Drain Tube and Toliet Flange are lifted

[Wavery]

"Get a bigger hammer"......... the fix to everything...right?

Well, in this case, you may have to do just that. Maybe, put a block of wood on top and try to tap it down. Just be sure that there isn't some sort of retaining strap under any of that plumbing. On our TM, that pipe that goes through the floor just pushes through the hole in the aluminum (and styrofoam) and is glued into the elbow, under the trailer. The rest of the plumbing under the trailer just hangs from that pipe.

I've had mine out as I built my own fiberglass holding tank on the floor inside the bathroom, under an RV toilet. I had difficulty trying to figure out how to seal that tapered flange, that fits inside the mounting ring and still have it flush to the floor. I decided to remove the mounting ring and just run the fiberglass down the pipe and make it an integral part of the tank bottom.

Anyway...... having worked with that pipe (A LOT), I can assure you that it is simply stuck in the hole, unless the factory sprayed some of that expanding foam in the hole or something.

Just a thought...... before you try to force the pipe down, you may want to cut the pipe in half, that is going back to the grey water tank. After fitting your toilet back in, you can put a rubber coupler with hose clamps to put that pipe back together. A lot of us do that to prevent destroying the grey water tank in the event of a tire blow out. If that happens, the coupler will come apart before the force destroys the tank. That's the theory anyway..

[Stephene1219]

Your photo still has the flange attached. Mine does not. One difference I think I see is that your flange is screwed to the actual drain pipe lip. AT least it looks that way. In my photo you can see the screws hole for the flange are all outside of the drainpipe by about 1/4".

I just got back from a beach walk and I was thinking the lack of spacer on the side closet to the tube would put pressure on the right side and maybe over time it just forced the right back side up. It just seems that some form of QA would have caught that there was a spacer missing.

I have a 2922KS 2020

After 4 months on the road, it needed a good cleaning, and I finished that today. I have moved it into the storage building which allows me to have it fully open. It has a nice concrete floor, so over the next couple of days I will really try to figure this out.

Maybe since it the Tedford is already out; it would be a good time to just change it out.

Thanks for all the input

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Stephene1219

Your photo still has the flange attached. Mine does not. One difference I think I see is that your flange is screwed to the actual drain pipe lip. AT least it looks that way.

Actually, the drain pipe just sits on top of the flange. It isn't attached in any way. The weight of the toilet bolted to the flange (rubber seal between) is the only thing holding the pipe firmly in place. When the toilet is removed, that pipe just floats freely in the hole in the flange.

[Kidkraz]

I agree with Bill. It looks as thought the drain line was to long and they used the screws to hold it flat to the floor and those screws have pushed out or backed off enough where one broke.
When I removed my Thetford, the flange sat flush to the floor.
Since the toilet is removed, it would be a good time to replace it with something different. I went with the cassette, Wavery went another route. Whatever you do, try to seal or cover the holes in the floor, so if there were a leak water doesn't get into the floor and cause headaches for ya.

[Bill]

Perhaps we can get some info from this YouTube video from Mark Polk, a respected RV DIYer.

At about 2:05 in the video, we get a close look into the sewer's floor fitting. The first thing Inotice is that the term "floor flange" applies to the entire fitting. The rim of the fitting sits tight and flat on the floor, held down by several ("at least 4") big screws. The central portion of the fitting drops down through the floor. The whole entire fitting is the "flange".

If you look down into the central part of the floor flange, you can see the top edge of the sewer pipe, recessed way down in the floor fixture. Just above this, you can see the beveled area where the foam donut makes a seal. The donut is pushed onto the toilet outlet (at 2:20), and as the toilet is dropped into place, the donut fits into that beveled area, sealing the joint between the outlet of the toilet and the top of the sewer pipe. The fit is loose at first, and as the toilet is bolted down, the donut is somewhat compressed. But not compressed so much that the bottom of the toilet outlet is pressed against the top of the sewer pipe. This may be the problem that Stephene is seeing.

A little later on at 3:00, we get his instruction about how close to the floor the toilet should rest as the mounting bolts are tightened and the donut is compressed into place. Flat and solid. No gaps.

If everything is done right, the toilet sits solid and square on the floor, with no rocking. And it all happens without shims.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Dd1X7idss

Bill

[Stephene1219]

After spending a lot of time under the TM today, I can say that the drainpipe is just too long. If I really pull down with a lot of force I can get the flange down to the floor. So, my guess is they pushed down with a lot of force and then screwed it to the floor.

