Waste/grey water pipe

[Derek Uzzell]

Looks good

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Female-hosetail-connector-1-5in-thread/dp/B007Q1PZBU

[Dibsy]

Derek Uzzell - 2015-11-24 9:54 AM

 

Looks good

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Female-hosetail-connector-1-5in-thread/dp/B007Q1PZBU

 

Hmm, maybe it is. I need to go and have another look. Unfortunately I keep having to go to work which is disrupting my motorhome time!

 

Thanks!

[Dibsy]

I thought I would post an update to this.

 

We have finally managed to empty out grey water. The pipe did slide down after managing to turn the knob using WD40, pliers and brute force; I think it was just stuck due to lack of use.

 

We bought the pipe suggested from CAK Tanks/leisure lines. Unfortunately the diameter of the pipe is exactly the same as the diameter of the outlet on the motorhome but we were able to hold it in place.

 

Thanks again for all the help.

 

I've added a picture of the waste water pipe in it's down position so you can all see what I am going on about!

[Billggski]

If the two are the same diameter a short bit of pipe from a garden centre will join the two, either internally or externally.

[Dibsy]

Billggski - 2015-12-07 11:12 AM

 

If the two are the same diameter a short bit of pipe from a garden centre will join the two, either internally or externally.

 

Yes, thank you. It's on my (long) list of things to do. No plans to go away again now until early January so I've got a bit of time to sort it.

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

As I said earlier my Rapido motorhome has a similar waste-water drain-tap to yours of the type shown in the attached photo.

 

I’ve taken off the right-angled spout from my tap and measured the (removable) plastic nut that screws to the tap’s main body. The nut has a female thread of 40mm inside-diameter. The other end of the spout, which is clearly ridged for a hose connection, has an external diameter of 30mm and is actually marked “30”.

 

I’m fairly sure the nut+spout used with my tap would fit yours, but the snag is that the spout+nut part appears not to be sold separately. Plenty of French leisure-vehicle accessory suppliers advertise this type of tap able to accept a 30mm interior diameter hose, but none advertise just the nut+hose-connector.

 

I’m certain you could do as Billggski suggests, but if you want a screw-on connector you might try contacting Pilote dealers (try Hayes Leisure to begin with) just in case they have a suitable tap or hose-connector kicking around.

[Dibsy]

Thanks for your suggestion; I'll look into it...

[Alanb]

My apologies if I have missed something above, but it seems to me that the outlet pipe stub end is part of the waste water drain valve.

 

If this is the case then it is reasonable to assume that the thread will be a British Standard Pipe (BSP) size.( BSP thread sizes have been adopted by the ISO for international use.)

 

A, 1 1/4" BSP thread has an outside diamter of about 41.9mm which approximates to the stated measurement. What is required to fix a pipe is as suggested above would be a hose tail 1 1/4" BSP female.

 

My PVC has a right angle tail pointing downwards. I have never needed an extension pipe.

 

It may be of general interest to note that BSP thread external diameters are generally about 1/4" larger than the nominal size. Hence for example a 3/4" BSP thread as on a garden tap has an OD of about 1".

 

I believe that this stems from a historic practice of sizing pipes by bore and allowing for a nominal 1/8" wall thickness.

[Derek Uzzell]

Alan

 

I’m pretty sure you are right and I was going to suggest early on that an aquatic centre might well have a suitable connector. For example

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-25-threaded-female-Hosetail-Pond-Hose-Fitting-/360324788925

 

The snag is that the only way to be certain a connector would properly fit the male-threaded end of Dibsy’s Pilote’s waste-water tap would be to try it. This would mean either buying a connector speculatively in the hope it would be OK, or taking the tap off (which shouldn’t be too difficult) and taking it to possible suppliers of connectors, or taking the motorhome with the tap left in place to possible suppliers (which would be much trickier). If a Pilote dealer stocks a waste-water tap screw-on hose connector, there’s a good chance it would fit Dibsy’s tap and - as time is not the essence - this is why I suggested that initial approach.

 

Although it’s easy to see the attraction of an extension hose as it means the motohome can be positioned less precisely at the drain-point, like you I’ve not found a need for one with my Rapido’s drain-tap that also has a right-angled hosetail.

 

Based on the photo in Dibsy’s original posting, the Rapido’s tap seems to differ from Dibsy’s regarding the distance from the outer end of the threaded outlet to the tap’s internal ‘valve’. In the Rapido’s case the distance is quite short, making inserting a pipe inside the outlet a non-starter, though it looks like this might be practicable with the Pilote’s tap. The Rapido tap’s male-threaded ’stub’ is also short, and looks similarly short for the Pilote, which would complicate fitting a connector to it unless the correctly-threaded type were used.

 

 

[747]

Early in the thread I suggested it sounded like a standard BSP 11/4" fitting.

 

It would cost a few pence to verify by buying a fitting and trying it. It would cost me nothing because I have a box of assorted fittings in a box somewhere ....... doesn't everyone? ;-)

[Derek Uzzell]

I have a box of ‘bits’ that includes a tap similar in design to that used on Dibsy’s Pilote and my Rapido. The tap was given to me by CAK when I visited their premises years ago and I had hoped that its right-angled hosetail would have fitted my Rapido’s waste-water tap’s outlet and, if that had been the case, I could have passed the hosetail on to Dibsy. Sadly the ‘nut’ of the ex-CAK tap’s hosetail is female-threaded for a 1” BSP male fiiting.

