Back me up boys, I'm going in.....

[RicM]

As we have started to cruise more on our 28 TE, Time after Time, and are contemplating the addition of a dingy to make anchoring out more possible, the single biggest irritant has become the holding tank capacity (or lack of same). As those who attended last years NE Rendezvous know well, my attempts to limit the input have not been successful. My only answer is to increase capacity. TaT came equipped with the VHT Vacuflush head, with a 6.5 Gal capacity. As Miss K drinks about 3 Gallons a day of bottled water, that leaves us about 1 day short on a weekend excursion.
A new Vacu Flush model 10 HTS-VG fits in the same aprox footprint, has their new "whisper quiet" vacuum pump, and has a 10 Gal holding capacity. My existing unit needs service, so I have decided "why put a couple hundred in an old something when you can put a couple thou in something new?"
As I have done pretty well with boat plumbing in the past, I have decided to attempt the transplant myself. Join me while I (and probably ol' Sawzall Dave) plunge into that noman's land of stink & grime, and follow us on our latest adventure "New Head Fever".
Starting tomorrow at dawn I will be pumping the (once) pink juice from the old system into a trash can and start stripping out the old sanitation hose. Pictures and text to follow! Can scratch and sniff be far behind?

[DougSea]

Awesome Ric! I'll be following these adventures, eagerly awaiting each new chapter. And if it works, and I'm sure it will, full bladders across the 28 universe will cry out in thanks to you!

[Cape Codder]

Godspeed!.....................

[DougSea]

I just got an image of the swiming pool cleanup scene from Caddyshack in my head...

"No big deal..."

[jcollins]

Let me grab a beer and popcorn. This is one thread I don't want to miss.

[Legacy]

Gloves, safety glasses, vent the cabin, if you can do some of it by feel cover your "new head fever" with a heavy duty contractor bag and it's all sealed up. Fun!

[RicM]

Ha! Skeptics and humorists abound I see. You will be disappointed to know that the first and potentially most disgusting aspect of the job "went rather smoothly" (no pun intended (right!)). Saturday was the perfect day, slightly below freezing (solids always easier to chase down than liquids) but sunny and therefore warming the area under the shrink wrap by mid morning. I started by using the the overboard discharge to empty the system of pink into a 5 gallon bucket placed carefully under the exit hole (AKA boat anus). She produced about 2 gal of only slightly off color pink anti-freeze. So far so good. Dressed in unpermeable latex and looking reminiscent of a Japanese utility worker, I started hacking away at the flexible hosing. Suprisingly little effluent and odor was found within, god bless the vacu-flush system! There was nothing in the hoses except a dingy stain, no promised incrustation of crud and dank liquids. An hour later I pulled the old VHT (actually a precursor to the VacuFlush branded product) out through the battery hatch. The new vacu-flush unit looks like this and is 4 inches longer than the old one:

10HTS.jpg

Here's the old VHT after coming up from the battery/bilge area:

VHT.jpg

Today I'm going back to clean up and dispose of the old plumbing. The unexpected part of the job is that the painted plywood shelf that all the equipment sits on has checked rather badly under the old unit.

Shelf.jpg

I'm going to have to sand it down, and coat with a soaking of West System in order to keep that wood under there sound for the next owner of TaT whoever and whenever that may be.
BTW, don't be intimidated by the task of putting a new seal in your bowl, 1 hose clamp takes it apart and you just swap the black rubber gasket seen on the bottom of the bowl unit (left). 5 minute job, max. I'd been putting it off for two years!

Valve.jpg

Ordering the new gear ($1700 worth) tomorrow. That will give me a new, quieter unit with 40% more capacity, all new plumbing, and a rebuilt toilet, seal & ball, and most important of all it the new unit comes with a "Tank Watch" system, so we can monitor the levels within. Heaven in the small room! I'll keep you all posted!

[DougSea]

...Ordering the new gear ($1700 worth) tomorrow. That will give me a new, quieter unit with 40% more capacity, all new plumbing, and a rebuilt toilet, seal & ball. I'll keep you all posted!

Ric - Did you know Defender's Warehouse sale starts Thursday? Might shave some of that $1,700 down, enough to buy some fuel at least!

(I'll be laughing all day while the words "boat anus" play over and over in my warped little mind...people always talk about toilet humor, and here we have the real thing!!)

[RicM]

Actually I checked Defender, but they don't list the Vacu-flush 10 HTS-VG or any of the self contained units. This place in NY has excellent prices from what I could see and were very helpful on the phone.....
http://www.sealandsanitation.com/

Don't worry, I am well aware of the upcoming Defender sale. I have a 7'7 dingy and a 3.5 HP Tohatsu motor all picked out and I'm ready to pull the trigger on 3/31! I'm going cruising this summer Baby!

[DougSea]

Thanks for the link Ric, now that we have a Vacu-flush I need to get up to speed on the care and maintenance of this wonder of modern engineering.

Did you know it moves "stuff" through the system at 2 meters per second?!? Impressive!

[RicM]

2 meters/sec? What's that in English turds?

[RobS]

..That will give me a new, quieter unit with 40% more capacity, all new plumbing, and a rebuilt toilet, seal & ball, and most important of all it the new unit comes with a "Tank Watch" system, so we can monitor the levels within. Heaven in the small room! I'll keep you all posted!

Cool, I know where I'll be peeing & poopin' at the next Rendezvous, sure beats walking all the way up to the restroom!

Did you know it moves "stuff" through the system at 2 meters per second?!? Impressive!

He may need a permit for that thing..

[jleonard]

2 meters/second = 3.9 knots

Didn't know that a Baby Ruth could travel that fast.

[RicM]

2 meters/second = 3.9 knots

So does that mean if TaT is going forward at 3.9 kts that the turd is actually standing still?

[jleonard]

So does that mean if TaT is going forward at 3.9 kts that the turd is actually standing still?