Removing the toilet, replacing with PortaPotti

i did the very same thing last year but installed a regular rv toilet and separate holding tank. no more stink - no more noise when flushing etc. tapped into the cold water line under the sink. capped off the electrical wire. works great. our 2nd choice was a porta potty too. anything beats the thetford stink machine.

[ShrimpBurrito]

thewitzclan - do you have any pics of your install, both the toilet and tank?

Thanks,
Dave

[mbd4kids]

To thewitzclan- do you need to use a tote to empty or is it possible to drain directly into the campground sewer system? We do have a tote, but it's one more thing to bring...not sure if there would be gasses coming back up from the sewer system though. Could you give a detail of how you did it? I would be doing the work, and have no previous experience, but am a bit grossed out by the thetford. The regular rv toilet only needs water to work, not electric? Thanks

I have to thank everyone for their help. We followed the tutorial (Bill's) and less than 30 minutes I had it out. I did need someone to sit on it as suggested. The main reason we did this was to have an easier dumping method. Now we don't have to rely on a honey wagon. We just separate the 2 tanks and bring it to the dumping station or the closest bathroom. We can get about 4-5 days use before emptying...BTW, we never had any problem with the TM recirculating. It will be easy to reinstall for resale purposes.

I do not get sewer gas when connected directly into the campgrounds drain hub. The toilet is like the one at your house. Water sits in the bottom of the bowl preventing gases from coming thru. I can connect my 18 gallon tote and trailer it to the dump outlet or use the full facilities at some campgrounds and connect right to it. I still close off my grey water holding tank until it's near full and then pull the lever and drain it then close it off again because there are no p traps for the sinks and the sewer gas may travel thru them. No big deal though. I have never been happier since i got rid of the recirculating toilet. A porta potti is cleaner than that!. The install was a breeze. I removed the old toilet. Removed the pump wiring and properly capped it. I tapped into the cold water line under the bathroom sink (i had to remove the sink) and voila no more stink. The toilet was $189.00 at our local rv store.

My Thetford does not stink. But, I have never camped in temperatures above 100F.

If you switch to a Porta Potty, how much bigger is its capacity compared to the Thetford? If it is substantially larger capacity I might be interested in it because we do almost exclusively dry camping.

The Thetford is not big enough for five adults on a 4 day weekend. And I would rather have a larger toilet capacity than a Blue Tote.

[Wavery]

We are fairly happy with our Thetford recirc toilet. Haven't had any problems or smell issues. We just use the proper chemicals.

If I were ever to consider a toilet replacement, I would only consider a cassette toilet. It would mean cutting a hole through the wall but that's no big deal. It would also mean removing the cassette holding tank, dumping it and putting it back before folding down. The other dumping option would be putting it in the truck, folding down and taking it to the dump station, then carrying the empty, cleaned cassette tank home in the truck.

As you can tell, I've given this some thought but have had no reason to act on it. I don't think that I would do it to my present trailer but when we buy a newer trailer, we might just do it.

Has anyone else seen this ad? Perhaps this would solve a lot of the problems?
I got this advertisement because I once ordered somethng from these people.

[B_and_D]

Sounds great, but you'd need a black water tank too. I suppose there might be room for one somewhere.

Question: if one removes the Thetford toilet, I assume u must close off the pipe in the floor of the TM, what does one use to do this?
Also, if the toilet is removed, is it still possible to use the shower?
(As you can probably tell, this is the first time I've ever had a camper with a toilet or a shower, so this is all terra incognita to me.)