 

Even if it can be verified that Dibsy’s tap’s outlet-threading is 1.25” BSP by, say, experimenting with an appropriate plumbing fitting

 

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/plastic-nut-container-11-4-inch_60146510157.html

 

that still won’t prove that hosetails like the one I provided a link to in my last posting will connect satifactorily to the tap’s outlet. The thread-size might be correct, but the right-angled hosetail of my Rapido’s tap is ‘stepped’ at its inner end so that part of the hosetail fits inside the tap’s outlet. It would be best if Dibsy can source an exactly-matching hosetail, but if that proves difficult it should certainly be possible to work around the problem using standardised water fittings as you suggested earlier.

[Derek Uzzell]

A brief follow-up...

 

I thought I might be able to verify whether the thread of my Rapido’s waste-water drain-tap’s outlet is 1.25” BSP but - despite having a fair selection of plumbing bits-and-bobs - I couldn’t find anything that the hosetail would screw on to, nor anything that would screw on to the tap’s outlet. Everything I had was either too small or too large and, although I think the outlet probably is 1.25” BSP, I just can’t swear to it.

 

I suspect my ex-CAK tap may be a Reimo product and, having inspected it more closely, I noticed that, although the threaded male inlet and threaded male outlet had similar diameters, the threads were not the same. Besides being ‘stepped’ the inner (male) end of the tap’s hosetail is also slightly tapered and matches a (female) reverse taper in the tap’s outlet so that, when the hosetail’s threaded nut is tightened up, a watertight seal is produced. Exactly the same type of tapering joint is used with the Rapido’s tap and hosetail.

[audiseller]

Dibsy - 2015-12-07 9:12 AM

 

I thought I would post an update to this.

 

We have finally managed to empty out grey water. The pipe did slide down after managing to turn the knob using WD40, pliers and brute force; I think it was just stuck due to lack of use.

 

We bought the pipe suggested from CAK Tanks/leisure lines. Unfortunately the diameter of the pipe is exactly the same as the diameter of the outlet on the motorhome but we were able to hold it in place.

 

Thanks again for all the help.

 

I've added a picture of the waste water pipe in it's down position so you can all see what I am going on about!

 

Glad you finally got it sorted. I was amazed at the number of respondents who said it was no problem and to just drive over the waste point. So many pitches now have grey water drains why would they not want to use them? Not everyone wants to move their m/h every couple of days or so just to drain the waste tank.

[Derek Uzzell]

audiseller

 

Dibsy had two difficulties. The first was the inability to lower the drain-tap to its emptying position as the knob that was holding the tap in its raised position was stiff to rotate. The outlet in Dibsy’s Pilote’s waste-water tank is relatively low to the ground and a flexible hose leads from that outlet to the drain-tap. When the motorhome is being driven the tap needs to be its raised position to leave adequate ground-clearance beneath the tap. But when the tap is in the raised position the flexible hose from the tank’s outlet leads upwards to the tap and, consequently, the tank will not fully drain. As will be apparent from the photo in Dibsy’s 2015-12-07 9:12 AM posting, the drain-tap is attached to a slotted metal 'slider' and unscrewing the knob allows the tap to be lowered well down, resulting in a ‘fall’ from the waste-tank’s outlet to the tap and allowing the tank to drain properly. This problem was resolved once Dibsy had successfully addressed the knob’s stiffness.

 

It’s possible that Dibsy has now solved the second problem of attaching an extension hose firmly to the drain tap, but there’s nothing in this thread to suggest that’s the case.

 

When I referred to my Rapido’s waste-water tank draining methodology, I said

 

"It’s commonplace when this type of ball-valve drain-tap is side-mounted on a motorhome to have a ’spout’ on the outer end of the tap.....This is the arrangement on my Rapido and, although a hose could be connected to the tap’s spout, it’s usually possible to position the vehicle accurately enough at the service-point for the waste-water to pour directly from the spout into the drain. (I’ve yet to see anyone with a motorhome with a ‘spout type’ waste-water tap fit a hose to the tap when emptying.)”

 

This statement was factual but, as I don’t motorcaravan in the UK and have never stayed on a campsite that had fully-serviced ’super-pitches', it did not occur to me that Dibsy might be considering an extension-hose essential in order to connect the Pilote’s waste-water tank to a drain-point throughout the full duration of a campsite stay.

 

I suspect that other respondents, who observed that it was usually straightforward to position a motorhome over a drain-point without recourse to an extension-hose, were also thinking about ‘one shot’ tank emptying and overlooking continuous connection to a campsite super-pitch’s dedicated water-drain. If the latter is what Dibsy plans to do, then plainly an extension-hose that attaches securely to the Pilote’s drain-tap will be necessary: if not, then an extension-hose will be useful but may only be required infrequently.

[Dibsy]

Thank you very much everyone for all your replies. I'll have to have a good look through all the suggestions.

 

We have managed to empty the tank.

 

We generally won't be staying at places where we have constant draining (the last place we stayed at didn't have anywhere for motorhomes to empty grey water - we had to persuade a man to take the lid off a manhole but other people seemed to be emptying theirs onto the pitch!).

 

Anyway.

 

Thanks again

 

Dibsy