Interstate Maintenance & Upkeep

[toskeysam]

Looks like I just joined an elite club.......my macerator is jammed. On the positive side, the only thing in the main drain to the pump is water and antifreeze....I hope. I also have a spare pump on hand and a set of Interblog’s ramps to get the van off the ground. Now all I need (again I hope) is good weather, bandaids for those knuckle-buster nuts and hose clamps, face shield, rubber gloves......and beer.

[Lotus54]

I doubt that the torque specs on any fastener has anything at all to do with the strength of the assumed person doing the work.
The tools sometimes may indeed- but that means sourcing ones with more leverage when needed.
Certainly longer ones will often not fit- but from what I’ve seen, most manufactures rarely take into consideration every working on the vehicle. Just assembling them. And from what I’ve seen of factories (I’ve only personally visited the Ducati factory in Bologna) they used assisted tools for most of the fasteners. There was quite a range of person sizes, although most seemed to the smaller range to me. (The tour included walking right inside the assembly line, just a foot or two from workers).

For things like lug nuts- which even when torqued properly can high a quite high ‘tightness’ and be quite difficult to remove after being on for a long time- I suggest carrying some longer tools to give more leverage and make it reasonable to remove the darn things. Plus tighten back to the proper amount (yeah, you are just guessing without a torque wrench, but it can be close).

I’ve been cursing the design of vehicles since I was a kid over some things. Only rarely do they seem to take maintenance into account. (Doing the cam chain on a Eurovan was such a pain)
I’m not strong at all (certainly not anymore) but figure ways to still get stuff done.

Air tools, electric tools (they have come a long way in the last few years) and something thinking before doing can help a lot. Plus application of either loctite or antisize can help a bunch. (I think some loctite can help keep corrosion away- so just the loctite bond to break).
Even though they say not to, I antisize my lugnuts, and a dab or two on the wheel/hub junction so the wheel can actually be removed. Gotta be careful with that stuff though- it seems to get everywhere.
Loosening the lugnuts a few turn and moving the vehicle a little can help break the wheel loose.

Just some thoughts.

[Tronadora]

Originally Posted by toskeysam

Looks like I just joined an elite club.......my macerator is jammed. On the positive side, the only thing in the main drain to the pump is water and antifreeze....I hope. I also have a spare pump on hand and a set of Interblog’s ramps to get the van off the ground. Now all I need (again I hope) is good weather, bandaids for those knuckle-buster nuts and hose clamps, face shield, rubber gloves......and beer.

I hope you have already tried the large bladed screwdriver in the revolving end cap thing. Mine jammed once and some twists in both directions got things freed up. Of course you've already checked the fuse (?) as it can easily blow when the macerator is bound up.


BTW< Superb job with the upfitting on your rolling apartment. great design, beautiful work, glad I didn't write the check (!)

[toskeysam]

Originally Posted by Tronadora

I hope you have already tried the large bladed screwdriver in the revolving end cap thing. Mine jammed once and some twists in both directions got things freed up. Of course you've already checked the fuse (?) as it can easily blow when the macerator is bound up.


BTW< Superb job with the upfitting on your rolling apartment. great design, beautiful work, glad I didn't write the check (!)

Yep. I found the jam before I tried the pump. One of my first actions each year is to use the slot to rotate the pump. It’s a hard jam. Turns slightly and hits solid. I’m guessing it’s something in the impeller. We’ve been diligent about what goes into the toilet ( if you didn’t eat it, it doesn’t go in there). Don’t know what it is just yet.
Now I get to try to figure the best way to drop the pump.

[toskeysam]

BTW< Superb job with the upfitting on your rolling apartment. great design, beautiful work, glad I didn't write the check (!)[/QUOTE]

[toskeysam]

Yeah, the check wasn’t too bad. When we considered what we wanted, and the cost/loss of a trade in and power upgrade of a new Grand Tour....it made sense to pony up the cost of an upfitter. Just glad we found one just an hour away from home.

[toskeysam]

Update on the “locked up” macerator.....I did get it running! Hooray........oh crap! It’s leaking. I did manage to get the black tank empty and flushed, along with the gray tank. The leak is mostly flush water now....2 flushes.
I guess I didn’t have the antifreeze mix I thought I had. On the positive side, at least the liquid I’ll get when I disconnect the system “should” be mostly water.
Hmmmmmm.....glad I kept the photos of those “stinky slinky” mods some have made. Not sure I want to go that way just yet. After all, I did have 6 successful freeze seasons on this pump.
Have time to decide...no travel in immediate future.

