A 'Dirty' Job but Someone Has to Do It.

Home in Holiday – Tarpon Springs area

Unlike most motorhomes, our Black Tank system has what they call a Vacuflush Vacuum Generator System to push the toilet flushes over to the black tank.  Above is a picture of it as it sits inside a small outside compartment of our motorhome.  These are common on boats, less common on RVs.  Ours looks to have easier access than most boats do, so that is a plus.  When we bought this motorhome, I “KNEW” that some day I would have to work on this.  The duckbills (shown in a picture down below) are suppose to be replaced every few years…I don’t know if ours have ever been replaced.

Found this nicer picture of a similar one to ours with labels and diagram showing how it works.

Above is the pump assembly…I need to replace the motor and billows.

These are the parts which I need to replace.  The motor and billows (white plastic thing) are different than what I have in ours … it is a new, upgrade version and the only way to replace it.  The motor now sits horizontal, and not at a slight angle like ours does.  The motor can sit to the right or to the left … the one in the picture up above lays to the right…I am not sure which way I am going to do ours.  The good news, this upgrade is suppose to be much quieter.  Those enlarged black things are called the duckbills.

It should be as easy as this…..

• Disconnect the wires from the motor…they have clips and this should be easy
• Disconnect the four bolts, two shown by the white arrows, and two back behind it.  Getting to these back bolts will be a bit hard due to lack of room to work, but I am hoping they will unloosen without problems
• Disconnect the entry and exit pipes, marked by red arrow…this is what I am not looking forward to…don’t know if there is fluid in these or not.  It could get messy… This is where the duckbills are located.

Above is a diagram of the assembly.  The only difference is that I am only suppose to have two of the number 12 part, they are called duckbills…however, I have four to replace with “if” there are four.  Once I get the pump assembly out, taking it apart and putting in the new parts should be fairly easy.  Thank goodness the RV Storage has wash stations to clean your RV…I have a feeling that once I get the assembly out, I will need to take the RV over and wash out that compartment, and definitely wash down the pump assembly before I take it apart.  And yes, I do have a new pair of gloves to use.  The parts should be in by Friday of next week…so I have another week to “dream” about this wonderful project…and how wonderful the smell will be… 

Our Memorial Day Celebration

My brother-in-law Arny sure knows how to barbeque!  More on that later….

The day starts out much like any other day….dogs wake up, wake us up, but with it being a holiday, they had to wait an hour for their “Uncle Arny” treats they get every morning.  It’s a bit hard to let them out, then get them back in with this little “mouth” (above) shooting off her mouth….but she did pretty well this morning, and Sandy and Arny got a well deserved extra hour of sleep.

When the drapes at the door are open, it is the clue to let the dogs out.  Weekday mornings, with Sandy headed to work before 6 am, the drapes are open very early…today it was around 8:00, and the dogs were out the motorhome door a few seconds later.  Moments later Uncle Arny opens the door with a cheerful “Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!”, Bubba dances, Skruffy barks, and the ritual begins.

   

Lay out the treats at the table, break them up, give them each a piece, a pat on the head, personalize dog talk, until the treats are all eaten.

Ok, it really isn’t Bubba using the toilet, but it is a fine entrance into our next, unpleasant segment.  This morning, of all days, we had a problem with our Vacuflush Toilet System. 

For who knows what reason, this motorhome has a Vacuflush Toilet System, one found on boats, similar to one I saw on Amtrak once.  We think it is because the drop from the toilet to the Black tank is not good enough for gravity to take care of.  Regardless, today ours backed up.  It ended up being an easy fix by activating the vacuum switch causing a build up of vacuum pressure, enough to unclog the clog.  Thanks for Arny in helping me diagnose the problem, and showing me how to activate the vacuum switch (upper left in diagram above that I found on the Internet.)  We will get a small plunger which research has shown helps too as long as you are careful...but this switch will be first, plunger if building the pressure more does not work.  Never fun to work on toilets so early in the day…but for that fact, neither is it fun in the middle of the day, end of the day, and certainly not during the middle of the night.

It wasn’t long before the family had gathered, the ribs were cooking, and it was time to eat.  Ribs, Marcia’s Baked Beans, Donna’s Deviled Eggs, Coleslaw, Bean Salad…yum, another great barbeque.  Three types of Ribs, dry rub, marinade, and with rub and BBQ sauce...all Arny's secret recipes. 

   

Dad prays over the food and a special Memorial Day prayer.

Sister’s Sandy and Patty dig in first…but it is really them getting mom and dad’s plates for them.

   

Dinner is over before we knew it….the ice cream cake is gone too.  In the picture on the left, with her back to the camera wearing a dark blue shirt is my other sister Donna, with Marcia to her right, mom, dad and Patty fill out the circle.  Picture to the right is Arny and Sandy, of course, Arny is doing what he does best….petting the dog.  That is one of Patty’s dogs.  I was having a hard time getting a picture of the four dogs all together, so Arny got up and said, “Hold on, I know how to fix that!”

So around the circle, left to right….Parker, his brother Charlie…both coming from a shelter, and they are real brothers.  Then Skruffy, and finally Bubba.

The dogs enjoyed their visit, chasing squirrels, birds, sniffing this, sniffing that, showing off who can roll in the grass the best.  (Bubba won if you count the amount of junk one gets on their fur.)   It was a fun, relaxing day for dogs and humans.  Had it not been a bit of plugged up start, and just a little on the hot side at times as it neared 4 pm, it was just a wonderful day.  And each one of us knew that today was brought to us through the great sacrifice by others…..