• Home
  • Help Guides
    • Storage Sites
    • Equipment Reviews
  • Document Library
    • Electrical Drawings
  • Photo Gallery
    • Caravan Log
    • MPG
  • Trip Map
  • Shop
  • About
  • Contact
  • Links

Caravan Chronicles

~ not just another caravan blog

Caravan Chronicles

Tag Archives: Thetford Toilet

Flushed With Success….. Eventually!

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Simon Barlow in Blog updates, Caravan Electrics, Caravan Fault Finding, Caravan Servicing, General

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Caravan, Thetford Toilet, Touring

You know there are times when I think the service industry is going down the pan.

Right… the prologue

We had driven down to Chapel Lane caravan site to do a bit of partaking of the Christmas Markets in Birmingham and to do a bit of filming with the Venerable Andy Harris of motorhome fame (more about that in the next post though!). We had set up and I was pottering round outside sorting the guy ropes for the awning or the Christmas lights, I can’t remember which, when Sue popped her head out of the door and announced with some consternation… “The toilet won’t flush”

I went in and pushed the button… yep it wouldn’t flush, no pump noise, nothing. I emerged from the bathroom and announced “The toilet won’t flush” at which point Sue gave me the “did you think I was pushing the button wrong or something” look.

Right… check the fuses first, all OK. Out came the tool bag and the multimeter. Voltage going to the loo OK… check the fuse in the bottom of the loo behind the cassette. That was OK too.

Now I don’t believe in coincidences and it just so happened a couple of weeks before the caravan had been in to Glossop Caravans to have a spot of damp sorted and they had replaced the wall board that the loo backs onto. It’s got to be that I thought and said to Sue “I’ll bet it’s when they did the damp and took the loo out”

“Give them a ring now while they are still open”

I spoke to one of the service centre receptionists and they said they would get the workshop manager to ring me back and in due course he did. After a brief conversation he assured me it was nothing they had done and if the loo was getting voltage and the fuse in the loo was OK it must be the circuit board. While he was on the phone I managed one handed to peel back the Thetford sticker on the top of the loo and extract the circuit board. A quick voltage check of the pins that connect to the motor revealed that it was zero volts when the button was pushed.

“It defiantly the circuit board then” he said.

The old circuit board top, with the new one below.

The old circuit board top, with the new one below.

I thanked him and started thinking about our next move while answering an email from the afore mentioned Andy Harris. I just happened to say “loos not working need a new circuit board” and Andy emailed back “Try Jonathan at CAK Tanks” A quick phone call and they did have one in stock… just one. I asked them to reserve it and would pop over mid morning. CAK Tanks was only about 18 miles away and took us 30 minutes to get there. After some double checking to make sure it was the right board… Thetford had very usefully changed the part number and not told many people about it. Handily the new part number was a lot cheaper and it cost £19.36 including the non voluntary contribution to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now, you remember when I said I don’t believe in coincidences.  For some reason I thought I’d just check the connections that Glossop Caravans service people would have disconnected.

Its easy to extract the connector through the hole in the floor of the cassette compartment and check the connections….

img_0924

On checking the connections it was apparent that they had been connected the wrong way…. i.e reverse polarity!

img_0925

The plug that was fitted by Thetford is designed to be connected one way, but the wiring harness in the caravan used two spade connectors that could be connected in any orientation and this time the person re-fitting the loo had a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong and in this case got it wrong. I re-connected the two space connectors the right way and went and fitted our old circuit board. It worked!

So the morel of this story is there are no such thing as coincidences and before setting out on a round trip of 36 miles and spending £19.36 on a new circuit board… check the polarity!

I think I’ll go a flush the loo again…. just because I can.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...
Buy Me A Coffee

Blog Stats

  • 44,985,642 hits
Follow Caravan Chronicles on WordPress.com

Follow Caravan Chronicles and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Some previous posts you may like...

A Bit Of A Review…

We or more probably me don’t normally do site reviews. That said we recently came back from a few days away at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, and we liked it that much I had to put pen to paper…. or in more modern parlance lay fingers on keys. The site is located on Naze…

Flushed With Success…

We have just been for a short stay at Donkey Creek Farm in Freckleton, near Warton…. just up the road from Lytham…. that’s near Blackpool. OK you get the idea. We can’t recommend this site highly enough, in fact in a break of usualness I’m going to write a little review. OK back to the…

Lighting Up The Scene…

A while ago I upgraded the lights on our caravan by changing the functions round and added two new LED reversing lights which I can’t understand why I hadn’t done this years ago. In daylight they are bright… and at night they are really bright… retina burning bright according to reports. Reversing into a dark…

Keeping Electrons Contained…

One thing about being retired… you have way too much time to think about things. One thing that has been wandering round my grey cells for the last few months relates to an email I had September last year and it was from someone who was fitting out a van and had a few electrical…

Something for BMW X3 owners…

A while ago I had an email from a chap called Roy. I thought it was going to be an easy one to sort out but never expected what the eventual issue was. Rather than try to explain all the steps, which is difficult sometimes trying to diagnose without actually being hands on, Roy did…

Is This A Growing Trend..?

