fix for slight smell when driving..... - Luxury Coach Lifestyles
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Old 04-17-2010, 04:03 PM   #1
encantotom
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Default fix for slight smell when driving.....

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
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Old 04-17-2010, 07:53 PM   #2
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I would be certain that most of us who don't have the luxury of keeping our coaches in climate controlled storage 90% of the time have the same issue. Thanks for the tip Tom.
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Old 04-17-2010, 10:47 PM   #3
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Tom, you really should have been a plumber. Great job and a good fix, it makes sense that when moving and the odor is going out the vent, if the roof penetration is open it would drag the smell into the coach.
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Old 04-18-2010, 04:38 AM   #4
Ron and Susan
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Default slight smell in closet

Tom, I think we have a similar problem.

We get a smell in the closet when we are parked and are running
the exhaust fans in the bathroom. The smell is intermittent and
not there all the time but it is definitely in the closet opposite the bathroom. I will inspect the vent as soon as I can.
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Old 04-19-2010, 02:43 AM   #5
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Just a thought that you all may be aware of. It is important to check the traps on the shower all sinks etc to make sure that none of them are dry. I have a second sink in the bedroom that we never use and the trap will go dry in about 4 months. If it is dry and I start driving it will smell right away and I no it is the sink. It can also come up from the kitchen sink that has the garbage disposal if you don't have the rubber plug on the drain hole. Most of the garbage disposals do not have a trap and drain directley into the the sink opposite sink drain line.
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Old 04-25-2010, 05:19 PM   #6
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Just be careful that the disposal stopper doesn't get sucked down. When we were buying ours the stopper was sucked into the drain.
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Old 04-25-2010, 10:58 PM   #7
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Wally, when we first brought our Newell home it had been sitting for a while, and the various traps in the shower, bathroom, and kitchen had dried out....there was definitely an odor. Now, whenever I go to visit the coach in storage I run water into all the traps at least once a month. Seems to work....no more odors!
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Old 05-21-2010, 10:50 PM   #8
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Lately I noticed a slight "sewer" like smell when driving my coach back and forth between my house and the storage area a few miles away. Like the rest of you when stopped I couldn't smell a thing. At home I checked the roof end of the vent and the toilet valve. I did the same at the storage area and could find nothing. The last trip it was quite warm outside and in the middle of the trip, voila I smelled the smell coming in from outside. There is a sewage treatment plant hidden in the area and if the wind is from a particular direction I get the smell, not compliments of my coach. Sneaky buggars.

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Old 05-22-2010, 04:30 AM   #9
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If one has the time there is a cure for the monthly chore of watering of the P-Traps.. the new Hygienic Self-Sealing Waste Valves by HEPvO.
It also saves space under the sink... many RV suppliers now carry them...
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