Replacing toilet in Vista 30W

[Floridafran]

Hi all,

My husband really, really, really hates the Aqua Magic V that came in the Vista. We sat on it - closed - before we ordered the RV (our first, ever) and thought it would be okay. We didn't know enough to open it and check out the actual size of the thing.

He e-mailed Winnebago about that and another issue. Someone called us yesterday. (Which was a surprise as we expected they'd just e-mail back.) While the guy was very nice, and answered our other question. He couldn't help with the toilet issue. He suggested we contact Thetford, which we will do.

In the meantime, I searched here and can't find anything about this so decided I'd start a thread.

We looked at the plumbing schematic for our 30W and it looks like the pipe from the toilet slants, but it's not possible to tell which way. We'd be willing to change the size of the hole in the platform our toilet sits on, replace the vinyl, whatever it takes to be able to have a toilet with a residential size seat on it.

Any experience out there with this issue would be greatly appreciated. And not just by my husband. We aren't the only Vista owners who like to do this.

Thanks,
Fran

[John Hilley]

Ours came with a Dometic Sealand toilet that seems the same as a regular household toilet and does take a regular toilet seat. You could change to the Dometic Sealand Traveler with out any major plumbing changes. You may need an adapter for the base. This is our second Dometic Sealand Travel and both have worked well. They are also available in two heights and have china bowls.

Sealand Travel Spec Sheet

[Jackm]

What he said.

Jack

[DuaneMiller]

Fran,

Like your husband, our 09 Sightseer came with the Aqua-Magic toilet that I absolutely did not like. The seat was small and the overall build quality resembled that of a cheap plastic toy.

The 5'er that we previously had came with the Sealand Traveler model that was mentioned earlier. It does not come new with a household seat out of the box, but will accept one with absolutely no modifications required.

Long story short, I ordered the Sealand model, installed it in place of the Aqua Magic, went to Home Depot and picked a household toilet seat, and no pun intended, but all is well in the end.

If you are looking to replace the Aqua, the floor hole is standard, you should be able to do a direct replacement with no issues....

[Clay L]

If you go to this SITE
you can download a chart that shows which Thetford and Sealand toilets replace the one you have. It gives the dimensions of the various models and indicates which ones are direct replacements. Of course the water line might have to lengthened or shortened.

When I replaced my AquaMagic I opted for the Bravura. It is a much thicker molding than my old AquaMagic IV and is much sturdier. The bowl is deeper and longer than the old one.
Also, instead of cables it uses rods in the flushing mechanism. The cables were the weak link in my AquaMagic.

[taboky]

I have a Itasca Sunstar (Vista sister) and had the Aqua Magic V. The closet flange center is 9.5" from the wall. The only toilet that has that dimension is the Aqua Magic Style II. Installed fine, but needed a 90* elbow as the water inlet on the V is vertical and on the Style II it is horizontal, making hose too close to wall. The seat seems a bit better, but it is really wide, meaning the bowl is much wider than the seat opening. I am in the process of getting a new seat to try. Any residential seat is supposed to work.

[Floridafran]

Thanks for all the replies.

Our problem is the amount of space we have from the center of the flange to the back wall. Right now it's only 8 1/2 inches. So far we've found nothing that we can just swap out, with the hole in the raised platform and the pipe to the black tank as they are now. But we are making some progress.

My husband has spoken with two different people in the service department at the dealership where we bought our Vista. Both said that unless Winnebago decided to somehow glue the grommet at the top of the black tank to the PVC pipe from the toilet, we should be able to rotate the entire PVC assembly. Since gluing doesn't seem to be what Winnie normally does, we're hoping they didn't do something different in our case.

From looking at our build sheet from Winnebago, that pipe assembly consists of (in descending order from the toilet) a 45 degree "S" fitting, a 45 degree elbow and a piece of straight PVC which goes through the grommet at the top of the black water tank. From the drawing it's not possible to tell for certain which way it slants but it looks like it goes to the right.

