Re: [A/S] removal of black water tank shroud

["Mr. Joy H. Hansen" <joytbrew@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Melanie,

Please, don't use a torch!  It's bad enough with an angle grinder 
heating the bolts, etc. to the extent that it acually chars the wood.  
An angle grinder does a great job if you can get the blade into the 
area.  Otherwise, it's just a lot of tedous drilling or grinding with 
the rotary file until the thing is free.

If you can send a picture to my off list address, I might be able to 
give you more ideas.  Not that my ideas are of anymore value than 
Harvey's as I consider him to be my mentor! :)  A picture of the 
interior bathroom showing the location of the toilet and the syle of the 
bathroom would be helpful.

I finished painting the frame rails, etc. with rustoleum today and will 
try to reinstall my holding tank shortly.  Not an easy task, but I've 
given it a lot of thought.  After a couple of dry runs, the plan still 
seems workable.  Most plumbing was glue in place and I had to do a lot 
of cutting, yet allow for reassembly.  The final connection involves 
reconnecting the gray water line through the floor downstream of the 
dump valve.

I had a pet theory as to why the holding tank cover rusted out on my 
unit, and it doesn't have anything to do with a broken tank.  It has to 
do with no maintenance of the trim strip around the back of the trailer 
at the top of the bumper compartment.  Well, spilled battery acid had a 
bit to do with it.  To make a long story longer, I took the bathroom out 
to repair the floor.  One thing led to another and I've now removed 
everything from the interior of the trailer to repair floor, and more 
rot, and more rot, and .  .  .  Harvey decided to work through the 
convenience hatch - whew!

Let me see a couple of pictures.

The most of the rot you see in this picture was covered by the floor 
tile.  

You can also see where I split the inner skin so I could reinstall new 
bolts through the replacement floor and secure the shell to the floor.  
The damage is caused by water wicking between the bumper shelf (under 
the trim strip) and constantly wetting the edge of the floor.  It's my 
opinion that the water eventually poured into the holding tank cover.  
Any water on the bathroom floor if it ran to the back, would run 
throught the holes into the holding tank.  There's no way out of the 
holding tank except to rust out!

                                                      Regards, Joy