So I will start this by saying this, if you can get a tank with the drain fittings on it that will work for you, DO IT, this was a not fun project, but I could not get a off the shelf one to fit.
We opted for a 17 gallon tank, it was as big as we could realistically fit, and should give us at least a week between dumps.
So with that said, the black tank will go behind the passenger tail light, like where the kerosene tank went on the drivers side, but this one is much larger. It fits tight against the mud flap, to tight against the tail lights, and needs to go in at an angle past the spring hanger. The reason I could not use one with the dump valve already on it was that I needed to set the valve into the tank, not glue it to a fitting attached to the tank.
So I ordered parts. The tank and a dump valve.
Tank and valveThe idea was to cut a hole and glue the valve right in, if I ever need to replace it I am hoping I can undo those four bolts and just replace that piece. Otherwise it will not be fun. But its a sacrifice to fit it in the space.
The tank manufacture recommends ABS shavings and acetone to bond things to the tank. Being cheap I didn’t want to buy their shavings figuring I could make my own, hint: buy theirs. I spent a long time drilling holes in a pipe with a big paddle bit to make shavings…..
But I made a slurry up and started to bond the valve to the tank! Notice all the stuff holding things in place? Yeah it takes overnight to dry.
But it worked! It needed more coats to make me feel good about it but the next evening it was all hard and I could add more to it.
After a couple more coats and I was sure it was all sealed up, I stood the tank on end and dumped about a half a can of ABS glue inside. I decided to do this instead of making my own slurry. The tank is abs, the valve is ABS and they are bonded, I just wanted to fill any gaps from the inside and smooth the transition out.
Well it worked well, but half a can was WAY too much. It dumped everywhere, luckily the seal and door were greased so it didn’t stick to those at all and I didn’t glue the valve shut….
Moving inside the truck, I set the toilet in its location and marked around the bottom with pencil so I could locate where the flange goes on the floor.
Unfortunately, even with my plywood “spacer, its a little closer to the wall thank I would have liked, the lid doesn’t quite sit like it was in the picture, but the hole is there so its not moving!
With the toilet flange in place I could slip the tank in from the bottom and try to mark where to drill the hole for it. This needs to be perfect and there is no going back once the hole is there…. But I got it close, I was off ~1/8″ and was able to angle the toilet flange around enough to make it work. I put the tank in from the bottom and glued up the flange and pushed it in from the top. The flange alone was long enough to reach the tank in my case.
And with that the toilet is bolted back in place.
Now that the toilet and tank are in, I need to vent the tank. Vent needs to be there to let the stink out, and to let air in when dumping.
I drilled a hole in the side wall, I did not want any more holes in the roof than absolutely necessary.
Then ran a piece of 1.5″ ABS up front the tank, through the rear storage area and out the hole. I added a clean out thinking I could flush the tank from there. Does not work as well as I had hoped.
I used a marine style clamshell to protect the vent outlet. This worked well!
And with that the black tank is complete! Its a nice thing to have at 2am.