Times like this are when we really hate that we have to keep the RV 25 miles away. We hope to get up there late this afternoon or early tomorrow to pull the toilet. Then we'll discover if we can rotate the pipe assembly. If we can, then we need to see which way the pipe assembly slants and if we can rotate it enough to get the extra distance from the rear wall without putting it too close to the either the side wall or the bath vanity. If that won't work, then as long as we can pull the PVC totally out of the grommet, we can put together our own assembly. (Sure is nice to be a residential contractor and to have a handy husband so we can figure these things out together. )

I spoke with the Thetford people yesterday and they said the only one of theirs that "might" work is the Style II. Our local Camping World has one in stock and they said they'll hold it for us for a couple of days. That gives us time to go to the Vista and check things out. I'll also look again at the other toilets you guys have mentioned to see if any would fit when we rotate/change the pipe assembly.

Thanks again for the suggestions and I'll post how things work out for others who might want to try this. (I know of at least 2 other 30W owners who will do it if we're successful.)

Fran

[taboky]

Looking at the plumbing diagram for your rig, it looks like the 45* is facing rear. So you should be able to move the pipe to the front. You will probably have to extend you raised platform. If you can get the Style II in there, a residential elongated actually fits. It over hangs the front and there is about 1/4" of the bowl showing in the front. Feels just like home now.

Good luck.

[Floridafran]

Steve,

Thanks for the info. Another source has told us it may go to the right. We'll know for sure when we pull out the Aqua Magic V.

We've found out that our pipe isn't glued and should rotate. If we can't rotate it enough/the right way, we can remove it and replace with a pipe assembly that will work. This information came from John Canfield (the Winnebago forum moderator at rvforum.net) who got in touch with his contact at Winnebago, and responded to my identical question posted over there.

This last bit of info from John, along with everything else we'd learned, convinced my husband to go ahead and buy the only white Style Plus our Camping World had.

As soon a the thunderstorms stop here, we'll drive up, get the Vista and bring it home. Anxious as we are to get going on this, we won't complain about the rain delay. Even with 2 good days of steady rain, we're still in a severe drought condition.

I'll post how things work out once we're through.

Fran

[micd]

Our Aqua Magic IV is so close to a carpeted covering of the heater pipe that we can't really attach and detach the water connection with any way to see what and if it is leaking. So were looking at the Style 2 as it shows it can be closer to the wall so should give us more working room. I noticed in your last post you switched to the Style Plus. Could you elaborate as to why?

Thanks,
Michelle

[Floridafran]

Steve,

When you say a "residential elongated actually fits" am I correct in assuming you're talking about the seat you got? That's good to know. Which seat did you go with?

Michelle,

I can't tell you for certain Steve's reason for switching, but I suspect it's the same as ours. The Aqua Magic V is just too dang small - seat/bowl wise - to be comfortable, especially for a man. That's the main complaint I've heard.

We'll be doing/attempting the change-out on ours sometime this week and I'll post an update when we're through.

Fran

[taboky]

Floridafran,

I bought an elongated seat from Lowes. Looks funny, but works fine. I noticed you said you were getting the Style Plus. That has the center of closet flange to wall measurement of 11". The Style II has the 9.5" measurement. I attached some pics of the seat. It was maybe $20, and it has the slow close feature which is great with kids

[Floridafran]

taboky/Steve,

My mistake on the toilet. We got the Style II, also.

That seat looks great.

Plan to go up to ours tomorrow.

Fran

[micd]

We just installed the Style II. To me this is a terrible toilet. The back end extends way more than our Aqua Magic IV and we had to remove the carpeted wood covering to our heater pipes to make it fit. Then when we flushed it we saw what the person who commented on the Camping World site meant when they said the water does not flush the bowl. It only flushes the lower half of the bowl which means you would have to clean the rest of it by hand probably after each and every use. I hope Camping World will take it back as we sure don't want to keep it.

Our Aqua Magic IV shows 11" to the wall while the Style II shows 9.5". So why the Style II extends several more inches into space that we don't have I have no idea.

In addition with our old toilet the water swirled and cleaned the whole bowl. I never once had to clean it by hand.

Michelle