Bounder Folks

The toilet in my 1992 Bounder 31K encountered a couple of issues over the last two years. The first issue popped up May of 2017 years ago when the water valve started leaking. Ordered a new valve online for about $20, removed the toilet (really easy to do once you know the secret handshake, so to speak), and installed it.

Whoops, forget to order the neoprene gasket to remount the toilet. Ordered the gasket for another $10 (including shipping). I could have ordered a water valve with the gasket for $22.

Fast forward 6 months later. The water in the bowl started leaking past the flush “swiper” blade. I squirted some silicone spray on it and seemed to have fixed the problem for about 6 more months but started leaking past the swiper blade again. I was going to buy the rebuild kit for the flush valve for $30, which seemed like a much better deal than buying a whole new mechanism for $101. However after reading the reviews on the rebuild kit, there were a lot of comments that the kit did not fix the leak. The issue was the state of the swiper blade itself. They tend to build up mineral deposits and scratches over the years. I decided to spend the extra $70 to get a whole new mechanism, which also was going to save me at least 2 additional hours of installation work versus the rebuild kit.

That was one of my better decisions in life . After installing the new mechanism, which was absolutely effortless (well, maybe small amount of effort), I inspected the old mechanism. I don’t think the old one would have held water with just a seal kit, based on the condition of the swiper blade.
The key takeaway from this is that if you’ve got a 20+ year old Thetford RV toilet with even just a leaky water valve, you’re probably best off replacing the whole mechanism. If one seal is failing, the others are probably going to start failing in the near future as well.

Our toilet didn't last quite that long but had similar issues with the seal leaking. Then last season the return spring broke which meant the valve stayed open unless manually closed by lifting up the pedal. A whole new spring and valve assembly was stupidly expensive for what they are so I started hunting around for a replacement toilet.

Easy - just wait for a sale then go pick one up. Well, no. Our 35E requires a short toilet, not the tall one that everyone seems to sell. My 5' 1" better half insists that her feet must touch the floor while seated. And she wants the spray attachment. And a china bowl. I have been shopping for a while now that winter is here. The usual price is about C$450 (US$350) or so to my door.

This weekend is our local annual RV show and one of the bigger local dealers (Woody's RV) always has a few really good deals. They had a stack of toilets on display but alas, no short models with sprayer. I spoke to a sales person and they don't have what I want in any of their 4 stores but she would order one at the RV show pricing - C$280. I happily gave her my credit card.

One more thing off the list!