Inside Sewage Black Water Spill Nightmare

[FreshAirStmr]

Originally Posted by wendywoods

Good news: We turned on the furnace last night. No odor whatsoever.

Is it possible you've grown used to it? Maybe have a visitor do a sniff test.

[AtomicNo13]

In actuality, the stink has just moved to another place, it's still there and you're towing it everywhere you go!

[xrvr]

Originally Posted by wendywoods

Good news: We turned on the furnace last night. No odor whatsoever. Bad news: Our Dometic Air Conditioner/Heat Pump stopped working .... It's always something!!!

One less problem, good!

[xrvr]

I would turn the furnace off and then try the heat pump again. Might work. Good luck.

[andreasduess]

First of all, ouch and so sorry to hear that. What a disaster.

We recently nearly had a toilet overflow caused by my five year old son, followed by a ruptured sewage connector when emptying the full up tank - the pressure ripped it apart. Thankfully the dump station had a pressure washer to clean up the mess. It was then that I decided to move ahead with the installation of a composting toilet, something I had planned to do for some time. No more black tanks for us.

The smell will dissipate and once dried, whatever small amount of sewage remains in the belly pan will not be toxic. As the insulation is made from material that will dry out completely I would not worry too much about it right now.

[wendywoods]

Update: The Airstream situation was resolved entirely within a day or so, and all your comments and suggestions helped. The issue actually was that the fresh water faucet had been left on in the bathroom, causing the overflow. It was not a backup in the campground's black water hookup nor a problem with the valves. The Airstream interior was thoroughly cleaned by us and the rig was checked at the dealership. There were no residual problems -- Airstream really makes a great trailer. We continued to travel around the country for another year with no new problems.

[Wingeezer]

IMHO - I think suggestions to remove the belly pan are a bit over the top! Of course I defer to people with more experience than me, but I can't imagine the whole belly pan area filling with water/sewage to the point that the insulation under the floor would get saturated - I feel it likely that the weight of that much water would be huge and that it would would find its way out before that would happen.

We too have had problems with that damn door locking us out! I now keep a rubber band holding the lock lever back unless we want to lock the door!

But as well, like others we keep several sets of spare keys on hand - one set in the truck, and another set hidden on the exterior of the trailer - not sayin' where!


Last time we got locked out, I found that I could climb in through the rear storage hatch on our Classic 30 (which happened to be unlocked) lift the queen bed, and get in that way - took me about five minutes!