[PSchw]

Originally Posted by toskeysam

Update on the “locked up” macerator.....I did get it running! Hooray........oh crap! It’s leaking. I did manage to get the black tank empty and flushed, along with the gray tank. The leak is mostly flush water now....2 flushes.
I guess I didn’t have the antifreeze mix I thought I had. On the positive side, at least the liquid I’ll get when I disconnect the system “should” be mostly water.
Hmmmmmm.....glad I kept the photos of those “stinky slinky” mods some have made. Not sure I want to go that way just yet. After all, I did have 6 successful freeze seasons on this pump.
Have time to decide...no travel in immediate future.

Replacing the macerater you 60% there you have to break the seal from macerater to piping and Airstream did used lots of silicon on mine. Doing the mode actually made the seals better.

[toskeysam]

I gave up a beautiful golf day and decided it was time to replace the macerated.
Took a couple hours, most time spent figuring best way to get it out.
What I found was pretty disgusting. Airstream must’ve used a whole tube of silicone goo ....


To call this a Rube Goldberg would insult old Rube and his ancestors.

Got it replaced and so far so good.

[wachuko]

^^^ Yikes!!

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by toskeysam

What I found was pretty disgusting. Airstream must’ve used a whole tube of silicone goo ....

To call this a Rube Goldberg would insult old Rube and his ancestors.
.

TOSKEYSAM - those "silicone goop" engineers must be descendants of my "duct tape" engineer ancestors

[toskeysam]

Well apparently I didn’t use enough silicone. Loaded the gray tank for a leak check on the pump suction.....FAIL.

Looking for something to replace that darned corrugated hose ( WITH A SPIRAL WIRE EMBEDDED IN IT &#129324

IMHO that was a truly dumb part selection for Airstream to use.

[Titus]

Agree it is a dumb part. I could not find a hose that fit better. Had JC replace the macerator under warranty and they gooped it up during their service too.

[rowiebowie]

Maybe I was just lucky, but my original macerator on my '2012 Avenue was not siliconed in place, nor was the bayonet connection leaking. When I replaced it with a new macerator, it also sealed with no leaks using just the standard "o" ring and a 1" twist to the right to lock it on.

I realize mine is a different model. Here's a pic of my old macerator that came off showing the standard connection.
.

[toskeysam]

My searching skills are inadequate for the task of finding others’ solutions for the macerator leaking at the 3” joint. Any advice from those that solved this problem would be greatly appreciated. I considered using “Gorilla Patch and Seal Tape”, but that would make any future work a bigger problem......

[Titus]

Somebody posted a modification that had a manual drain 'Teed' into the pipe leading to the macerator. They reported using a piece of 3" Kanaflex 300 EPDM to connect to the macerator inlet - but I could not find any locally and didn't want to buy 100' on-line.

[toskeysam]

Titus...I did find a source for the Kanaflex 300 EPDM in minimum of 5’ length. Thanks! I will look into what this would entail on the valve end of the system.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by Titus

Somebody posted a modification that had a manual drain 'Teed' into the pipe leading to the macerator. They reported using a piece of 3" Kanaflex 300 EPDM to connect to the macerator inlet - but I could not find any locally and didn't want to buy 100' on-line.

TITUS & TOSKEYSAM - that mod was posted by BEN322 and I re-posting that pics

[Lily&Me]

Just a reminder, particularly for those of us with older rigs...

Our propane hoses need to be replaced periodically, to avoid potentially disastrous leaks that can also occur at the most inopportune times.

Two days ago, I stopped for propane, and just afterwards the hose split and there was a serious leak. It was caught quickly, fortunately.

Sitting there the next 7 hours, I was able to get it replaced, but a replacement part for this original one had to be made at a local shop.

Someone else here recommended these hoses be replaced every 5-8 years, certainly if you have an older rig might be good to have everything examined and perhaps preemptively replaced.

A friend on the west coast also emailed me that there have been several recent propane explosions out there, involving folks living in older rigs.

A cautionary tale...be safe.

Maggie

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

Just a reminder, particularly for those of us with older rigs...

Our propane hoses need to be replaced periodically, to avoid potentially disastrous leaks that can also occur at the most inopportune times.
...
...

As a thread refresher, here is my replacement step-by-step. I had the four flex lines custom fabricated to the recommended spec, but we did the installation ourselves.