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Date:         Tue, 6 Jun 1995 09:25:45 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Harry Yates" <hyates@bcit.bc.ca>
Subject:      Re: Camper Toilets

I second Tobin's recommendations... and yes, Tobin did talk me into it. The Thetford fits nicely between the front seats in the 80+ Vanagon's behind the parking brake. My wife just made a couple webbing straps so secure it in place while driving. The unit is approx. 12X14 and 12 high. My wife also made a cover for it complete with map pockets. It works well in our van.

Harry.

> > Bathroom stuff: Christa and I have and use (when we're camping, not all > the time!) a porta-potti, and it's great. What we have is a Thetford > Porta-potti 235 and we got it on sale in Canada for about $100.00 CAN. > Highly recommended. C and I are extremely enthusiastic about it, and we > even (kind of) talked Harry Yates into buying one. Harry bought one, but > apparently they don't make the 235 anymore. > > What it is, how it works: > The porta-potti (PP) is a 2-part unit. The top part is the, um, sit-on > and temporary hold-it part. A slide type valve keeps, uh, stuff in the > bowl until sliding the little door lets the stuff fall into the lower > part, which is the holding tank. Slide it shut, and that's the last you > see/smell/etc. of it. A little of the blue goop that airlines use is in > there (you put it in after emptying), and it nuetralizes everything, > turning it into a bluey-brown more-or-less odourless syrup. (Enjoying > your lunch, people?). When the holding tank gets full (and there's a > little indicator on the tank to tell you how full the tank is) just dump > it out in the nearest toilet/sanidump/etc. It even has a little > swiveling pipe-thing you uncap that the yummies pour out of so that > emptying is controlled and mess-free. > > Using a PP in a VW bus: > I built a box that fits just behind the passenger seat in our westy. > This box holds the PP, toilet paper and blue goop under the PP, and has > two deep bookshelves next to where I slide the PP in. Just try to find > (non-sexist/racist/etc.) reading material in a gas station bathroom! > > Because I built the box with very tight clearance for the PP, I have a > length of seatbelt strapping I tie around the PP to help me lift it in > and out of the box. The box has a top lid, so we can use the box as a > seat when cooking inside the camper. > > We have NO smells from the PP, although the closed box may help in this > respect. Having it in the box also keeps it from sliding around on tight > corners/rough roads/whenever you get air on the drive to pick up > grandma. > > The only problem we've experienced was the result of rapid air pressure > changes and hours of VERY hard cornering (I think). In Mexico, we > dropped close to 10,000 feet in just a few hours on an absolutely insane > "road", accompanied by a 10-15 C temperature increase. Perhaps the seal > between the holding tank and the upper 'bowl' part of the PP is too good, > 'cause shortly after reaching close to sea level it kind of... exploded > (in a minor way) when Christa tried to use it. Interestingly, though, by > far the worst paret of the smell was the chemical smell of the blue goop, > not the, uh, other portion of the contents. Moral: bleed pressure from > the holding tank occaisionally if you're driving up or down a steep high > mountain range. > > Our holding tank is good for 3 - 5 days, depending. We use regular > toilet paper. The blue goop is cheap, don't need much, and is available > at any RV store. I highly recommend the THetford brand of porta-pottis > (std. disclaimer, etc., etc.) and maybe other folks have their own > preferences. Good RV stores seem to always have a good selection of > them, although these places tend towards the larger models which may not > be neccesary for us VW types. > > We lived out of our camper for 3 months, 15,000 miles of driving in all > kinds of conditions, and I think a good quality porta-potti was one of > the best equipment investments we made. You'll never want to take your > chances at a gas station again. And the reading material is better, too! > > Happy, uh, camping! > > Tobin > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Tobin T. Copley Currently ============= > (604) 689-2660 Occupationally /_| |__||__| :| putta > tobin@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca Challenged! O| | putta > '-()-------()-' > Circum-continental USA, Mexico, Canada 15,000 miles... '76 VW Camper! (Mango) > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- Harry yates Internet: hyates@bcit.bc.ca '90 Syncro Westfalia Burnaby, BC '87 Golf Diesel


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