I ordered a valtera T50 3'' gate valve with bay fitting on one end today so I can add a third valve to my sewer. I think I have a thetford fitting on the sewer line now ,Isn"t the the thetford some weird size and different from what will be on the valtera valve? Also what brand of sewer hoses have you found to be the easiest to deal with? The hoses that were in the unit when i got it are kind of hodge podge and i want to make all this simple and easy. Thanks,stump
I think most people who add a third valve, cut off the thetford and go 100%
valtera. as far as sewer hoses go, I use the cheap brown one and replace
every 2 or 3 years.
good luck.
I like the polychute type of hose because I never have to disconnect it. Just put it in the ground or re-stow it when done. Here is my setup.
Mark
I cut off the Thetford fitting and glued on a Valterra fitting. I added a "twist-on" Valterra valve (third valve). I use a Polychute hose. Polychute is expensive. It is my favorite of the various dump hoses I have used. I only connect the hose for the brief time necessary to dump the waste tanks. The bay door will not close with the Polychute connected. The Polychute is stored in a bin in the big storage bay.
There is an adapter that is available that will connect the older Thetford style to the newer style of hose connection. I think that cutting out the old fittings and going 100% to the newer style is better just because you have less leakage potential and you may not have room for that extra fitting. I personally prefer the Rhino hose because it is collapsible and you only have to pull out as much as you need and it stores more easily. Have a great day ---- Fritz
Ditto, I unhook mine but that is the best hose IMHO. David
We also use the Rhino hose since mine hose is stored in an exterior tube inside the rear bay door by the rear drivers fender. The collapsible Rhino allows me to store a much longer hose than the conventional hoses and I have found that it doesn't leak easily like the cheapies.
We also use the Rhino hose and store it hooked up as shown in Mark's photo above, except we double the hose back on top of itself because we do not have the space under our hose reels to store the hose. We use the Thetford 01665 curved hose adapter to accommodate the Rhino hose. The Rhino end cap seals the hose from leaks and smell.
Larry
Mark,
Would love to use a Polyshute and store it the way you do but we have electric cord and waterhose reels on the right side and thus no room! And undoing the system and storing in their container in another compartment does not save that much more time and also ties up another useable space!
ED
Ed,
We also have the electric power cords and no room underneath to store the dump hose. So, we double back the hose on top of itself and secure the hose together with Velcro strips. The end of the dump hose when stored is on top of the hose where it connects to the coach. It is directly under the water faucet. Sorry, I do not have a picture.
Larry
Larry,
I think I got the idea of the way you "hang" your Polyschute. May consider something like that!
Ed
Ed,
I put in power reels and stow the hose like Mark. It took some planning, but I was able to make it work... not bragging (no, really! :o ), I just want folks to know that it is possible to do both, as long as you pick the components to fit in the space. That said, a different floor plan with the tanks arranged differently might not be doable, at least in the way I did it.
Don
Edit: the hose I used is the new generation of
Drainmaster hose. Apparently, this company has been bought out by one of the RV conglomerates. Anyway, it is similar to the Polychute design, but it has a 5 to 1 compression ratio as opposed to the Ploychute 4 to 1. The waste nozzle is the same as the Polychute. Our hose extends to 20' and compresses to just over 4'. We also have a 20'
Drainmaster extension... Only needed once so far. The hose I had previous to this one is a Rhino. It compresses, but what I didn't like about it was that it expanded to its full length (15' if IRC) even when I only needed 5'. Not so with the
Drainmaster (and I assume the Polychute as well). You extend the amount you need, and it basically stays put even while dumping. I am thanking my previous self for going through the trouble of installing it and the expense of buying it every time we dump. It provides some counterbalance for cursing my former self for hiding stuff that my current self needs...
Don
Edit #2:Edit: To correct the name of the company that makes our dump hose from Wastemaster to Drainmaster.
Ed,
I use a Rhino hose rather than a polychute hose. Read my post farther up in this thread.
Larry
I use one 20' hose stored in the built-in shoot and another 10' Rhino with appropriate connectors as required. Cut off the original Thetford and glued on a Valterra end. Then a 90 deg. clear to the Rhino fittings/hose. I now have 30' available when necessary. I cap the 10' hose when collapsed and store in my driver's side bay. Wanted to install the third valve but would not work without massive bay redesign.
