Sewer dump hose holder upgrade

[Blue~Go]

Another thread (on clear sewer hose adapters) got me to thinking about writing up the upgrades I made in that department. My 1999 Concourse came with two places to store the hose. One, a little door set into the outside shell that leads to a short tube that extends for about two feet under the shower floor. And two, what I think was a factory optional sewer hose holder under the rear of the chassis (just aft of the grey tank). It was a slightly light greenish/whitish tube around 5-6' long. Seemed like a great idea but it was fairly small in diameter, stuck closed, and kind of bent (not very well supported in the center). I decided to replace that under-the-rig one with something better.

I read a bunch of tutorials on using square plastic fence posts, some with a length of gutter inside to make a sliding "drawer" of sorts. They looked pretty slick. I hemmed and hawed and made do with they cheapy tiny/thin sewer hose that would fit in the original location in the side hatch door. Not ideal.

Then one day I was at an RV supply place, and just impulsively bought an "overpriced" ready-made one (the horror! When I could have made one!). For me it was the right move as I soon had it securely attached in place of the factory one, and it holds my big/nice sewer hose easily, with room and diameter to spare.

I now use a Valterra Dominator sewer hose. It's a "premium" type and works great. The best part is that it stays "crinked" together unless or until you expand it. So it is very short in the storage tube, and then you only "uncrink" the length you need at a given dump station (vs. wielding an ungainly, long hose when you don't need it all). No complaints at all. The holder is the Valterra EZ Hose Carrier. I think I have the 64" long one, but I'd have to double check to be sure. I offset it slightly so it is easier to reach from the driver's side (but it does have a "door" on both ends). I'm not sure whether or not adapters would fit into the tube, but it's pretty large diameter (larger than the stock one) so maybe worth checking.





My original hose tube was held on by some long hose clamps, but they didn't work all that well. The middle was "fortified" with a failing bungie (not by me). Ugh. For the new holder I bought two large Fernco type plumbing connectors just for the rubber "sleeve" part. Something like this:



(No photo of the zip ties but I got them at Lowe's, IIRC.)

I wrapped the Fernco sleeves around the carrier (snug fit) where I was going to put the attachments. Then to hold it on I used multiple huge (very high load, UV protected) zip ties in the grooves where the hose clamps were designed to go. (But before you get scared to drive behind me, these are like the mother of all zip ties and rated for a LOT of weight, plus I have multiples - total overkill.) I'm sure it's more secure than the original hose clamps, and so far (around two years) it has not budged. I didn't use the little "feet" on the EZ carrier that they expect you to use because they didn't line up with anything; hence my use of the rubber sleeves, etc.

I'd do the same again, with both the hose and the storage tube.

I've re-purposed the hatch and short tube as a readily accessible compartment for disposable gloves. Mine was clean, but you can buy both new doors, and/or put on a new PVC tube (just fits onto the back of the specialized door) if you want to do this mod but yours has had a sewer hose in it.

The hatch is like this and is meant to put any 4" PVC or other tube onto from the back side. This one is made by JR products. You can typically get them with thumb latches or locks; I like thumb latches.



I'll see if I can add a photo of the holder in place, but the weather is miserable right now (pouring rain) so that's for another day.

[caconcourse]

Then one day I was at an RV supply place, and just impulsively bought an "overpriced" ready-made one (the horror! When I could have made one!). For me it was the right move as I soon had it securely attached in place of the factory one, and it holds my big/nice sewer hose easily, with room and diameter to spare.

Hi Blue,

This is pretty funny. Your "overpriced ready-made hose holder" IS the stock holder on our 2001 Concourse. I just replaced mine with a black one that looks much better. There is a square iron frame behind the gray tank with holes and bolts that fit the flanges on the 46" Valtera holder. Apparently when Chinook consolidated most of those small access panels into one main side panel on the 2001 model, they did away with the little sewer hose tube compartment and mounted the standard Valtera holder under the rear frame. Here is the Amazon part for my replacement:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007S ... UTF8&psc=1

Here are a couple of pictures showing the mounting bracket on the outboard side. This tube is the "lowest" unprotected point when traversing driveway gullies, so the old one had been crunched once or twice and had become very hard to open.

Clay

[Skillet]

Clay: I have the one you have. Mine is white tho. I replaced the one that came with my Concourse because someone along the way lost the driver-side endcap. Plus it was looking pretty raggity. Mounting brackets lined up perfectly with the old.

[Blue~Go]

Ha, funny. Well I guess I made the right choice It looks like they must have added those two little welded on "arms" that the holder fastens to (mine sits in the same place, but just those arms don't exist). Makes sense if they were putting them on stock by then. I guess if they'd had a black one in the store I might have chosen it, since it won't get much sun (to get hot and maybe deform). I thought about painting mine black before I installed it, but then decided I'd prefer white to possibly-chipping black. The white is not hideous (IMO), but I'll get black if I change it. Maybe I'll look into having a couple of those arms put on (thanks for the photos).

The original small one in the body side does make a handy glove holder (The one underneath was unusable on my rig.)

[jeanie19]

Glad to see the recommendation for the Valterra Dominator 10' sewer hose. My ratty old sewer hose is on the time-to-upgrade list and had not yet started research on what's a good quality hose that will fit in the undercarriage storage tube.

[Blue~Go]

When I did my research a number of people were using the Rhinoflex hose as a premium hose. For some reason (which I can't recall now but which did exist then - you know how that goes), I decided the Valterra sounded better (maybe something I read in Amazon reviews?). I'm sure they'd both be better than the typical common type, but I sure don't have any complaints about the Valterra. As I mentioned above, I *especially* like how it stays "crinked" (in other words, the accordion pleats stay "closed") until or unless you want to "uncrink" it. Most of the time I only need part of the hose length, leaving the rest "pleated." Easy to manage that way since the hose is just as long as you need it, but no longer.

I think the 15' would also fit in the tube I have (maybe even a longer one), because I have room to spare if I have the hose fully collapsed (however this way I don't need to fully collapse it). I think I bought the 10' extension because at the time I wasn't sure if I'd like it -- or maybe it was sold as less of a package of stuff I didn't need than the 15' (?). Perhaps I'd get the 15' if I bought again.

On the other hand, for me the 10' has been fine. But I only dump when I pull up to dump stations; I never set up in an RV site and run a "permanent" hose to the sewer outlet. For that I could see needing a longer hose because I've seen folks with a really long hose run, set up on little plastic "wickets" to keep the slope correct, etc.