Last year I posted this post about my 95 gallon truck mounted waste tank.
I wanted to give an update and show you the two follow on projects that went with it:
1. Homemade waste pump
2. Sewer hose support system
Homemade waste pump
I considered buying a macerator pump, but I was scared off by the reports of restrictions about what you can put in the toilet and also about them dying when running dry for too long. Anyway, I did not need to macerate anything. I was not trying to pump it 100' through a garden hose, I just wanted to raise it 5' to get it into the tank.
I did some searching and found a company in Northern Ireland, Whale. Whale has made pumps since the 1940s and currently known for its quality bilge and waste pumps for the marine industry. They are a small company and I was able to communicate with one of their engineers, Richard, and discuss what I was planning to do. He suggested the Gulperยฎ Toilet Pump BP2552B and wanted me to report how it went.
I bought some plumbing and pool parts:
Then assembled them in a Tupperware case with a cover. The pump is fastened to the case and stays there during use. The case has holes cut in it for the hoses to connect.
The pump is powered by a battery tied down through the truck bed floor in a battery box. I just occasionally recharge it.
The pump works well and empties my three tanks in around 15 min. I must say however that I use a strong tank chemical and my black waste is usually just a green liquid. Whale is proud of what this pump can do as you can see in this
YouTube video.
The one short coming of the system is that this pump cannot pump air very well and you end up with the blue exit hose full of liquid when you are done. That is not a problem until your final pump of your stay at which time you disconnect the rhino hose and lift the unit higher than the tank to drain the hose.
Sewer hose support system
When using a pump, it helps to maintain a constant flow of liquid and nobody wants to be out there playing slinky with the hose. The first time I used this system the biggest disappointment was my pitiful sewer hose support system.
For the next trip I built a support system using 4" PVC and other plumbing parts like shower drains. I like to have the rear grey tank valve where I don't have to crawl under the slideout.
These supports are adjustable. These fittings and the long pipes have a holes in the ends so you push a carriage bolt in to keep the pieces together.
Everything comes apart for packing, I need to make a couple of extra lengths and turns for use when I need to hook to sewer at the campsite.
Here is the setup during my last trip:
A couple of tips concerning working with PVC:
1. I don't know about your region, but here in the Southeast, both of the big home stores do not sell real 4" PVC. They sell a foam core PVC that is not as strong and would not work in this project. I had to go to a plumbing supply house and specifically request the real solid PVC product.
2. PVC can shatter and be dangerous if cut with the wrong tools. Usually, you would want a circular saw blade that does not have any tooth pitch (sold as a PVC blade) or a plywood blade turned backwards. But I found even these did not work. The problem was that when the blade took out the material, there was tension in the pipe that closed the gap with a lot of pressure. Usually you would want a large circular blade to cut a straight line, but in this case the pressure prevented you from keeping a straight line and locked you in off course. I made a mess of the first pipe I cut. The only tool that I found to work was a smaller blade, like the wood/plastic blade of the Dremel SawMax. This smaller tool was also better for cutting the angle couplings in half.
I wanted to give an update and show you the two follow on projects that went with it:
1. Homemade waste pump
2. Sewer hose support system
Homemade waste pump
I considered buying a macerator pump, but I was scared off by the reports of restrictions about what you can put in the toilet and also about them dying when running dry for too long. Anyway, I did not need to macerate anything. I was not trying to pump it 100' through a garden hose, I just wanted to raise it 5' to get it into the tank.
I did some searching and found a company in Northern Ireland, Whale. Whale has made pumps since the 1940s and currently known for its quality bilge and waste pumps for the marine industry. They are a small company and I was able to communicate with one of their engineers, Richard, and discuss what I was planning to do. He suggested the Gulperยฎ Toilet Pump BP2552B and wanted me to report how it went.
I bought some plumbing and pool parts:
Then assembled them in a Tupperware case with a cover. The pump is fastened to the case and stays there during use. The case has holes cut in it for the hoses to connect.
The pump is powered by a battery tied down through the truck bed floor in a battery box. I just occasionally recharge it.
The pump works well and empties my three tanks in around 15 min. I must say however that I use a strong tank chemical and my black waste is usually just a green liquid. Whale is proud of what this pump can do as you can see in this
YouTube video.
The one short coming of the system is that this pump cannot pump air very well and you end up with the blue exit hose full of liquid when you are done. That is not a problem until your final pump of your stay at which time you disconnect the rhino hose and lift the unit higher than the tank to drain the hose.
Sewer hose support system
When using a pump, it helps to maintain a constant flow of liquid and nobody wants to be out there playing slinky with the hose. The first time I used this system the biggest disappointment was my pitiful sewer hose support system.
For the next trip I built a support system using 4" PVC and other plumbing parts like shower drains. I like to have the rear grey tank valve where I don't have to crawl under the slideout.
These supports are adjustable. These fittings and the long pipes have a holes in the ends so you push a carriage bolt in to keep the pieces together.
Everything comes apart for packing, I need to make a couple of extra lengths and turns for use when I need to hook to sewer at the campsite.
Here is the setup during my last trip:
A couple of tips concerning working with PVC:
1. I don't know about your region, but here in the Southeast, both of the big home stores do not sell real 4" PVC. They sell a foam core PVC that is not as strong and would not work in this project. I had to go to a plumbing supply house and specifically request the real solid PVC product.
2. PVC can shatter and be dangerous if cut with the wrong tools. Usually, you would want a circular saw blade that does not have any tooth pitch (sold as a PVC blade) or a plywood blade turned backwards. But I found even these did not work. The problem was that when the blade took out the material, there was tension in the pipe that closed the gap with a lot of pressure. Usually you would want a large circular blade to cut a straight line, but in this case the pressure prevented you from keeping a straight line and locked you in off course. I made a mess of the first pipe I cut. The only tool that I found to work was a smaller blade, like the wood/plastic blade of the Dremel SawMax. This smaller tool was also better for cutting the angle couplings in half.
