How to use TM toilet/water system?

Okay, picking up our '99 TM 2619 on Thurs. We've never had to deal with a full water/sewage system on a camper before so I have no idea how to use this thing. I did a search and read something about filling toilet with the shower, cleaning/dumping gray/black water, chemicals, charginf while traveling....so now i'm totally confused and have no idea how to use this thing. ( camper is used with no owners manuals)

Anyone got a down to earth explanation of how to use the complete water system from using toilet/shower to proper draining. It also had a HWH which will probably won't use this trip, it may need a new element.
Anyway, any instructions will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks
Marty

I would start with the the threads here: http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...splay.php?f=42. There are two manuals there. I like Mike and Kelly's manual. The water heater, refrigerator and toilet to point out a few threads are covered in detail. These threads and the others there should get you up to speed quickly. After going through these, come back and ask the questions they will generate.

One of the first improvements I would consider is the Hands Free Shower. Think of it as a suggestion. I modified my show curtain, but did it slightly different than suggested. I also could not find the parts listed, so I created my own shower head holder.

It's pretty simple. It is like a 6 gal porti potty with a motorized pump that churns stuff around through a screen so it becomes more liquid and mixes with your chemicals. And a valve in the floor that allow you to empty through the sewer pipe. It has a gauge that helps you know when it is full and shows you when you've added the 3 gals. of fresh water reccomended to consider the empty toilet "charged". It takes a gal or so of fresh water to allow the pump to start drawing and circulating the water. You can extend your usage by not adding the full 3 gals of fresh water but just adding enough to run the pump. When it is time to dump, pull the lever at the base of the toilet to allow the contents to flow down into the pipe. Then you can close up the trailer (if you have to travel to your dump site) leaving that lever open. When you are ready to dump, you hook up your sewer hose, pull the "black water" valve. When that has drained, close it and pull the gray water valve. When that is drained, close it and use fresh water at the dump site to rinse the sewer hose out and off and stow it away. I wear latex gloves and keep Purrell packets handy.
There are lots of details to be read on this site on the subject but this is the bare bones version.
I was freaked about the prospect of dumping and recirculating toilets but it's no big deal now. Not fun, just something you gotta do. I've even had to take my toilet apart twice to replace parts. Not pleasant but not completly horrid. Well kinda horrid but I lived
I just replaced a part called the Vinyl Skirt cuz I read on this site that it is supposed to help keep smells down and it really did help. Apparently they rot. Understandable. Took me 30 min to do and cost $12 bucks from Thetford. Just FYI.
Cheri

By the way, you don't HAVE to use your shower water to fill the toilet. You have a 20 gal fresh water tank. Why waste 3 of it in the toilet if you don't have to. It is just a convenient way if you are hooked up to city water.
Cheri

Thanks for the info. Guess I wasn't using the right search words or haven't gotten familiar enough with the site yet. This is really helpful. We plan on using campground facilities, but my two little ones may be using the potty at night.
Or we may not be picking up the camper on Thurs or even going tp Myrtle Beach on Sat since our blazer has decided not to run.

Thanks Again!

[Speckul8r]

I'll heartily 2nd what Leon said!! No need to fear. Just do it!
B4 leaving home, make sure the 3 valves are in the closed, "in", position. The 1 under the Thetford inside and the 2 under the TM outside. The larger of the 2 outside handles is the Blackwater/toilet drain and the smaller handle is the grey water drain. I like to nearly fill the toilet and run it a bit B4 going to the dump station. Get as much of a "flush "as possible. Pull the inside handle B4 closing the TM. Be sure to do the toilet 1st and the grey water 2nd. Get some rubber gloves and hand sanitizer for use after dumping.
Hope you can resurrect the vehicle in time for the trip!!

[Speckul8r]

Maybe it would be good to mention that if you are in a full hookup site, don't leave the drains in constant drain mode. The toilet needs the waste water to work properly and the grey water to flush the hose after dumping.

I agree with Leon too. At first I was a little freaked by the toilet, but now it's no big deal. I don't like public bathrooms so I'm grateful we have a bathroom in the trailer. We always stay where there are full hookups which makes it easy to just dump the tanks if they get full. We paid a lot of money for our trailer and it's facilities, I don't see the point in not using what we paid for. By the way, before using the trailer for the first time I was worried about odors from the bathroom (chemicals, etc.) drifting into the rest of the trailer. I'm relieved to say, they don't! Even the moisture from the shower stays in our little, self contained, efficient bathroom.

Jo Ann

There are also complaints about the shower, but it works fine for me. We went to my mom's Memorial Day. There was 21 of us there plus mom who could not canoe, because of some surgery she had. We normally go out to eat after our canoe trip which was on Sunday and showers before going to eat. Mom has three bathrooms, but it takes a while to get 21 people though the showers. Four of us used the TM shower. Only problems was I had to do a partial dump after the third shower, because my wife and I had showers Friday and Saturday. Used the TM toilet, but mainly at night. Even with 4 people staying in the trailer, its was only about 3/4 full when we filled it up to dump.

Thanks for all the replies!! Getting ready to leave this morning to pickup our TM
We did get our blazer fixed.... ( embarrassment on) while pulling wires around under the hood looking for the brake and aux trailer wires, I unknowningly unplugged the main harness that feeds the fuel pump and gas gauge. My brother in law worked on it for almost 4 hours before he found ( wanted to kill me), but it does have a new fuel pump ($310 later). We were pushing our limits with that too, has 125k miles so probably good it happened. (embarrassment off)

So hopefully my WDH get here today and we will be ready for Sat!!!