Bus # 9906

[cadillackid]

thats my thought sloshing water and the bowl is the trap.. there is no valve.. so if you slosh the water out of your bowl now you can be open air to the sewer line (black tank).. house toilets use a float valve of some type so even if you figured on draining the tank before driving.. and only use it while parked.. youd have to make sure its level so it didnt either overfill and send water constantly down the drain.. or underfill and not flush right...

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by magnakansas

I have a ball valve for my toilet, so pee is just pee in the toilet , finish, then open ball valve, then close ball valve. touch of rinse water, open ball valve, close ball valve. number 2 uses same procedure - just a bit more rinse water if needed. My black tank is right under the toilet for me... I put the toilet at the very left rear of the bus. black tank is outboard the frame rails..... I put the fuel tank inboard the frame rails.

william

I was trying to design a square bath, hallway on the side. Something similar to the mays team bus floor plan.

Since I have an re I got space between the chassis rails for a tank and not utilize the under storage boxes.

Kinda of the reason I was curious about a sloping drain pipe versus a straight dow drop into the tank.

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

thats my thought sloshing water and the bowl is the trap.. there is no valve.. so if you slosh the water out of your bowl now you can be open air to the sewer line (black tank).. house toilets use a float valve of some type so even if you figured on draining the tank before driving.. and only use it while parked.. youd have to make sure its level so it didnt either overfill and send water constantly down the drain.. or underfill and not flush right...

Yes; the trap sloshing I was worried about!
I wouldn’t worry so much about being level or the fill tank spilling over. My thoughts are the bus would have to be leaning hard. I just replaced a hose toilet for my daughter and noticed the water line was A3 inches from the top of the fill rank. And it is only a one gallon flush. Flushes real hard!

But you brought up a very valid point about the water in the trap. I didn’t even consider that so, thanks for the insight!

Do they make tall, chair height, elongated bowl Rv toilets or are they just about the same old ugly looking bowels with a pedal ?

[magnakansas]

The standard I was taught was 1/8" drop per foot ... you kind of "float" the stuff along the pipe. more of an angle and the water goes faster than the load. The problem we have is if the bus is not quite level..... I wonder if a clear plastic pipe of some sort could be used, just to you see any clogs.... and if you have a cleanout at the upper end to be able to address problems..

william

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by magnakansas

The standard I was taught was 1/8" drop per foot ... you kind of "float" the stuff along the pipe. more of an angle and the water goes faster than the load. The problem we have is if the bus is not quite level..... I wonder if a clear plastic pipe of some sort could be used, just to you see any clogs.... and if you have a cleanout at the upper end to be able to address problems..

william

Very interesting thought of a clear pipe. Don’t know of where I can get one, but I’d like the clean out option.

I was thinking of maybe tapping in a jet type fitting that could push a pulse of water or maybe having one anyway for when you dump?

[Mercuric Mind]

Originally Posted by ewo1

So that brings me to my initial questions, Has anyone done the toilet drain pipe on and angle or is it best to go straight down?

My advice / opinion is make it as straight as possible. If you do have to slope it do so no more than ~25 degrees off of vertical. With the varying consistencies of stool it can and will stick to the pipe and cause a stoppage.

If you must have the tank in a different location you could consider a macerator toilet, something like a Saniflo.
https://www.sanimarin.com/app/upload...eusacanada.pdf

You could then put the tank anywhere. However those things have their own issues, maintenance and power usage.

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by ewo1

I was trying to design a square bath, hallway on the side. Something similar to the mays team bus floor plan.

Since I have an re I got space between the chassis rails for a tank and not utilize the under storage boxes.

Kinda of the reason I was curious about a sloping drain pipe versus a straight dow drop into the tank.

-------------------

Thus layout is also for an RE with a single space bathroom. As with yours, the bath door is out of view from the rest of the space and a full size shower.



To gain standing room, the sink cove is pushed out of the footprint of the square yet is still accessable from bathroom.
Both shower & sink are more toward the 6'6" arch.
Grey tank between the frame rails, below.
Plumbing vent stack is centered between the roof slopes.
Electric panel in hall.
Plumbing access in hall.
No swinging doors

The bath layout would align with your 'L' shaped kitchen design and the black tank on the pax side. Looking at your drawing, if your range were against the bath wall, you could easily install a vent hood above it.


(Blocking out the physical space to verify layout)

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by ewo1

Yes; the trap sloshing I was worried about!
I wouldn’t worry so much about being level or the fill tank spilling over. My thoughts are the bus would have to be leaning hard. I just replaced a hose toilet for my daughter and noticed the water line was A3 inches from the top of the fill rank. And it is only a one gallon flush. Flushes real hard!

