Bruce Byker James

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm pretty sure it's a 6" pipe. The stove is the largest of these, the "Peak":

https://www.davistent.com/product/wood-burning-camp-stove/?srsltid=AfmBOorOvUoISolTzfpi4xA72E_p-ZPVaLYvzv-uMyftraZz63qRrCwK

Here are a few pictures. I included the picture on the outside without the chimney so you can see how it's off the ground a little because of the deck the tent is on. I'm realizing looking at it now that those are probably 45 degree elbows by design that we're trying to get closer to 90 degrees in how we're using them and maybe we should go 45 degree straight out of the stove, through the jack, then another 45 degree outside, which I think is what Davis Tent actually intended.

It's nice being off the grid and away from the internet, but this is also the sort of thing I'd probably have figured out there if I had internet access.

The jack definitely won't fit an 8" pipe, so that won't work, but if I can figure out a good support system, I'm thinking the longer chimney outside might be the thing to try.

Happy for any other thoughts, though.

Thanks,

- Bruce

Hi,

My friends and I have a canvas tent on a deck we built to fit the tent, which we set up in May and take down in October each year. This is at 9000’ in Colorado, so reliably chilly most nights. It’s a Davis tent with a rainfly and we had them put a stove jack in the side, so we didn’t have to deal with taking the chimney out if it was raining.

We’ve had some trouble getting a good draft going—usually needing to heat the chimney with a propane torch to get it going and even then we get some smoke when we open it to add wood. I’m considering having stove jacks cut in the tent and rain fly to have a straight chimney instead, but since the tent is on a platform, we wouldn’t be able to open and close the hole easily, so we’d have to deal with a little water coming in.

I’ve heard that chimney height can do a lot to improve draft, even with a couple of elbows. We could certainly make the chimney taller, but would have to build some kind of support.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and any ideas about what’s best in our situation. Also, if anyone has built a support for this kind of chimney, I’d love to see it.

Thanks,

- Bruce

Interesting. Do you have to run the bare wire through and then terminate it with a connector after you run it through?

That makes sense. I was imagining MC4 connectors, but it doesn't matter what they are for this. Would you mount that cover on an electric box, or just use it as a weather cover over the hole the wire goes through? Anybody seen any kind of DC panel-mount connectors that would fit in something like that?  I get that I don't actually need it to be panel-mounted, but it could be nice.

Thanks again,

 Bruce

I have a small outhouse with a solar panel charging a battery that powers a Separett composting toilet and a few other things. Currently, the cable from the panel just goes in under the door, but I'd like to install something more permanent that I can easily disconnect. I'm having a hard time finding any kind of wall outlet for DC power—I'm imagining the equivalent of a weatherproof AC outlet box like I have outside my on-grid house. Any tips on what to use, or another way to do this I'm not thinking of?

Thanks,

- Bruce

Just wanted to follow up on this thread from a while ago and say that we ended up going with the Separett Tiny in our trailer and the Separett Villa in our outhouse. We wanted to keep the same kind of toilet in both locations and the Spacesaver and Mobile just seemed a little too tight for our trailer bathroom. Additionally, the Separett has fewer moving parts and seems like less of a potential problem if something went wrong.

This did, however, mean digging two french drains (we went with the urine tube in the trailer instead of the tank version) and doing a bit of plumbing work to send the urine out.

So far, we've liked the Separett toilets and the few guests we've had have been happy with them as well. Possibly the best thing about the tiny in the trailer is that there is no smell at all! Like, less smell than using a "normal" water toilet at home, despite being in a tiny room in the trailer that barely has enough room for a medium-sized person to sit down.

Denise, thanks for the perspective on the SunMar NE. We're actually planning something similar to what you describe in addition to the trailer bathroom. One thing I've read a little about any of the the Sun Mar toilets is people having trouble with visitors turning the drum and using the toilet without the drum opening pointing up, making a mess that's a pain to clean up. Have you experienced anything like that? I'm also curious to hear more about the clogging problem, which is another thing I've come across.

Anne, thanks for the perspective on this. I don't think they're sold at RV stores and most instances I've found of people using composting toilets in RVs have been the Nature's Head, like in the video you linked to, and that's definitely something we're considering. The downside is that we'd then either have to take our waste to the dump a 40 minute drive away or set up a separate composting system on our land for just that waste. We were using a bucket toilet last year and had a bit of a disaster with waste in the car on the way to the dump, so we'd probably lean towards on-site composting.

I'll look into the RV network and see what I can find.

Thanks for the links! I actually came across those in my search before I posted, but definitely worth reviewing.

I'm hoping to find someone with experience specifically in a small RV/trailer bathroom, but so for, no luck.

Thanks again,

- Bruce

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with a Sun-Mar Spacesaver or Mobile in an RV bathroom. I'm considering replacing the flush RV toilet with a composting toilet and specifically interested in these models for the ability to only take finished compost out and small size to fit in a tiny bathroom. This is on some off-grid land around 9500' elevation in Colorado and the trailer will rarely be moving. We'll sometimes have guests who have no experience with a composting toilet and can't really ask them to empty a Nature's Head or similar system.

I've heard about the problems some have had with making sure visitors don't turn the crank and end up with the drum opening not facing the top. I'm especially interested to know how you chose either the Spacesaver or the Mobile, if you've had any trouble with smell in a relatively closed space like an RV or trailer, and any other perspective you can offer.

Thanks!

- Bruce