macerator systems

[Kenn-TC]

Has anyone used a macerator system on their holding tanks. I have never seen one other than in catalogs and they make them sound great. I would like to find someone that has used one for a while and find out the pros and cons.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

A guy that stores his Class A d/p near mine has one. He doesn't like it. He bought the rig brand new, Holiday Rambler, and he said he's had a ton of problems with it. I think he might have re-done everything now to just have a standard gravity dump system.

 

[Kenn-TC]

Bob thanks a lot. I am thinking the cost of the macerator set up could be used on other things. I can make my dumping system so it could be changed at a later date if I felt the need.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

I don't know anything about them. Are they used to make packaging easier? Like they can put the holding tank further away from where you hook up the hose and such?

 

[Kenn-TC]

They claim it is the most sanitary way to empty a holding tank. You leave the hose connected.

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

That doesn't sound very sanitary. Do you flush the black tank and then use the gray tank to clean the hose then?

 

[Kenn-TC]

I think I would do the black, grey and follow it up by running clean water down the drain for a few minutes. A big advantage is the size of the hose 1" compared to 3". I have used the old style for 20 years with no major problems and at a much lower cost. I think I will stick with the 3" for now.

 

[Dave Glennon]

We used a macerator pump in our trailer that we built last summer. The front 12 feet of our trailer is a lounge with toilet, sink, and full shower. We have a 60 gallon waste tank and really wanted to keep from having any plumbing hanging under the frame because when we drive into various tracks, it would be easy to get torn off. The macerator pump works well. It takes about 10 minutes to empty the tank and we usually just turn the shower on until the waste pump runs clear.

I finally got a few pictures to upload on here as I used this forum for alot of information. Blizzard had shared ideas on tanks, etc and I stopped over at his shop to visit and look at his truck. We used Sixaflex 252 for any of the seams that didn't have screws. The trailer was alot more work than we originally estiamted, but we used it the last few weeks of the race season and it worked well.

 

[Kenn-TC]

Dave your trailer looks great. I have been planning to build my motorhome with one waste tank in order to gain overall capacity. Do you sleep in the trailer at the races and have you used the it for more than a weekend? Just cureious how the single tank is working. It is nice to have a shower at the track. What type of racing do you do?

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

Very nice looking trailer, Dave! How about a different thread with a bunch of pics of it for us? Make sure to give us pics of the race cars too.

So you only need one tank then and put everything into that? Hhhhmmmmm. Could be a benefit for space savings. Ten minutes is kind of long to flush out tho. I've been at dump stations where there are lines waiting. Somebody might get mad.

 

[hot rod]

Amazingly professional job on that trailer. I would never have guessed it was not a top end factory trailer. Would also love to see some build pic.

 

[Dave Glennon]

Since we really didn't know what we were doing as far as plumbing, tanks, etc. we figured one tank would work ok. Our fresh tank is about 120 gallons and we have a gate valve between the shower and single waste tank (60 gallons). At alot of the race tracks its ok to drop on the ground and it really helps to just put some of the showers in the ground!

We do usually camp in the trailer for a weekend and haven't had any problems with running low on fresh or filling up the waste tank. As for taking 10 minutes at the dump station, we can't get into any of the ones I've seen; we have a septic tank that we pump into where we store our trailer.

We do sprint car racing, mostly in the upper midwest. I found one picture of the car where you can kind of see the cabinets inside the trailer. I didn't do a really good job documenting the the build, but will have to see if I can find some pics to upload. I know this is a truck conversion forum, but figured there might be some interest. I basically consider part of the trailer a conversion and as I said earlier, really used this board as a good resource