The Leak

Adventure Location: Site 5 in the Campground, Texas
Teams Location: Rockport, Texas

There you go taking care of a bit of maintenance on the Castle.  Suddenly you realize that the sewer hose has a leak.  At least it was before you pulled the black waste tank dump valve open.  Hmmm how did that happen?

Oh well nothing to do but fix it by replacing it.  The adapter for the hose to the sewer line does not want to release.  This is a common happening in the RV world. All sorts of lubricants have been tried but none seemed to work for the long term.  The adapter has been installed for about seven weeks and is firmly stuck. My installation is always very carefully done with the minimum amount of threads screwed into the sewer fitting.  Frequently the ell on the end of the hose can be used to turn the adapter enough to get it to release.

This time it is a no go.  The last time this happened to me the adapter was sawed out with a hacksaw.  OK brains get to work.  Grabbing the adapter with pliers did not even get a start of functioning. My arthritic hands cannot begin to hold tight enough to do any good.  Sit back and think time has arrived.

A flash of lightning and a sharp pain in my head indicated a new thought had arrived. Try the oil filter wrench and see what happens.  So the strap type filter wrench was retrieved from the Truck and dubiously applied to the adapter.  The adapter started to slowly rotate without damage to it.  Then more progress as the adapter unscrewed from the sewer fitting like a good little adapter should.  YEA.

Here is the adapter and filter wrench.  The gray adapter is a common one in use nowadays for RVs.

This next picture shows how the strap wrench is used to unscrew the adapter.

Now all there was to do is cut the hose off just upstream of the leak.  Then reinstall the hose on the elbow fitting and the hose is ready to go to work again.  Careful examination of the hole in the hose showed a small round hole about 3/16” in diameter.  Upon looking into the hose piece there was a surprise waiting.  There wedged in the hose was a piece of oak tree twig with some of the toilet paper coating it. Apparently the twig was driven through the vinyl of the sewer hose by some unknown force.

The toilet paper used by the OFM Teams is the Scotts single ply for septic tanks.  It breaks down within a few minutes of getting wet.  And it breaks down rather completely. A roll of it was under my lavatory cabinet and next to it was some window cleaner.  The window cleaner bottle leaked and the toilet paper became a mound of muck. At least it was clean paper and easy to clean up.

Having a sewer that works is guaranteed to improve your day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.