Re: The incredible exploding toilet.....
OK, I have something of value to contribute to this thread. I uh, heard this story, uh, from someone about his girl friend's first time use of a toilet in a camper van, kinda like mine... The names are omitted to protect the unfortunate.
"So, my now wife and I were getting pretty comfortable with each other after dating for quite some time and being out doorsy types with camping, kayaking and all, and we were heading up to the ski resort for some premarital skiing bliss when she really needed to use the toilet, which in my case is a Thetford electric push-button flush portable cassette toilet (highly recommended, btw).
I hadn't converted the van to 4x4 yet and was on the stretch of iced over uphill roadway on which we needed maintain speed or risk having the light rear end of the van lose traction (even with studs), pushing the van sideways and requiring me to either back down to a turn-out (with traffic behind me) or putting chains on in lane in the roadway.
Everything was going well, I was making it up the grade without riding the a$$ of the vehicle in front of me, when there was a loud explosion from the back of the van and a scream.
I had to keep focused on our forward progress, but when I pulled over I cleaned (stuff) off the ceiling and off my now wife's back and elsewhere.
It seems that she had failed to open the slider (bayonette) door on the toilet before doing her business - thereby loading the top of the door with projectile, causing the now highly pressurized (due to a significant change in altitude from sea level to in excess of 7,000 feet) sealed toilet holding tank* to explode up and outward when opened while still sitting."
My, uh friend, told me that the two morals of the story are:
"1. If you find a woman who will stay with you in your van after an experience like that - Marry Her!
2. Buy 4x4.
3. And a bonus moral: teach your girlfriend/wife/significant other how to use the toilet before she uses it."
The odor is long gone, but there is a little darker color on an area of the headliner which only my wife and I notice...
* I have been really impressed with the seals on the cassette holding tank. Never hint of odor escapes the holding cassette on the Thetford. Hence the extreme build up of pressure.
__________________
2002 E350 ext.; 160K; 7.3L; 4R100 (w/4x4 deep pan & filter); 4x4 conv. w/2007 F250/F350 coil frnt axle (oppos. dual Bilstein press. shocks cured DW) diff chg from 3.55 to 3.73 (bad!); BW1356 t.c. (bad!); LT265/70R17/E Michelin LTX M/S2; Engel MT60 Combi Fridge-Freezer; 4 BP 380J pv panels; Auragen 5kw AC gen. in top alt. position; Webasto Dual-Top; Voyager top. 1995 5.8L EB Bronco, bone stock.
|