putting in a bathroom

Apr 16, 2015 15:37:27 GMT -8 elewayne said:

So, as I've stated a couple places I starting back working on my trailer, a 1949 Silver Lodger, and it's 16 feet long and I think I can put a bathroom in that space. I left spaces in the frame to fit in black and gray water tanks. This trailer, like most of that era, did not come with a bathroom and were pretty low to the ground. This doesn't leave much room for the plumbing. Is this going to be a huge problem for me? Anyone here retrofit a bath into one of these older trailers? Wondering about in-trailer tanks or just using portable tanks. Any good input there? The rest of the trailer is all easy but this systems thing is going to eat my lunch before I get it ready for an interior. (a lot of planing to do, here, at this point.)
Wayne

I'm just assuming that your 16' trailer is a single axle? I recently did the same thing on my 17' Mallard, and after you take away the precious space taken up by the wheel wells your not going to have much room to work with. I ended up doing only a toilet, but no black or grey tanks. If you look at the photos that Larry took of my trailer you will see how I handled the toilet drain. It's basically just 10' of 3" ABS pipe for the volume to make up a mini storage tank. It works well for two people, for a couple days on the road, then when you get to your camp site, pull the handle and drain it out. The concern is "weight distribution" in a small single axle trailer. If you pump 10-12 gallons of fresh water from a front seat mounted tank, into a rear mounted black water tank, you have effectively shifted almost 200 pounds of weight "off the tongue", and it will adversely effect the way the trailer tows at speed. IMO, using portable tanks is a total PITA, last resort, again because the water is heavy, it's hard to take it to be dumped. You will also want to have an on demand water pump to flush the toilet. If you use two back flow valves, you can have a single plumbing system that works with shore water, and by the on demand pump.

Hang in there, it's worth the expense and efforts. I will have at least a toilet in any personal trailers that I build. 

Apr 17, 2015 10:06:52 GMT -8 elewayne said:

OK, WOW! NICE TRAILER.
In the one photo showing the plumbing I don't get much of a view. You seem to be using the 3" drain line off the toilet and using 10' of that for storage, of sorts. what path does it follow under the trailer. does it u turn and come back to the box and flex tube? Does it have to run down like normal drain lines, or is level ok. Maybe you could provide a sketch or a couple more pics. I like the idea though. My basic idea was to put the black water tank right there where your gate is under the toilet, even if I had to raise the toilet up some. and the gray water tank would be above the axle in the center of the trailer. But your idea looks less expensive and that is a concern too. I need to keep cost to a min from this point as I have spend a bit too much restoring the whole box. Talk to me some more. We can do PMs if necessary.
My site and pics are at SilverLodger.com I'm there if one googles Silver Lodger trailer too.
Wayne

Don't start asking for diagrams "and" photos, I just learned how to tie my tennis shoes! LOL 

The system is basically two straight 3" ABS pipes, a sharp 90 degree elbow down from the toilet, and two "large sweep" 90 degree elbows making the "U" turn on the curbside of the trailer, and back to a 3" valve. Yes you have to "build in" some drop because water needs to run down hill. The ABS is really smooth, so it does not take much drop. If you look closely at the photo, See the elbow and compared to the valve  height, it's not over 2" of drop over the ten foot total distance, or about 1" from left side to right side, and another 1" back to the left side valve.  I ran the final pipe with the valve forward to increase ground clearance, since it close to the wheel.  You do not want this stuff hanging down at the extreme rear of the trailer.  The small 1" black pipe you see that's is angled, is a vent line that runs inside the wall, up to as high as possible on the side of the trailer, and is covered with louvers.  The next trailer I plumb a toilet into, will have a extra 1 1/2" valve and a hose bib added, so I will have the option to divert the grey sink water out through a hose (where permitted), to increase the black pipe capacity.

A possible option would be to have a 4" reinforced hole welded into the frame, so you could tuck the piping up tighter to the floor, but it you have to route it "under" the frame, everything starts to look like it's dragging.  I have used this trailer in this configuration for several thousand miles and two years, it's never dragged anything yet.