Visit our Popular Forums

Further99 · 01-22-2011, 05:29 AM

Two words: elongated bowl. This was the deciding factor in my purchase of a NH.

Globie64 · 01-23-2011, 06:54 PM

Natures' head x Air Head: I was reading posts on a couple of boating sites and they were all over the Air Head. So to speak. We have the '64 unitized fiberglass bathroom and I'll have to do some cutting to make the composting toilet work- cut the fiberglass and build a box to surround the toilet. The hinged rectangular seat will still work, but my question remains this: will it be a pain to have to tilt back the unit to get the urine bottle out? That is the one reason I was leaning towards the Air Head. The quality of the Nature's Head appealed to me... sigh, what to do.

I'm hoping that from all this ruminating we'll end up with a unit that will function well and easily. Thanks

PaulAir · 03-24-2011, 12:01 AM

What did you all do with the black water tank after installing the composting toilet?

webspinner · 03-24-2011, 12:25 AM

We tossed it and installed the toilet directly on the floor.

2vets · 03-24-2011, 05:07 AM

What did you all use for venting. Did you use the regular mushroom roof vent or the solar vent with the built in fan?

PaulAir · 03-24-2011, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webspinner

We tossed it and installed the toilet directly on the floor.

I was thinking on replacing the tank and increase the fresh water capacity. After tossing it, did you cover the hole underneath?

webspinner · 03-24-2011, 12:03 PM

My husband did the removal and installation while I was out of town so I don't know exactly what the whole procedure was. There are no holes currently in the bathroom floor, so I assume he patched the hole with plywood as he did with the rotted sections of plywood subfloor.

Globie64 · 03-24-2011, 01:46 PM

We got our Nature's Head, and I got installed mostly, had to cut out some of the fiberglass bathroom, but would have had to do some modification no matter what we replaced the old toilet with. Eventually, I want to totally redo the bathroom with just a shower pan and relocate the Nature's Head. I haven't "used" it yet, but I'm really really happy with the quality. I did install one of the Nicor vents just to vent the rig when it sits, and am also very happy with that. I'll post pics when I get the surround on the bath in place, hopefully this weekend. For the black tank, I put a threaded fitting in the toilet opening in the tank and figured we'd use it as a gray water tank until I can redo the bath. For the Nature's Head vent, I thought I'd use the existing vent that rises near where the toilet is, since the gray tank will still be vented through the wet-venting of the other fixtures, and venting isn't so much of an issue with the gray water as the other.

barts · 03-24-2011, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webspinner

My husband did the removal and installation while I was out of town so I don't know exactly what the whole procedure was. There are no holes currently in the bathroom floor, so I assume he patched the hole with plywood as he did with the rotted sections of plywood subfloor.

(Husband here...)

The rear of the Tin Pickle suffered from some rotten floor and and we had separation anxiety... which turned out to be warranted. I ended up replacing about the rear 12" of the floor, and putting in a healthy plywood doubler underneath. We had to totally gut the bathroom to fix these issues; I removed the black water tank and patched that part of the floor as well.

The Nature's Head vent connects to the old blackwater tank vent that is in the closet; there's a small panel w/ two switches adjacent to the throne; one controls the N.H. exhaust fan, the other controls the bathroom exhaust fan, which I relocated from behind the old head to next to the water heater in the closet.

I've not yet vented the gray water; the old gray water vented through the bathroom closet, which also housed the univolt and more dryrot.
Since there's no graywater tank and we don't have a shower yet (waiting for the rain to stop...), this is postponed for a bit.

The floor in the bathroom (like the rest of the trailer) has been sanded, filled and coated w/ 3 coats of epoxy, and then painted with polyurethane (similar to silver POR-15). It's not a fancy floor, but is definitely much more water resistant than the carpet covered bare plywood.

BTW, I found that the leaks at the rear of the trailer were due to a combination of that idiotic rear bumper design, and water entering behind the taillights... I fixed the rear bumper, and used Alcoa gutterseal all around the taillight castings, which fixed the rear leaks AFAICT. Not having floor coverings does make leaks much more obvious.

- Bart

FLYNCLD · 03-27-2011, 05:34 PM

Here are a couple of photos of our NH installation. We started by removing the old black tank which was under the existing toilet. We then patched the hole in the floor and installed the new flooring. The NH vent was then hooked into the existing vent system for the rest of the plumbing including the new gray tank we installed between the frame members.
( 1962 Flying Cloud Gray Tank Installation - Airstream Forums )
( 1962 Flying Cloud Gray Tank Installation - Airstream Forums )

We used the NH 12V fan to vent the system. A year and a half and 30,000 miles later, it has performed flawlessly!

FLYNCLD

FLYNCLD · 03-27-2011, 07:14 PM

Accidentally posted the same link twice! Here are some more pics.

Gray Tank Installation Update! - Airstream Forums

BTW-How come the "Edit Post" function has disappeared??

FLYNCLD · 03-27-2011, 08:16 PM

I see now that the "edit" function has not disappeared, it just has a time limit! Guess I shouldn't have gone out for that beer!

FC7039 · 03-28-2011, 12:01 PM

Would it be a mistake and how difficult would it to fabricate a drain so that the urine goes into the grey tank in stead of its own bottle?

FLYNCLD · 03-28-2011, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FC7039

Would it be a mistake and how difficult would it to fabricate a drain so that the urine goes into the grey tank in stead of its own bottle?

I suppose it could be done, and since grey water should be disposed of properly, it would not represent a health risk, but we have found that disposing of the bottle at a camp toilet or dump station is really is not that much trouble.

NJtoNC · 03-28-2011, 02:45 PM

i forgot about this thread for while, glad i was reminded. when i commented on this thread earlier, we were fleshing out our plans to move from NJ to NC, and since then we have since come to a decision and purchased a farm (well, we close april 8th) and are going to pursue a "permaculture" approach to our organic farm.

While on our honeymoon for our month-long cross country trip, i REALLY learned how to conserve water - anyone boondocking does, i suppose. We also had to deal with dumping the black tank. Nobody wants to deal with their poo, do they?

to bring it all together, my point is, there's lots that being a trailerite has taught us about dealing with our waste - human waste and garbage, and dealing with our waste IS part of living sustainably. It is because of our trailer that we have decided to go to composting toilets on our new farm....

and, in our new old trailer (wait for it, ill post on that shortly when we know we have secured it) we too will use a composting toilet.

I think i will route the pee directly to the gray tank though. When we dump it's usually at a proper dump station anyway; and on the farm, we will have a wetland system for gray water. The pee is actually good, lots of nitrogen will improve the soil.

Globie64 · 03-28-2011, 05:04 PM

NJ, thats cool about the composting toilets on your farm. I've been talking to the Well and Septic people at Sonoma county about allowing composting toilets- the septic regulations are so tight now, requiring huge areas for complicated septic systems, composting toilets and a gray water system make total sense. I look forward to hearing more about your farm system. We're going to inaugurate our Nature's Head this weekend, and I'm super curious to see how it works for us.