The sewer hose that came with our used Class C was thin enough to fold into a grocery bag, and for our first trip that seemed like a fine thing. Then, at a dump station outside Ardmore on our second trip, it split right behind the fitting. Nothing dramatic. A drip I caught with a paper towel and rinsed off the concrete. But I stood there holding a wet hose and thinking about every dump station between Oklahoma and New Mexico. We bought the Camco RhinoFLEX 15 ft kit the week we got home, and it has lived in the outside storage bay ever since.
Three years and about eighteen trips later, here is my honest list of what that kit actually changed. Not features for a spec sheet. The small, ordinary things that make a fifteen-minute chore at the end of a long day less irritating. Camco calls this a complete kit, and after living with one I understand why that word matters more than it sounds.
The hose that ended the dump station guesswork for us
Fifteen feet, fittings already attached, clear elbow included. Ours has been in the storage bay for three years and about eighteen trips.
Amazon Check Today's Price on Amazon →The fittings come attached, so you are not assembling anything at the dump station
The kit arrives with the bayonet fittings already on both ends of the hose. That sounds minor until you have watched somebody at a dump station in a cold drizzle trying to work a hose clamp with stiff fingers. I no longer carry clamps, a screwdriver, or spare fittings in the bin. I pull the bin out, the hose goes on, and I am done. A hose you have to build is a hose that will eventually be built wrong, in the rain, at the worst possible moment.
The swivel bayonet fittings turn the hose instead of your wrist
The bayonet end swivels, which means when you twist it onto the RV outlet, the hose turns with it rather than fighting you. On the old hose, every connection meant wrestling a stiff, heavy length of rubber in a half circle while standing on gravel. Now it seats with a quarter turn and stays seated. Dean does the connecting and I do the elbow at the other end, and neither of us is grunting by the time it is on.
Fifteen feet covers the sites we actually park in
Our kit is fifteen feet, and I have not once needed an extension in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, or New Mexico. If you have ever pulled onto a site where the outlet sits at the far edge of the pad, you know the sinking feeling of a hose that comes up two feet short while your husband is making helpful suggestions. Fifteen feet has been enough for our rig. Not every site in the country, but every one we have parked in.
The 4-in-1 adapter fits the dump station pipe sizes you actually meet
The kit includes a clear elbow with a 4-in-1 adapter, and that adapter is made to work with a range of dump station pipe sizes rather than one. Campgrounds are not built to a single standard. Some of them were clearly assembled by somebody's cousin. The adapter seats into the opening without me standing there guessing which end goes where, and the elbow stays put while the tank drains instead of sliding out at the worst moment.
The clear elbow tells you when the tank is genuinely empty
Clear plastic at the connection point means you can see what is coming out. I know how that sounds. It is also the single most useful thing about the kit. On the old hose I was guessing, standing there counting to sixty and hoping. With the clear elbow, you watch until the flow goes from heavy to a trickle to nothing, then you close the valve. No guessing, no extra minute in the sun, and no second dump because you quit too early.
It arrives as one complete kit, so nothing is missing when you need it
This is the part I appreciate most as somebody who has no interest in becoming an RV mechanic at sixty-four. One box, one purchase. The fifteen-foot hose with the fittings attached, the clear elbow, the 4-in-1 adapter. That whole assembly lives in a lidded plastic bin in the outside bay and it is a closed loop. I do not have to make a special trip into town before a departure to buy a part I forgot existed.
Three pounds is a one-hand lift out of the bay
The kit weighs three pounds. That matters at my age. I can pull the bin out, lift the hose clear, and hook up without calling Dean over to help. It also means the hose does not drag its own fittings down onto the concrete when I set it on the ground, which on the old thin hose was exactly how the split started. Light enough to handle alone, heavy enough that it does not blow around the pad.
The wall thickness survives being dragged across gravel
The nominal wall thickness is 0.023 inches, and the hose is made with polyolefin and alloy steel. In practical terms, that means it does not collapse when you pull it around the corner of the pad or when Biscuit walks over it on her way to the grass. Ours has been dragged over gravel, over asphalt, and over the curbing at a site near Ruidoso, and it still holds its shape. The old hose kinked, and once it kinked it stayed kinked.
It stores as a coil in a bin, not as a heap under the rig
The hose is 180 inches long with a 3 inch outside diameter, and it coils. It goes back into the bin, the lid goes on, and the bin goes in the bay next to the levelers. The old hose never went back into anything. It lived on the bumper or in a pile underneath. I like that this one has a home, and I like that the home is not next to the drinking water hose, which is a rule I picked up from a neighbor at a park in Arkansas.
A one-year limited warranty and a name other campers recognize
Camco backs the kit with a limited one-year warranty. Ours is three years past that, so I cannot tell you how a claim would go, and I will not pretend otherwise. What I can tell you is that Camco is a name the folks at the next site over recognize, and the parts are the ones other people are already using. At a dump station at seven in the morning, being able to say a standard brand name to the person in line behind you is worth something.
What I'd Skip
I would skip the extension unless you already know you need one. We do not own one and have not missed it. If you routinely park where the outlet is well back from the pad, buy the extension at the same time you buy the kit rather than making a second order from a campground with bad signal. What I would not skip is the clear elbow, and fortunately it comes in the box. And I would skip any hose that arrives in pieces for you to assemble. The money you save at checkout is time you will spend crouched at a dump station with cold hands, and that trade has never once worked out for me.
Fifteen feet has covered every site we have parked in from Tyler to Ruidoso, and the clear elbow means I never guess when the tank is done.
One more thing worth saying plainly. A sewer hose is not a place to get clever. It is a hose. What you want is for it to attach without tools, reach the outlet, let you see when the tank is empty, and then go back in its bin without leaking on the bay floor. The Camco kit does those four things and has done them for three years without one surprise. That is a boring review, and boring is exactly what I want out of this particular piece of gear.
Buy once, hook it up, stop thinking about it
The fifteen-foot RhinoFLEX kit with pre-attached swivel bayonet fittings and a clear elbow with a 4-in-1 adapter. Three pounds, coils into a lidded bin, and it has been in our bay since our second trip.
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