Bill I also read your post on removing the toilet and in my case there definitely were no sliding wedges. The brass nuts were just tightened down on the flange.

I am somewhat taken aback about the lack of outrage about TM's lack of QA and accountability. It just seems that everyone just accepts the poor workmanship. Do not get me wrong, I love the TM. Just so much room and easy to tow. On my trip, towing with a Ford Ranger averaged 15.1 MPG. For me the true quality of a product is not what you can see but everything underneath that makes it work. It just seems the attention to detail is lacking at TM.

I will be replacing the toilet and am trying to decide on which way to go. I looked in the forum and there are no current discussion on replacement, for a newer 2020 TM that I can find.

As an aside I do not do any social media so If have no FB access.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Stephene1219

After spending a lot of time under the TM today, I can say that the drainpipe is just too long.

This is exactly why I said, "cut the pipe in half, that is going back to the grey water tank. After fitting your toilet back in, you can put a rubber coupler with hose clamps to put that pipe back together." Actually, install the coupling before bolting everything down so that you can slip it easily over both pipe halves. Tighten the clamps after the toilet is bolted down.

That way you don't have to cut the drain pipe under the toilet. Cutting the grey water discharge pipe will allow you to just screw the toilet flange back down to the floor (where it belongs).

The toilet drain pipe (which is flared at the top) will then be free to fall into place in the flange, so that the toilet can be installed properly. Once the toilet is bolted to the floor, there will be no stress on the plumbing below the camper. Now you can deal with putting a rubber plumbers joint coupler in the grey water tank pipe and it will be all back together with no stress.

The grey water discharge pipe is what is causing the problem in the first place. The toilet drain pipe isn't too long, the grey water discharge pipe was glued into the fitting in the tank twisted wrong. That caused upward pressure on all of the rest of the plumbing.

*** FOLLOW_UP NOTE*******
You will have to reinstall your broken floor flange (just use bigger screws). Once the grey water tank pipe is cut, the toilet drain pipe (which is flared at the top) will simply slide back down into the floor flange seat and stop (the pipe won't go past the flange because of the flared end of the pipe). If you buy a new flange, you will still have to cut it, open it up around the drain pipe and screw it down to the floor. Either that, or you will have to cut the drain pipe, screw down the flange, lower the top end of the cut pipe down through the flange and recouple the 2 halves of the cut and shortened pipe. Even after all that, you will still have to cut the grey water drain pipe to get the flange to seat squarely in the flange. Trust me..... that would be 10x as much work then just cutting the grey water drain pipe and letting the toilet drain pipe fall squarely into place in the flange..

[Kidkraz]

There may not be a current discussion, but there are lots of posts on folks replacing their toilets. It doesn't matter on what year your TM was manufactured, the lower box setup is pretty standard other than the 2518. If you look under my profile in my albums, you'll see pics of what I did to replace my original toilet with the cassette toilet. Wavery did his own thing, designing and making his own toilet.

https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...earchid=301689

[Stephene1219]

In speaking with TM yesterday they told me that have been using the SeaLand Toilet but that it is discontinued and they are looking for another option. I conformed today that it is discontinued and there is no longer any stock. The replacement is the M65-500 but it is much lager, 19" wide, and a lot more money, around $800. TM also said a lot of people do not like the cassette, so they are not looking at using it as a replacement.

So, at this point I guess, I just re-install the Tedford. Unless someone has another option that is not cassette.

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Stephene1219

In speaking with TM yesterday they told me that have been using the SeaLand Toilet but that it is discontinued and they are looking for another option. I conformed today that it is discontinued and there is no longer any stock. The replacement is the M65-500 but it is much lager, 19" wide, and a lot more money, around $800. TM also said a lot of people do not like the cassette, so they are not looking at using it as a replacement.

So, at this point I guess, I just re-install the Tedford. Unless someone has another option that is not cassette.

How are you with working with fiberglass?

I built my own F/G tank and mounted a regular RV toilet on it. It's not an EZ job in those cramped quarters but @ 75-years-old, I managed it and it works great.

The 19.5"x19.5"x 9" deep tank is framed in 1/4" plywood on the sides and 1/2" plywood on the top. The inside is 4 layers of cloth, woven roving and matt F/G. It's extremely strong and holds 13.5G. If you are an experienced F/G guy, I can give you the details. If not........ well, it's a big job with a much bigger instructions.