First things first… Happy New Year to you all. Ok so I’m a bit late but there you go, that’s what retirement does for you… no sense of time. Right, I seem to be receiving a LOT and by a lot I mean 3 or 4 emails a week offering to provide content for my…

Adapting Our Bike Rack for e-Bikes

Getting to that certain age brings on some restrictions…. My left knee is a bit suspect and Sue’s hip is not as ‘hop’ as it was anymore, This meant of we haven’t been using our bikes as much and as Sue has now officially retired and Henry has settled in to caravanning we are getting…

Has Bailey Built Our Perfect Caravan?…

You know by now I don’t do caravan reviews. I leave it to people far better at it than myself. I have however over the years written a few articles about caravan design ( Never admit to being a caravan designer ) and waffled on as we looked around pondering the merits of changing our…

Just a quick one…

Lithium Upgrade for a caravan I’ve had quite a few people email me asking for more information about the Victron system for a caravan that I was planning mentioned in the previous post. As this seems to have generated a number of questions, rather than give detailed answers to each one I thought I’d post…

A Few Mods and Updates…

After our recent trip to Meathop Fell it was time to say goodbye to an old friend. We have had our leisure battery since 2011 and for 11 years it has given us great service. For the last year or so I have thought hard about converting over to Lithium and drew up plans for…

Loading...

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

  1. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Excellent advice. I would never have thought about having three cables. Now I can buy the correct size and not…

  2. Simon Barlow on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Spot on.... if you draw it out on a bit of paper, you will see that you actually need three…

  3. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Sorry to be a pain but, what is the best way to connect the batteries to the inverter. Normally I'd…

  4. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Thanks for the information. Now I can order the cable without worrying if I've got it wrong. Regards Nigel.

  5. Simon Barlow on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    The rule is size the cable for the furthest battery... so do the volt drop calculation as thought BOTH batteries…

  6. Nigel Chapman on Overland Vehicle Electrics and Other Stuff…May 22, 2023

    Hi. I'm really hoping that you can help me. I need advice on cable mm2. A quick summary of my…

  7. A Bit Of A Review… | Mon site officiel / My official website on A Bit Of A Review…May 21, 2023

    […] A Bit Of A Review… — Caravan Chronicles […]

  8. Graham C (Cupie) on A Bit Of A Review…May 21, 2023

    A very interesting and well written account. It seems that there are lots of similarities in caravanning there and in…

  9. Graham C on Flushed With Success…May 20, 2023

    One of the greater joys of Caravanning is all of the DIY jobs that it brings your way.

  10. Simon Barlow on Lighting Up The Scene…May 15, 2023

    Hi Tami Probably the best place you;d be to search for travel locations for caravans an motorhomes.... or you could…

  11. Tami on Lighting Up The Scene…May 15, 2023

    Hi where can I find nice idea for trips with the 🚙? In France ? Thanks 🙏 Tami

  12. Simon Barlow on Has Bailey Built Our Perfect Caravan?…May 13, 2023

    Having received various communications from people like yourself, I think I can say the build quality has generally dropped with…

CaravanChronicles.com Tag’s…

13 Pin Plug Accessories AL-KO Avtex Bear Extender Bike Rack Blackpool Blackpool Illuminations blogging Cadac Camping & Caravanning Club Canterbury Caravan Caravan Blog Caravan Club Caravan Electrical Caravan Electrics Caravanning Caravans Caravan Show Caravan Talk Caravan Tyres Cheltenham Chirk Christmas Market Christmas markets Cleaning design Event City Factory Visit Fiamma France Freelander Glastonbury Glossop Caravans Humor Insync Jonic Bedding Lady Heyes La Tournerie Ferme Leisure Battery Leisure Battery Charging LPG Refilling Maintenance Manchester Caravan & Motorhome Modifications NEC North Western Caravans Ltd OLPRO One Hairy Caravanner Oswestry Oxford Product Review Project Safefill Sat Nav Sterling Caravans Sterling Power Wildside Swift Factory Swift Group Swift Talk Technical The Old Oaks Touring Towing tow vehicle TPMS Trafford Centre travel Travel Trailer Travel Trailers vacation VW Amarok Warwick Racecourse WiFI

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Caravan Chronicles
    • Join 667 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Caravan Chronicles
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: