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chaunceyboy · 06-17-2007, 01:34 PM

We just got back from the first trip in our airstream. We bought it used, but it had never been used at all. We camped for two days and it was awsome. The old suburban pulled it fine althouogh I could tell more power would be neccesary on a longer trip for sure. A moment ago I was emptying the holding tanks, I use a macerator pump that grinds and pumps the contents thru a regular garden hose. I have used them on our bus for many years. About a minute into the dumping The pump sounded strained then popped the 15 amp fuse that is on the on off switch. This had never happened before. I replaced the fuse with another and it popped, I replaced it with a 20 amp and it managed to churn the remaining few gallons thru but sounded labored. When I removed the pump from the airstream a piece of plywood about two inches long and a half inch wide with a circular shape on one side fell out. Not so nice. I should have removed it as soon as I heard it grinding. So a better idea would be to not use a macerator pump on the very first dump as there may be construction debris in the tank that is too hard for the pump to chop up.

Robert Rahn
Kalispell, Mt.
2006 25 safari

Excella CM · 06-17-2007, 01:40 PM

My dad's company found an entire vacuum cleaner inside a commercial jet fuel tank. It had been there for several trips.

chaunceyboy · 06-17-2007, 01:49 PM

i will look int there with a flashlight i think. wow a vaccume cleaner, i wonder if it still worked. if i was vaccuming out a fuel taank in an big plane I could imagine being in a hurry to get out. recently I installed some vents in a dirty attick and left several tools up there and had to go back to get them.

Janets Husband · 06-17-2007, 01:53 PM

Uh... Well...
How can you defend that one. It sounds like a someone had a bad day at work. It looks like a scrap from the cutout for the closet flange fell into the tank.
Second issue sewage grinders, I have a problem with them because of just this type of incident. What do you do when the pump grinds to a halt because of a foreign object in the tank (Grand kids toys...), you are in very big trouble.
I'm glad it worked out for you and you are correct in that you should purge all tanks the first time out. This would include sterilizing the fresh tank.