Drain Size

Hi Ron and Rosa I picked my new van up in July. My van has the same equipment as you have mentioned. There is five outlets and all hoses were supplied by Bushtracker on delivery.

Regards Michael

Thanks Michael that will be a help

Ron

Ron,

Not sure what type and location of washing machine you have, but check how many outlets you will have in that area, as mine has one outlet for the water discharging from the washing machine itself and another that is from an outlet in the bottom of the sealed compartment in which the washing machine sits. That sealed compartment is somewhat like the shower finish and is meant to catch any leaks from and around the machine (which hasn't leaked yet). It's a nice piece of design, I reckon.

Hope this helps.

Regards Geoff

Hi Geoff

Rosa wanted the front loader which is being installed in a cuboard along side of the fridge

Ron

Hi Ron & Rosa,

On an older van, we have three outlets connected together (sink, shower, and washing machine) with one drain hose.
Have found it necessary to fit a non-return valve (Whitworths at around $20.00).
When the drain hose is pointing slightly uphill, sometimes the water from the sink can come up through the shower outlet on the floor into the shower base.

Hope this helps.

Neil

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This is also an older van. The van came with the outlet in the middle of the horizontal pipe and when a full sink of water was released, the water came up in the shower. I shifted the outlet so that the discharge from the sink (at right) continued in a vertical drop, rather than around a bend and along to a tee. Have not had water come up in shower since (10 years). The white PVC Pipe is for a short (1m) sullage hose for when you just want to drop the drainage on the ground without creating a waterfall. The other picture is of the 6m long sullage hose storage, again a 40mm pvc pipe, 6m long going right through to the A frame. There is a cap glued to the other end and at the back is a screw cap with a chain attached (so the lid doesn't get left behind!)

If you have multiple outlets, you could still link them so that you only require one sullage hose, but the sink outlet should be continuously vertical...direct to the sullage hose. The handbasin, shower and washing machine are all slow release (ie no "head") and should flow straight through junctions. The sink, however, has a 1 metre "head" and the water comes down the pipe under pressure created by the sink full of water, and gravity.

Hope this helps.........Rob

Hi All,
The current production design utilising 5 individual outlets draining into 2 separate hoses leaves a lot to be desired. Unless there is a continuos "fall" on the drain hoses waste water is slow to drain. You might also experience syphoning when your Lemair washing machine is filling with rinse water. Should this occur the telltale sign is the machine taking forever to complete its cycle.

Now, if you think a little about how the drainage in your house works you will notice the difference is that domestic drainage makes use of vent stacks to provide neutral pressure in the system. The lack of negative pressure allows gravity to provide its full affect in getting the waste water to escape. In our case there is no similar provision provided by Bushtracker.

Might I suggest that the provision of an appropriate opening to the atmosphere in the drain hose(s) as close as possible to the van's sullage outlets would aid tremendously in the elimination of drainage slowness. Maybe Bushtracker could incorporate some kind of drainage vent in the van as it is being built.

The logic behind my suggestion is that a hose full of water will drain much faster under the affect of gravity if both ends are open to the atmosphere.

Any thoughts?

Andy

Hi All,

There is a fix for the Lemair syphoning water.

Hi All,

There is a fix for the Lemair syphoning water. (Oops accidentally poked the wrong button for an incomplete post)
Had this problem on the way to Darwin last year. We had replaced our wash basin with a new drop-down system, the old basin used to drain through the Lemair outlet hose. My revised plumbing deleted a vent hose that allowed the basin to drain freely. Without this vent the Lemair became a great syphon.
The simple fix for the lemair is to purchase a 3/4" x 3/4" X 1/2" Tee. Cut the Lemair outlet hose near the top where it loops over, & insert the Tee. Connect a short length of 1/2" tube to the Tee and terminate it well above the top of the Lemair -- no more syphoning. Perhaps this idea would work by doing the same near the plug-hole if the sink. Might even try this too.

Neil

Hi all
I made these changes shown on the BT Forum
http://www.bushtrackerforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2530&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Works well.
Regards
Jeff