The last post documented the original toilet in the old SportCam project. That post also described extra gate valves under the kitchen sink. Those valves allowed the sink drain to bypass the holding tank when desired. Instead of storing dirty water onboard, the drain path could be diverted directly outside so dish water could be collected in a bucket. That gray water could then be used to fill the toilet reservoir, instead of flushing with the limited drinking water. That was the concept.
This post documents that creative plumbing in more detail, including some pix. I'm not advocating the drain bypass solution as better than conventional RV plumbing. Rather my goal is to show and explain how (to my best understanding) it worked. Whatever it was, I'm just sharing.
Although rare other SportCams were built. The company was in business less than one decade, and has since been out of business more than two. Who knows how many of these campers could be in circulation. Someday, somebody might find this information helpful. Call it a deposit in the First Universal Bank of Karma.
On with the pix. There's a cabinet door to access the space under the kitchen sink. Through that opening one can access the drain trap and the gate valves.
There's already a lot missing at this point in the project. Everything was removed during the initial gutting to tear out moldy wall covering and insulation materials. There was a jumbled mess of hot and cold water lines missing from that pic because everything was removed for gutting. However, along with the drain pipes the grungy old fill and vent tubes for the fresh water tank were put back in place for these pix. With some imagination the missing hot and cold water lines can be visualized, hopefully. Here's a different angle, looking down through the sink opening in the counter.
The larger white with green striped tube on the left is the tank fill. The smaller, grungy hose following aside was its vent. Next along the back/outside wall to the right of the fill port was the shore water inlet. That split off to cold lines feeding the kitchen and the rest of the camper. Coming from the water heater in the rear was the hot water line.
Further right along the back wall is a white plastic box with foil tape over some holes. That was an outside shower. The hot and cold lines were split with T joints to feed water to both the sink and shower faucet valves. There was also a pull-out hose for the outside showerhead that stuffed through an opening in the box, piling up in the space under the sink. Keeping it from snagging on all the other plumbing was a hassle. Moreover, it didn't seal up very tight. So it was drafty at best. At worst, blowing rain got through (yet another leak point!). That's not all. Ants were found traveling that thoroughfare. Suffice it to say the outside shower feature was removed. Permanently.
Added to the plethora of pipes were a bunch of right engle elbows. It was a snakes nest of plumbing under there. Everything was routed around everything else with dozens of joints. The space under the sink was such a mess of lines, so entangled around each other, that there was hardly any room left for storage. In such a small camper it's a shame to waste potential storage space. Sigh.
The drop tubes from the sink basins merged into a serviceable trap on the right side (aft). Then the drain path ran forward (left). That's where a T split peeled off and dropped down through the shell to the outside. Daylight shows around its edges in that pic but it was at least caulked before removal. Of the two gate valves, one controlled the outside drain. The other gate valve controlled flow back to the holding tank.
Before winding its way back to the tank, however, there was one more stop on the drain train. Another T joint led to a breather. Inside that's a spring check valve. That balances pressure under drain suction to help gravity flow. The check valve also prevents tank gases from returning to stink up the cabin. After all, the sink drained into an 18 gallon black tank. Pee ew! There was also an 8 gallon gray tank but that was only for shower water.
Since it's still in progress, my reworked plumbing will await a future post. Meanwhile, the current build focus has been split. Juggling back and forth between plumbing and electrical infrastructure. As routing pipes and wires both interact with each other. Moreover, priorities got disrupted by additional leaks that popped up with more recent rains. Since the rain was needed, no complaints. I mean, free car wash and leak testing courtesy of Mother Nature, right? It's all good.
