Western NY Newbie

[DC Fuse]

Shogun, to stop that odor from the toilet while you do other work pull your toilet and install one of those rubber donuts w/a bolt to tighten in the middle of it. That expands and seals that pipe.It's probably a 3" pipe but measure. Also pour maybe a quart or so of water down any drain you have. (sinks -shower pan) This will seal the tanks vapors in drain J-trap.
You could get the tank treatment going by filling it up part way w/water and a additive for breakdown. Seal it up and let it work it self.
W/that type camper body you can't really have much, if any, horizontal drain pipe. It's where the problem would be. That and @ the dump valve.

 

[Shogun]

Shogun, to stop that odor from the toilet while you do other work pull your toilet and install one of those rubber donuts w/a bolt to tighten in the middle of it. That expands and seals that pipe.It's probably a 3" pipe but measure. Also pour maybe a quart or so of water down any drain you have. (sinks -shower pan) This will seal the tanks vapors in drain J-trap.
You could get the tank treatment going by filling it up part way w/water and a additive for breakdown. Seal it up and let it work it self.
W/that type camper body you can't really have much, if any, horizontal drain pipe. It's where the problem would be. That and @ the dump valve.

Thanks for the advise, Im not sure exactly what your talking about with the rubber donut however Im sure I can figuire it out. The bath does have a sink and shower drain in it, was assuming thats where the smell was coming up from, I havent even looked into whats going to be involved in removing the toliet yet, Im hoping its not too brutal or leaves my head too near the thing lol. Ill look into getting an additive to put in the tank and see if that helps. Thanks

 

[anm]

For anyone interested/following I got the beast home today, the hour drive was a bit worrisome. Defintiely needs some mechanical work with the steering and I think a wheel bearing on the front passenger side. Theres a small exaust leak that can definitely be smelled in the cabin, but other than those things it had no issue with the drive. Im definitely excited and finally feel like Ive taken a step forward after years of procrastination on doing this. Okay, well Im off to start tearing apart the inside, got big plans to modernize the coach.

Welcome Shogun!

If you do the mechanical work yourself it won't be too expensive, but make sure you check that (both) front wheel bearing, and replace it if there's any sign of a problem. I've had a wheel bearing go bad and spin on the spindle, getting so hot that it welded itself to the spindle, the net result was it needed new bearings and a new spindle.

I've been wanting another tatoo

 

[Shogun]

Welcome Shogun!

If you do the mechanical work yourself it won't be too expensive, but make sure you check that (both) front wheel bearing, and replace it if there's any sign of a problem. I've had a wheel bearing go bad and spin on the spindle, getting so hot that it welded itself to the spindle, the net result was it needed new bearings and a new spindle.

I've been wanting another tatoo

Ill be doing as much of the mechanical work as I can, my backyard mechanic skills are fair and google helps alot. I havent actual been able to even get it diagnosed as to exactly whats wrong with it, the smart fellow who owned it before me wired all the coach electrical to the main battery and I didnt realize this and left the ignition switch in the wrong postition and killed the battery. So now it sits where it is till I can get together some funds. The tearout is going okay and is about 3/4 of the way done but then Im at a little bit of a standstill unless business picks up.

 

[Shogun]

So Ive almost got the coach fully gutted, no pictures sadly, my 6 yr old "smart" phone broke so I have no phone and no camera atm, all I have left is to figuire out how to actually get the fridge out of the cabinet that holds it, I think they built the RV around it, and the toliet, which is the last on the list lol.

Had the wonderful experience when pulling up the carpet to find that there was not just one layer, not just two layers, but three layers of carpeting all glued on top of one another, and then of course the original green shag that was underneath all the cabinetry and appliances Ive ripped out.

To add to the fun the original brainchild of this multi carpeting scheme glued some sort of underlayment to the floor which is now in shreds still stuck to the floor and its looking like I have a long day of scraping it all off to get the floor ready for its new look. And there were mouse droppings, so many mouse droppings, dont tug at carpet full of mouse droppings, it ends poorly

I figuired out today that to get all the old paneling off Im going to have to take the inner window trim off, and when that comes off the window will come out so basically I have to take 2 really long (6' ish?) windows out and pray that I dont break them because theres no junkyarding these, Im currently working on a work around hopefully Im smart enough to figuire it out Thankfully in the 90% of one wall that I tored down today there was very little rot on the boards around the windows, only a 5" stretch on one side. The other window Im figuiring will be worse, the paneling itself is in much worse shape.

Hopefully by mid october the coach will be getting ready to be lived in and then I just have to worry about the mechanicals come spring and Ill be truly mobile.

Set backs this week. One dead tire from lack of me checking on the slow leak. Fried battery because I didnt realize the brainchild I bought it off of wired all the coach electronics to the main battery and I made the mistake of leaving the key in the wrong position. Not the worst setbacks I could have had, but enough. Hopefully next week will be much more fluid and tranquil.

And on a very positive note, I have an interview with a shop close to where my girl works on Monday. I love the shop I work at now but unfortunately its not bringing in enough business and definitely not paying the bills. Since its looking like a year at the least before we could head out for parts unknown and staying local so the better half can keep working her decent paying gig, hopefully this will be a chance to start getting alot more in town work rather than me having to travel to find business all the time.

 

[Shogun]

For anyone that may have been following this, Ive been trying to raise money to get the van done but Rochester NY is apparently not the place to try to be a tattoo artist and I havent been able to travel in 6-7 months to the clients I do have in other states, so its been slow going. I started insulating the walls and floors on sunday, its starting to actually look nice, wish I could get a picture to share. Unfortunately my deadline for having a place to stay while working on it was end of october and then it would be staying on the side of the garage where Im at while I lived in it. Unfortunately it seems that my situation has turned and now I have to find a place to put and live in an uninspectable van that isnt ready to be lived in yet within the next few days.

People suck, even those that tell you they love you usually will find a reason to turn on you at some point, apparently because Ive been unable to find clients here or a more traditional job in the months since Ive been able to travel Im a worthless a-hole and I need to go, never mind the rent, food money, free child care, taxi service, maid service, and lawn care that Ive provided in my time here. Rant ended

 

[Dragonfly]

Shogun:

Welcome. Sorry for your loss.
My H. and I left WNY right after the winter of '77..in a van..and have lived mostly on the road and off the grid ever since.
I'd love to have your rig It's going to make a wonderful rolling home.
Right now we are in W. U.S. getting our van ready for a trip in Dec. Full time for us is now out of the question with the new 'have to have a permanent address' to do darned near anything. It means that after being off the grid for so long, we settled down for awhile and the rules changed, so now we have to keep our apt. and just get out there for as long as we can. Something strange happened while we were enjoying our life..lol..we got old.
We won't let that get in our way.

Hope to hear about your travels on this great blog/forum.

Oz