[VAL] Holding Tanks

["Brian Jenkins" <jenkins1924@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,

I have a '56 Caravanner and I thought I'd share some thoughts about 
retrofitting holding tanks in Airstreams that didn't have them originally. 
Several years ago I lived on a boat, and the holding and water tanks were 
essentially on the same level as the head and the water outlets. The 
significance, it seems to me, of this is that there is no need to install 
the holding tank for either gray or black water beneath the floor in an 
Airstream. It has simply always been done that way. I intend to install the 
Caravanner's black water tank either beneath the bed or in the bottom of a 
closet. A 12-volt marine toilet uses a macerating pump to push the waste out 
when it is flushed. (And as a bonus macerates it.) There is no reason why it 
would have a problem pushing it through a pipe along the baseboard and into 
a tank on the same level. The hand pump on my boat's head pushed waste over 
20 feet to the holding tank effortlessly. I know that there are weight 
distribution issues, but on the plus side the tanks can be situated over the 
axles beneath cabinets. With the present flurry of questions about 
retrofitting black water tanks, I thought I'd share my observations.

Brian Jenkins