Don - everytime I see a pic of your bay.........wonderful. :-D
Don,
I have seen your set up and its just beautiful! As you said, it depends on the floor plan and where the tanks and their valves are. My gray is on the driver side and black is on passenger side. Originally had electric valves which were a pain and so those were replaced with manual. But to have the pull handles all on the driver side, the black pull cable had to be a long one that spanned the entire width of the coach. Not a good idea as things would tend to get tighter and if caught in cold weather- hard to pull and possible breakage. So I simply have the gray pull handle on the driver side and I had the black pull h. on the passenger side through a cut out door just below the Maniblock. Works well for me. But-this did not solve the problem of left over drainage from the long drainpipe from the black valve. So I installed the third valve after cutting off the Thetford and converted to Valtera.
If I did not have a third valve, and I had a Polyschute system, I would end up with the full length of the permanently connected hose system partially containing some unwanted fluid at all times. Right now all is well. But always open to more ideas!
Ed
Our 1989 GV has the little, dinky storage compartments. No room for reels so a previous owner (at least I think it was an owner) mounted two pieces of 6" thin-walled PVC pipe thru the inside wall in the compartment in front of the driver's side duals. The pipes have pipe hangers holding the ends nearest the compartment door on the ceiling and a short piece across the end hanging down in the middle of the frame. Each pipe can hold about 15' of Rhino hose, with an end connector on the compartment door end of the pipe. Drains well as pipes slope down.
This compartment also has the black and gray tank valves, the third valve, the power rinse, and the inverter, along with the sloping Rhino hose support and a small electric heater.
Thanks Ed
For what it's worth, the new Foretravel IH45's have their dump hose permanently attached somewhere in the basement behind panels. I believe that they use either the Polychute or the
Drainmaster. As you say, there would be some small amount of liquid in there after dumping. Unpleasant to contemplate, but I suppose as long as the dump hose is in good shape, not really too much of a problem as long as the waste tank and hose is flushed regularly. The Polychute/
Drainmaster nozzle has a valve at the end of it that seems capable of sealing the waste system as well as the gate valves typically used. That said, I am not a fan of having the waste tanks combined into one tank as is done on many new coaches, not just Foretravels. Also, the thought that replacing the dump hose in that situation would be a major undertaking doesn't have much appeal to me either. I think I would be tempted to use an electric valve in your situation if I could source one that has a proven track record for reliability as well as a manual backup of some kind.
Don
Edit: To correct the name of the company that makes our dump hose from Wastemaster (where did I get that???) to Drainmaster.
Don,
I do not mean to be argumentative and with only pictures of the wet bays on new ih45's on the FOT website as my source - - - it appears that the dump hose is attached at a point just after the panel in the bay. In each picture, there appears to be a white seal of some sort between the black tubing exiting the panel and the beginning of the green dump hose.
Larry
Don,
Everytime I see the pics of your wet bay I am amazed.
I am curious to the type hook up on the dump hose. It is not the standard twist lock. What is it and who is the manufacturer?
Jerry
:-[ Now that I take a closer look, I believe you are correct. Thanks for setting the record straight. They appear to be connected using a threaded fitting in an accessible area, not to be casually removed but obviously not a big project to change... They are however attached in a way that means they aren't removed for storage and so are designed to stay hooked up and then deployed while attached to hookups or to dump. That is the system I use, and I like it very much. Still, on ours I can remove the hose and stash completely underneath the shelf I put in and I have a cap with the same camlock mechanism to seal the hose if I want to put it away. I even made a cover to hide the hose storage area, but I haven't unhooked the hose and stowed out of site except to try it yet. I also have some adapters to hook up a Valterra type fitting if I need to.
Jerry,
The fittings are a 3" Camlock commonly used on Firehoses (or so I have have been told), fuel tanker trucks, irrigation pumps and the like, though the ones used by Drainmaster are ABS plastic. Since the fitting does not need to be rotated at all, it doesn't stress the rubber gasket the way the twist lock style does. Drainmaster is the only outfit that uses these for RV sewer hose connections. The only drawback is that it takes up a bit more room than the Valterra style, and that can certainly be an issue in the limited space on our coaches. I had to cut down the flange on the Camlock fitting where it attaches to the 3" ABS pipe as it exits the utility bay wall to make it so the hose would be able to exit the coach and close the compartment door.