…said the mechanic at the RV dealer this morning after he finished fixing in fifteen minutes what I had struggled with unsuccessfully for half of last Monday afternoon. “Doin’ this for seven years sure helps me to get it done right.”

I was happy for the help. A leak had developed at our sewer dump valve. For a week I tried flushing and exercising it hoping to clear a bit that might be blocking the gate valve. But in the end, about the best I could do was use a pail to contain the drips and bleach to sanitize what fell.

Monday I bought a replacement valve and went to work in the gravel parking lot of Advanced RV Supply. It seemed so easy: remove four nuts from four bolts; slip the pipes apart; slide out the old valve and slip in the new one; put the bolts back on. Nothing to it, right? Well, the difficulty I had getting the old valve out told me different, and there was no way I could slip that new sucker into place.

Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough play between the black and gray water tanks to get the clearance needed for the the new valve to get past the pipe flanges. I loosened the tank support straps. I loosened a slip valve. I pried with hands, wrenches and feet. I used vaseline-covered drywall knives to try and pry the pipes apart without harming the rubber seals. But they just weren’t moving.

The warranty manager up at the Sunseeker factory was sypmathetic when I called — he even acknowledged how uncomfortable it is to work on your back on a gravel lot. He told me it was a roll-of-the-dice whether or not removing the toilet might get me enough clearance. “And, if that doesn’t work? What then?” I asked. The news only got worse: “You might have to loosen the vent pipe that runs from the top of the tank up through the wall and out the roof.”

“Whoa! Isn’t this still under warranty? And doesn’t the fact that I found gobs of glue in all the wrong places on the old valve, which seemed to be the cause of the leak, mean that this would be covered? Can you give me the number of the closest authorized facility, please?”

The lady on the phone at Reliable RV in Biloxi was very understanding. “I’m sure it’s not very comfortable to live without water and rather inconvenient not to be able to use your bathroom. We’d love to help, and we have an opening in our service calendar in about two weeks. Can you be here then?”

Despair began to set in. Already I was envisioning Susi enduring middle-of-the-night walks to the dorm to visit the bathroom. No, no, no. Two weeks would not do.

Fortunately, begging paid off. She found an earlier opening for me, so we were without bathroom facilities for only four nights. I’m also glad that the mechanic had enough experience with stubborn piping to realize that a long prybar could move the pipes without breaking anything else.

Yes, experience does count. And I’m counting on not having another experience like this one any time soon!