But you brought up a very valid point about the water in the trap. I didn’t even consider that so, thanks for the insight!

Do they make tall, chair height, elongated bowl Rv toilets or are they just about the same old ugly looking bowels with a pedal ?

they do make taller and elongated bowl RV toilets.. they still have the pedal but the bowl is long bowl and I think might even be glass.. thetford calls it a residence RV toilet I think

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by DeMac

-------------------

Thus layout is also for an RE with a single space bathroom. As with yours, the bath door is out of view from the rest of the space and a full size shower.



To gain standing room, the sink cove is pushed out of the footprint of the square yet is still accessable from bathroom.
Both shower & sink are more toward the 6'6" arch.
Grey tank between the frame rails, below.
Plumbing vent stack is centered between the roof slopes.
Electric panel in hall.
Plumbing access in hall.
No swinging doors

The bath layout would align with your 'L' shaped kitchen design and the black tank on the pax side. Looking at your drawing, if your range were against the bath wall, you could easily install a vent hood above it.


(Blocking out the physical space to verify layout)

Interesting, I think you unblocked my stuck mind!
In your layout, if I switched positions of the toilet and sink I could get what I was looking for.
I like the bedroom closet the way you got it, makes it private.
I wasn’t plan on a full size tub but a 2 person shower is on the drawing table.

Thanks again for freeing up my stuck mind on that!

I see quite a bit of used lumber in your pic. I am doing the same thing, lumber costs are too high and there is a lot of free wood out there.

What part of Florida are you at? I’m getting ready for a short Florida test run on my rig. Hasn’t been on the road for 2 years now.
Just got to replace some tires and a front leaf spring I found cracked on the passenger side.

Can’t believe I drove that all the from Kentucky with a broken spring!

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

they do make taller and elongated bowl RV toilets.. they still have the pedal but the bowl is long bowl and I think might even be glass.. thetford calls it a residence RV toilet I think

Thanks, I’m gonna start looking around for one!

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by Mercuric Mind

My advice / opinion is make it as straight as possible. If you do have to slope it do so no more than ~25 degrees off of vertical. With the varying consistencies of stool it can and will stick to the pipe and cause a stoppage.

If you must have the tank in a different location you could consider a macerator toilet, something like a Saniflo.
https://www.sanimarin.com/app/upload...eusacanada.pdf

You could then put the tank anywhere. However those things have their own issues, maintenance and power usage.

Something tells me I don’t want to be doing macerate repairs…lol

But thanks for confirming my concerns about a sloped pipe.
DeMac unstuck my clogged brain with his floor plan suggestion.

By not making the bath a total square, where he has the wash sink I can replace with the toilet and now do a straight down dump into the black tank without sacrificing a lower storage box!

Instead of a full bathtub footprint i wanted to do a 2 person shower and with the smaller shower footprint I can put in a slim standup closet for cleaning & bath supplies!

“ I love it when a plan comes together”!

[cadillackid]

I always thought macerator toilets would be the best for black tanks.. then I talked to about anyone who has a boat with one and apparently its a royal PITA.. seem to be pretty common in the cabin cruiser boats at one time.. and all I heard was toilet horror stories when it came to boat maintenance.. not sure what boats use now.. this was in the 90s..

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by ewo1

Interesting, I think you unblocked my stuck mind!
In your layout, if I switched positions of the toilet and sink I could get what I was looking for.
I like the bedroom closet the way you got it, makes it private.
I wasn’t plan on a full size tub but a 2 person shower is on the drawing table.

Thanks again for freeing up my stuck mind on that!

I see quite a bit of used lumber in your pic. I am doing the same thing, lumber costs are too high and there is a lot of free wood out there.

What part of Florida are you at? I’m getting ready for a short Florida test run on my rig. Hasn’t been on the road for 2 years now.
Just got to replace some tires and a front leaf spring I found cracked on the passenger side.

Can’t believe I drove that all the from Kentucky with a broken spring!

--------------

Yay! Good things come from bouncing around ideas, on skoolie.net. I credit our friends Rom & Courtney for suggesting the side hall, due to the wide wheel well spacing.
I borrowed the recessed cove sink & closet layout from an old hotel/motel. I really like that the bath door can't be seen from anywhere on the bus, especially not from the front entry.

[ewo1]

So after almost a year of not getting anything done on the bus…i finally get the chance to start and again and run right into a wall!

