u/vectaur

Just looking for any thoughts here, I’m pretty befuddled.

It was just a typical breakdown at a full hookup site, and I was draining the black tank. Pulled black valve and the tank emptied fine. Connected the black flush line and turned on the water. Black valve was still open and I confirmed water was properly coming out, so everything seemed fine.

A few seconds later my wife leaned out and said that it smelled like sewage. I didn’t remember that ever happening during black flush, so I shut off the water. I confirmed she hadn’t stepped on the pedal and confirmed no visible leaks anywhere, so I went ahead and continued to flush. A couple minutes later my wife noticed a very small leak from under our bathroom faucet. At that point the black flush was running clear anyhow so I just fully stopped and went in to troubleshoot.

After removing every panel we could, I couldn’t find any water lines near the black flush line. What I could see was what I think is the vent pipe to the roof. So the only thing I can figure is that somehow the water maybe went up the vent pipe, but I don’t understand how that would have happened when it was draining just fine through the sewer hose. Also doesn’t really explain the smell, which my wife noted penetrates up the pantry too.

At this point i decide we just need to get it home, but I’m not even sure what to try next.

Any suggestions? This is a ‘25 Rockwood 2509s for what it’s worth.

Anybody have a small ice maker (ideally inexpensive) that they love for RV’ing? Bonus points if it works well while it’s outside.

Looking through models on Amazon and various other stores and choices are overwhelming.

I know we all hate HOAs. I generally agree, but our neighborhood is really great/friendly/social and its HOA has generally been very hands-off and accommodating. I've never been cited for anything, haven't had issues with them, and I'm not really looking to start causing problems now.

But...

I also own a medium-sized RV (about 25'). Our neighborhood by-laws don't allow RVs "visible from the street" so I've stored it offsite for years and it's been...fine. But loading it, unloading it, working on it, etc etc is something I would love to streamline, so I'm trying to figure out if there's a magic way to keep it at my property.

I can green-wall a fair bit of my yard, but I need a gate from my driveway to get it in and out. I can fence this area (with a gate), but the trailer is roughly 10' tall. A typical privacy fence is 6'. Maybe I could even get fencing that was 8', but even that would expose the RV's top. So I'm trying to figure out if there is some way that I can create a visible obstruction that is ~10' tall but also passable by a vehicle (via a gate). Best I can come up with is the tallest privacy fence I can get + potentially attach some artificial greenery to the top. This seems ridiculous but given the layout of my lawn/house and existing other fencing I would only need 40ish ft of total fencing (including the gate) to do this.

Anybody ever accomplished something like this or have better ideas? I'm guessing that this is a no-go but just trying to leave no stone unturned here.

I've seen some weird stuff before, but I don't know what the heck to do here, hope one of you guys has seen something like this before.

On three occasions now, each over six months apart, our 2014 Subaru Outback (2.5 4cyl, manual transmission) has had this odd thing where, while braking, the brake pedal suddenly sinks down another couple inches before actuating the brakes. The car still has stopping power, but the pedal feels a little squishier and has a lot more travel. The brake pedal 'bite' point will then stay at this lower position for a day or so, and then goes away and normal firm braking feel is restored.

The first time it happened, I checked thoroughly, fluid was full, no leaks on any hydraulic components or calipers, no leak on the floorboard side of the master cylinder, no lines look weird, and I even shot the rotors with an IR thermometer to make sure they weren't uneven. Nothing. And the issue had gone away by the time we got it to the brake shop the next day. They did a full brake inspection and also found nothing.

In happened again middle of the year last year, same symptoms. Went away in like a day. And then again about a week ago, again went away in a day. Last week I took it to the shop and again, they couldn't find anything. I told them let's just change the master cylinder as a proactive measure, but they are insistent the master is ok. This is a shop I have historically trusted, and they wouldn't even let me pay them for the diagnosis.

In every case the issue goes away before I can get it to the shop, so I can't catch it in the act.

I'm baffled at this point. I know brakes have two hydraulic circuits so hopefully not crazy unsafe, but this just feels weird to keep driving. Any thoughts?

I've seen some weird stuff in my days, but I don't know what the heck to do here, hope maybe somebody has a suggestion.

On three occasions now, each over six months apart, our 2014 Subaru Outback (2.5 4cyl, manual transmission) has had this odd behavior where, while braking, the brake pedal suddenly sinks down another couple inches before actuating the brakes. When this happens, the car still seems to stop with the same capability, but the pedal feels a little squishier and has a lot more travel. The brake pedal 'bite' point will then stay at this lower position for a day or so, and then goes away and normal firm braking feel is restored.

The first time it happened, I checked thoroughly, fluid was full, no leaks on any hydraulic components or calipers, no leak on the floorboard side of the master cylinder, no lines look weird, and I even shot the rotors with an IR thermometer to make sure they weren't uneven. Nothing. And the issue had gone away by the time we got it to the brake shop the next day. They did a full brake inspection and also found nothing.

In happened again middle of the year last year, same symptoms. Went away in like a day. And then again about a week ago, again went away in a day. Last week I took it to the shop and again, they couldn't find anything. I told them let's just change the master cylinder as a proactive measure, but they are insistent the master is ok. This is a shop I have historically trusted, and they wouldn't even let me pay them for the diagnosis.

In every case the issue goes away before I can get it to the shop, so I can't catch it in the act.

I'm baffled at this point. I know brakes are dual circuit, but this just feels weird to keep driving. Any thoughts?

Have a brake light bulb out and was wondering if it'd be easy to swap to LED. Anybody know of a direct swap LED brake light bulb where they have personal experience and causes no issues? Sylania recommends this one, but they also mention a load equalizer might be needed and I was hoping not to get into all that.

https://www.sylvania-automotive.com/sylvania-7440r-red-zevo-led-mini-2-pack/7440RLED.BP2.html

I bought a new shower head (Oxygenics) for my Rockwood 2509S recently. The shower head came with an improved mount.

The old mount is screwed into the shower wall, and I feel like I'd like to do the same with the new one (as opposed to some adhesive solution). However I have, to date, been really hesitant to drill anything into the RV walls anywhere.

To my knowledge there's nothing back there except a board, and the fact that there's already a mount there suggests it's safe to just remove the old mount, seal the old holes, and drill the new one.

But as a general rule, how do you guys go about deciding if some part of your RV wall can accept screws as a mount? My understanding (could be wrong) is that there's generally no "stud" layout in a camper so just about anywhere can work. But I feel like I'm missing something and would like to hear from some folks with experience.

I usually don't leave my water heater on for our whole trip, since we pretty much just use it for showers. I wonder if I'm doing it wrong?

Edit: thanks for all the replies. I’m really kinda blown away how split this is.