Intermittent foul smell, especially from Air Conditioner on a '69 Tradewind

[69TradeW]

Has anyone had intermittent foul smell on a 69 Trade Wind? I live in an RV park and daily have a smell that could be grey water smell. I can smell straight from vents on my new airconditioner. I go outside and can't smell in it.
I appreciate any advise.

Possible solutions:
I am thinking of getting a cyclone sewer vent for vent pipe.

Looking for sewer gaskets, unable to locate where to buy.

Am I missing something?

[Belegedhel]

This may seem a silly question, but has your trailer been retrofitted with a grey water tank? What type of AC do you have? Is it set up to drain the condensate out the bottom of the trailer though the drain tube, or does it run down the outside? Does the AC drip water into the interior?

If you are smelling a swampy smell coming directly from the AC, then maybe the condensate isn't draining properly from it, and is making a stagnant, smelly puddle.

[thecatsandi]

Originally Posted by 69TradeW

Has anyone had intermittent foul smell on a 69 Trade Wind? I live in an RV park and daily have a smell that could be grey water smell. I can smell straight from vents on my new airconditioner. I go outside and can't smell in it.
I appreciate any advise.

Possible solutions:
I am thinking of getting a cyclone sewer vent for vent pipe.

Looking for sewer gaskets, unable to locate where to buy.

Am I missing something?

Do you hold grey and black tanks until near full and flush? If not you will be keeping residual waste in the tanks. It smells. a little bleach can help.

[TG Twinkie]

Unless your trailer has been modified, there is no grey water tank. Check to make sure the traps in both sinks and shower have water in them. It could be sewer gas if you are connect to a sewer.

[Minno]

Do you only smell it when the a/c is running? If yes, then you probably have something funky growing in your a/c. The a/c does not pull any outside air into the trailer - it recirculates the air in your trailer. Check the filters as a first step. Pull them out and smell them to see if that's where the odor is coming from.

Do you have a propane detector? I ask because we thought we had a dead mouse in an SOB trailer once. Turned out to be a propane leak by the stove. This was before the days of propane detectors. That would probably show up as full time smell though, not an intermittent one. But something else to consider.

Good luck!
Chris

[69TradeW]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will check them all.

I don't have a grey tank and cannot find the source. I do a sniff test in all places. I had this smell before I used the airconditioner with windows open and couldn't locate. However, with Aircon on it is definitely coming out of the AIRcon vents.

I will get a propane detector just to be sure.

I close my blackwater tank and empty every few days. Wouldn't the smell come from the toilet? I don't get a smell from there.

[69TradeW]

My air conditioner is a Mach plus, just a few weeks old. There are only installation directions, no intruction or trouble shooting guide. You would think for 700 bucks, one could get some directions.

[AtomicNo13]

Your batteries?
I know this is a stretch, but a wet acid battery being over charged (boiled) can emit a foul, almost dead animal like odor!
Worth a check if not your sewer....

[69TradeW]

It rained all night, no standing water in air conditioner.

[Wabbiteer]

Get an eye on every vent pipe where they 'pass-through' the ceiling and roof layers. The '73 27' I purchased had one of its vent pipes (above the battery locker, the one inside the sliding door partition) sag downward from loose clamping bands. It had fallen far enough not only did it retreat from the roof vent gasket but fell through the hole pocket to lay offset by greater than 1/2 its diameter inside the interior liners. Bad mojo for who knows how many years, that helped condemn the entire interior to the landfill.

[Belegedhel]

Was the funky smell present before you swapped out the AC?

[Minno]

Wabbiteer reminded of something we discovered taking Little Girl apart. The gray vent pipe for the kitchen sink had a line of pop rivets installed in it. When they installed the inner skin, they must have thought the vent pipe was a rib. I can imagine that would have caused an odor issue if we hadn't fixed it. Only way I can think of to discover something like that would be to look for a line of rivets that align with the vent on the roof, unless you can see where the vent pipe goes up inside the wall. Look inside the kitchen cabinets under the sink. You might see where the vent pipe is located there.