Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I am trying my best to not put any holes in the roof of my trailer. I would like to keep it intact. Is there anything wrong with putting the vent on the side of the trailer instead of the top. My trailer is over 10 feet tall. If I put it as high as it will go and on the left side of the trailer, the dump valve side, do you think this will be ok?I think this will be high enough so you don't smell it? Let me know your thoughts


thanks

Chris

Our gray is through the side and fairly low down and we have not smelled it yet. So can you, yes.

Great, thank you for the reply. That is what I will do

It is a good question but one I am wondering for the black water vent. I am dealing with my bathroom and it has a vent stack planned. I had it going through the roof but I too would rather not have it break the roof membrane.

Through the side in hot humid conditions, you may smell it, but there is no reason it wont work.
With it on the roof, in them hot humid days when the air is not moving, the roof helps disperse the bad air.
Properly covered with an rv plumbing stack vent and properly caulked, it should never give you any problems.

This is a good question. Thank you for posting it.

I may be building some type of tilting and/or lifting roof on my next build and was wrestling with the same issue, especially on the black water tank vent. One solution I have thought about was to vent through the side and add a riser stackon the exterior once I get to the campground.

if vented through the side the black water i would keep a riser with
nothing worse on a stagnate day then not venting the gasses high enough

besides the stench sewer gases are flammable and could go in a window on the side of the camper if vented too low

If you can add a vent out the side when you are building, it would be a good idea. There are some drains that have a built-in vent but the new ones don't work all that great. You could use a PVC elbow and PVC pipe and it wouldn't have to stick out very far. I would suggest threading water tubing inside a single piece of PVC pipe in your wall and only put your connections at the top and bottom of your wall, to direct the remainder of the vent to where it is needed. By doing that, the pipe protects the hose and, if you have a leak or water backs up in the hose vent, the PVC pipe will protect your wall. Extend the hose slightly out the side and make any needed connections there. I would, however, recommend some sort of screen or vent cover over the top of the hole, to keep things out of your tank while still allowing it to breathe. Gray water is not so bad but for black water, I would definitely put the vent as high as you can!

My original $13 gray water drain had a built-in vent at the elbow/P-trap and worked fairly well but the new one that I had to buy doesn't work well at all. I didn't want any new holes in the side of my already-built trailer; so, I built a removable vent. It's less than a foot long and works perfectly so far. It uses 1/2" PVC pipe, a few pieces of a hose, a couple hose fittings, and dishwasher hose debris catch. The hose is glued into the PVC parts with PVC glue and the hose fittings are clamped on. It just screws in place. Since the pipe is only 1/2" wide, even if it rains, I won't get much rain inside the PVC tube. I chose to use a simple black oil canister for a gray water tank, which I plan to dump before bed each night. That keeps everything simple and will help keep critters out of it, while keeping the possibility of leakage to a minimum. I had a nice set-up with a folding clear tank; however, the color of the camp water shows through that. At the last IRG, someone saw the clear tank and asked me if that was "potty water". (IRG's water was a muddy brown color.)

This is probably more than you want to know, and your build will probably be much more sophisticated; but, it gives you some additional ideas to work with while looking for the right solution for your trailer.

Sorry that I don't have a better picture; but, this gives you the basic idea of what I've done:

Hi:

This is what I did last spring, (the white pipe) works fine, never smell anything, it's 1 inch PVC straight down to the black water tank (plus the elbow of course), and has enough draw so we don't smell anything in the toilet either. I am going to fix a screen over it to keep the wasps from building a nest in the end. Never have found a need to add an extension.

Hope that helps.