[encantotom]

hi all,

for the past year, only when driving at highway speeds, we get a slight smell like you had just taken a whiff from while emptying the holding tank.

i looked everywhere. it wasnt there when we were sitting still, only when driving at faster than town speeds. i checked all the fittings on the holding tank, i redid the toilet flange for other reasons, but still it was redone, still the smell.

we finally isolated the smell to the closet at the back on the passenger side opposite the bathroom. the vent pipe for the holding tank goes up through a corner of the closet and is covered with aminate covered wood cornerpiece. i examined that pipe very carefully and so did darlene and there were no cracks in it.

while we were driving home from lake havasu recently, darlene and the wife of my buddy had the fun assignment of tracing exactly where

the last trip we took to lake havasu, darlene and my buddies wife took turns in the closet (good assignment, eh), isolating the location of the smell. it came from the top where it went through the ceiling. now we are getting somewhere.

we stopped on the way home and i got my trusty collapsable ladder out and we looked at the vent cover on top. it is an older venturi cover that you couldnt see anything without taking it off. the venturi cover is a "T" that faces front and back on mine. i know there are some that spin to the wind, but mine is fixed. it has a smaller opening facing the front and a big one at the back. the air accelerates coming in, goes down the pipe, sucks the stink out and shoots it out the back opening. with mine, it was shooting it back down through the opening in the roof into the closet.

so, once i got home, i took the cover off, and the pipe where it came through the roof up top was no longer sealed. the silicone had dried up and was pulled away so there was a sizeable gap all the way around.

i did a heavy seal job of high end silicone in the opening and around it after cutting as much of the old out as possible. i let it dry a couple of days and did another layer. i did the same on the inside.

then i re-installed the plastic venturi cover with a new batch of butyl rubber tape to seal it to the bus (if you use silicone, you cant get it off without damaging it).

on a recent test drive....no more smells.

so....i would guess that many of you have had the silicone pull away there as well and it might be worth resealing it.

as wally says....that my story and i am sticking to it.

happy saturday

tom