The last 10 months i was busy rebuilding the engine in my second bus “milkshake oil”’ selling my warehouse in Miami and getting setup in central Texas.

The Good news is both busses made the trip fully loaded with cargo and didn’t give me one lick of trouble!

So to reward myself i had gotten a TCM from another amtran bus with a DT466/md3060 thinking that it should be simple plug and play swap and i should then have 6 gear opened up!

Well i swapped, bus starts but won’t go into gear.
Pushpad displays a flashing 6 and a flashing R but wont go into gear.

No shift inhibit lites on the dash and idle rpm is at 900.
I read that above 900 it will automatically go into shift inhibit.

Also high idle switch is turned off.

Question: can i manually turn down the idle or maybe thru servicemaxx sw?

Any suggestion?

[ewo1]

So the story on getting my hands on not one but two 6 spd tcm’s…
I wqs getting the busses road ready and visited a truck scrap yard in miami that just so happens was in the process of cutting up about 30 amtran school busses from the broward county school district. They were cutting them up under that wonderful “punch a hole in the wall engine block” epa program.

They did one bus at a time and had a Broward County school inspector supervising the busses being completely destroyed/ dismembered. Bodies had to come off the chassis qnd get cut up in sections!

All these busses were driven in, not towed.

They all were DT466e/MD3060 models…

What a shame…

I was able to get 2 tcm’s very cheap.
One of them i witness them cutting it from the wire harness as they had just taken off the body and the other i myself cut it from a engine/tranny combo sitting on the ground. This gives me the confidence they are working tcm’s.

I just switched iver the second TCM and still again, flashing push pad. Wont go into gear.

I noticed the Tcm’s are for the PTS model of the 3060 tranny.

Could this be and issue and why my tranny wont go into gear?”

To note, the date code on the tcm are from 2005 and my tranny is a 1999.

Or is it too high of an idle speed?

Another thing i just noticed, tranny plate sayd TID2 and TCM says TID 3.

Does this affect anything ?

[ewo1]

So reading from the Allison troubleshooting manual, https://www.trucktransdiag.com/downloads/wtec3.pdf, on page 26 or 1-11 there is a chart that helps spell out the differences in transmissions and ECU's.

The chart explains what Tid 1,2,& 3 and what TCM's are and are not compatible.

My tranny is an older TID2 setup and the CIN on my TCM is "0F" which if I am reading this right, the TID 3 TCM should autodetect and step down/operate in TID2 mode?????

I'm not sure if I am reading this right but I guess i'll try reaching out to an Allison tranny shop and ask!

IF anyone is thinking like I did, simple plug and play swap....just more to learn I guess!

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by ewo1

So reading from the Allison troubleshooting manual, https://www.trucktransdiag.com/downloads/wtec3.pdf, on page 26 or 1-11 there is a chart that helps spell out the differences in transmissions and ECU's.

The chart explains what Tid 1,2,& 3 and what TCM's are and are not compatible.

My tranny is an older TID2 setup and the CIN on my TCM is "0F" which if I am reading this right, the TID 3 TCM should autodetect and step down/operate in TID2 mode?????

I'm not sure if I am reading this right but I guess i'll try reaching out to an Allison tranny shop and ask!

IF anyone is thinking like I did, simple plug and play swap....just more to learn I guess!

I am definitely not the expert but I do know that the later 3060/3000 stuff (like mine marked 3000PTS) is different than the late 90s-very early 00s 3060 transmissions in terms of electronics.

[ewo1]

Can someone identify this component for me please.
Its on a 2005 amtran RE, DT466e.
It says ac pro, with numbers 39-1010, can’t read the rest.
Thanks

[skoontz]

Maybe the replacement TCMs are looking for an interlock that your bus doesn't have.

I ran into something similar when I had Charlie Ball update the programming in my TCM. We had to try a few different flashes before finding one that works.

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f33/a...tml#post472576

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by skoontz

Maybe the replacement TCMs are looking for an interlock that your bus doesn't have.

I ran into something similar when I had Charlie Ball update the programming in my TCM. We had to try a few different flashes before finding one that works.

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f33/a...tml#post472576

That is a good point! My chassis only has interlocks for the windows and hatches...no wheelchair lift...but it starts with the new TCM.

I called an Allison dealer in Houston, they said to bring the old and new TCM for programming, $300 bucks. They wouldn't go into specifics on the phone other than to say they would put the old profile on the new TCM but I ask, how will I get sixth gear then?