Starcraft RV Owners Forum

One thing to mention is when you have the toilet flush valve open, make sure you don't have your ceiling vent fan on. That will pull the smell out of the tank.

Try Happy Camper it works great I use my black tank for what it suppose to be used for. There is no smell at all! No chemical smell like you get from other brands! I love it never a issue with smell or anything else! Try it bet you will like it! http://1-happycamper.com/index.php

Hi Tardis,
It's a coincidence but I'm watching a Tom Baker episode right now, got to love PBS reruns.
But, if the odor is only when you're locking the valve open to clean, then I think you're on the right track with the deodorizer. But there are black tank deodorizers without the digesters that might work better. Yellow tank odors are probably different than used shower water with a little bit of dish scrapings.
Good luck.

When you have the odor problem, are you connected to a full sewer hookup? If you are, that creates a little different situation. Are you sure the odor is coming out of the toilet and not being pulled down through the ceiling vent? It might be hard to tell.

We don't use any deodorizers and never have any problems with odor as long as we make sure the ceiling fan is off and the ceiling vent closed when flushing. When we're on a sewer hookup, I make sure I have a downward loop in the sewer hose that acts as a trap. Otherwise, you'll have the whole campground's sewer odors lurking around the roof top of your camper because of your own sewer vent on the roof.

In trying to be brief, I may not have explained well.

For the black tank, we have no odor during use as the toilet seal flap is sealing well. It’s when I go to clean (and lock the flap open); the odors escape as I flush the tank. Not really a problem, except I have heard about the additives used when using a blank tank as a septic system. Since we have no ‘solids’, I use NO additives.

I don’t need to break up ‘solids’, I don’t need paper dissolvers, and I’m just wondering if there is something I should use for ‘yellow’ tank only.

I have on order Camco 40252 TST Gray Water Odor Control for gray tank; I’ll try it on yellow tank as well.

I have seen ‘cleaners’ and ‘odor control’ - not sure if the ‘odor control’ cleans or just provides ‘odor control’. I’ll try both. And flusing after use is fine, but I should add cleaners every now and then.

On the stabilizers, yes, they are the lever type, and yes, I agree the scissor type would be better. Thanks for the link. A next-year’s project.

On the brakes, the drums were quite out-of-round from the beginning. I have no confidence I had them adjusted correctly, even after the drums were turned. I opted to rebuild everything with Dexter Nev-R-Adjust electric brakes and new drums. Cost is not that great, and hey, it’s just the brakes.

As far as your stabilizer jacks go, because of the size of your trailer I assume you have the single leg "stab" jacks. Scissor jacks stabilize better and provide more support. Bal jacks seem to be one of the better brands out there.
http://norcoind.com/bal/products/consum ... jack.shtml

We do use our black tank as a black tank and haven't had odor problems. But I do use Walex enzyme digester and odor control packs. The tropic breeze (or something tropic) comes in a 10 dose package for around $12 on Amazon. I have a clear elbow and see some yucky liquid come out the drain, but it is liquid and rinses out cleanly (or so it seems).
The scissor jacks were meant to stabilize not level and do ok for us (except for a little Saturday night rocking when the grandkids aren't with us).
Never had any brake issues. And the brakes aren't Starcraft parts so you might have gotten another companies lemon (unfortunately).
Good luck getting it all going well.

1- Check the roof for blockages to the air vent. We've never had any odor problems.

2- Do you mean scissor style jacks?

3- The magnetic part of the brakes need to ride against a flat surface too. Was that checked when they were turned?

Ok, so I need some recommendations for my Starcraft 16RB.

First, my mini-rant. I have had to rebuild/repair so many poor workmanship related items that cause me to be disappointed in the build quality. But, I understand this is a lower priced unit, and I enjoy what I got for the price I paid. But still, I would have paid more for a higher level of build quality and certain items being of a more robust quality nature.

Ok, rant over. Here’s what I need your suggestions on:

1) We use the black tank as a, well, yellow tank only. I do not use the septic tank type stuff, or any ‘stuff’. Normally, I have had no problems as I clean the tanks right away upon return home. However, 80-degree heat makes for some odorous conditions. Are there any suggestions for cleaning/deodorizing on my ‘yellow’ tank?

2) The screw-operated stabilizer jacks seem to be a bit lacking. Does anybody have a bolt-on-same-way more robust suggestion?

3) The brakes had a chattering since day one. I finally found that the drums were quite out-of-round with several high/low spots. A turning of the drums finally fixed that. However, I have noticed increasing noises and improper braking behavior, and I want to replace brakes/drums with hopefully higher quality components. These are Lippert 10” I believe. Any suggestions of brands or part numbers to upgrade these brake components?

Thank you for any responses.