there any other reason I should not have used a house toilet?
Thanks in advance.

30 Replies

  • Our friends bought a used camper that someone had installed a house toilet in. Other than it filling up the black tank very quickly, they had no issues with it and towed it all over the place. As long as you have full hook-ups you should be fine. If fact with full hook-ups it is probably a bonus as you will always dilute the contents of the black tank with lots of water.
  • Bob.. I didn't change it just because of my wife. At least not completely. After a few years the seal started leaking and wouldn't hold water in the bowl. There for we got a small amount of odor in side. I was going to replace the seal and after taking it apart, the cables, springs, everything inside was rusted and was junk. After checking, I would put about the same $$ on this toilet as if I bought another trailor toilet. You know the saying "happy wife, happy life"
  • I think you would have to spend an awful lot of time on the toilet to justify the expense and hassle of changing it out.
  • Yeah, do let us know how it goes. Only problems I can see are extra weight, extra water usage, possible cracking due to the flexing of the trailer frame on big bumps.

    Even though I dislike the toilet in my rig -- it flushes poorly -- I'm not likely to go that route, as the 15 gallon black tank on my TT would fill up rather quickly at 1.6 gallons per flush, not good for boon docking.
  • She hasn't said anything about the kitchen sink yet. Anyways, I agree with the thought the tank breaking could break off while traveling.
    Luckly, in my case, when the toilet was bolted to the floor, the tank was against the wall slightly snug. So to prevent it from moving/breaking, I did make a couple brackets that bolted to the wall and fastened to the tank. It's very solid and won't move at all.
    The only problem I had was most house toilets are 12 inches from the center of the drain hole to the wall. In my trailer it measured 10 inches. I had to find a toilet that had the correct measurements.
    I'll keep you informed.
  • since I rarely flush ping pong balls, that stat does not affect my decision. ;)
    bumpy
  • Have you seen home toilets that use a pressurized water tank to flush the toilet? I put one in my house back in 95, and it never needed to be flushed twice! It used only about 1.2 gallons per flush, and according to the brochure from the manufacture, it put out 13 GPM for about 1.5 seconds, to clear the bowle and can dispose of 13 ping pong balls in one flush. So that type of tank would not need to be flushed before driving. Still the top might slide off the tank. A small velcrow strap should keep it in place.

    The problem? Well you guessed it - the 1.2 gallons of water with each flush. So you can fill a 30 gallon tank in about 20 flushes. That should provide enough capacity for a really long weekend, with two campers. Not so long with a family of 5. So no problem in your situation, with full hookups, and no long dry camping weekends.

    The weight of the toilet, held upright while going around curves might become a problem. You will find out if the hold down bolts try to break free, or damage the ceramics that hold them down.

    Good luck!

    Fred.
  • Please, give us an update after a few thousand miles of towing. Let us know if there are any problems.
    I also think it would crack or leak from the bouncing, especially where the tank attaches to the bowl. Hopefully you will not have any problems.
    Your wife is happy. Nuff said.
  • 1. I visualize it cracking when you go over that first big bump.
    2. we are always trying to go light, and that just adds more weight.

    I hope all goes well, but I am thinking of problems

    jack L
  • tewitt1949 wrote:
    Hi All....My wife has never liked the toilet in the trailer. It's the same as any other trailer toilet made. After 15 years of listening to the complaints, I took it out and installed a low water consumption house toilet. Seems to work good, but some say there will be problems. I realize that it probably uses more water than the orginial, but 99.9% of the time we have full hook up where we stay. I also realize we will have to flush it before traveling to keep water from sloshing out.
    Is there any other reason I should not have used a house toilet?
    Thanks in advance.


    Did she bring the kitchen sink too?

    As long as the terlet is mounted and sturdy, I see no problem.. other than the excessive water consumption...

    WoodGlue