Community Forums

Jamesrob · 12-23-2012, 06:45 AM

New Owner question. How do you (or do you need to) find a location to clean the back tank prior to placing the MH back in storage? We will have a clean black tank prior to breaking camp but it is a 10+ hour drive home with four people. We plan to place the MH in storage the next day. Do we need to worry about finding a place to clean the black tank prior to stoarage? It will likely be a couple of months before we take it back out again. If we do not need to clean it, is there something extra we need to do to prep the tank for storage?

waroland · 12-23-2012, 06:55 AM

Clean it before storage and leave at least five gallons of water in it. If you want you can add some black tank chemicals.

Bigd9 · 12-23-2012, 06:57 AM

Need to ??? Want to, I would. I usually dump mine in my home hookup to the septic tank and then flushed the black and gray tanks. I sleep better knowing my poor cold baby has clean tanks

.

CampDaven · 12-23-2012, 07:13 AM

Being in FL you MAY not have a freeze problem. I did. I flushed it clean, added a 1/2 gallon of RV antifreeze. Keeps it safe and fresh. I woulda busted the tank, me thinks, with 5 gallons of water.
Just sayin....
Happy trails

jzick · 12-23-2012, 07:25 AM

We travel 1/2 time, returning to FL for the winter, and store the mh while there. Normally we flush the black tank the morning of the last leg of the drive to our winter home. We use the facilities during the last day's drive and then put the unit in storage. We do not have freezing issues to worry about. During the winter we use the motorhome for day trips and, sometimes, an occasional overnight. We use the black tank and do not dump it until it is at least 2/3 full, which normally is day 2 of the following year's trip. We have been doing this for seven years with no issues - it is just not something we worry about.

If you feel you must "clean" the tank, you could stop at a campground near home and, for a small fee, use their dump station. If you want more time to thoroughly clean, you could rent a space for one night and thoroughly flush the tank. Flying J truck stops typically have dumps, some local sewer departments have a spot to use.

You can basically do what you feel comfortable with. If it bothers you think about leaving some stuff in the tank, by all means empty it. If not, you can do what we do. As long as the toilet bowl retains water while the mh is stored there should not be, IMO, any issue with odors or anything else.

jrd48 · 12-23-2012, 08:33 AM

I would dump and clean at the house if possible. Just dump into the sewer/septic cleanout. In my case it was too far for the slinky hose so I use a FloJet pump and 75' hose to pump into the cleanout.

Jamesrob · 12-23-2012, 08:56 AM

Thanks all for the advice. At this time in my MH life (it is in it's infancy) I thought I would like to put the MH to bed with clean tanks and had not thought about using a local RV Park for the purpose of cleaning the tank. I will check around to see if one will let me pull through for this purpose only (for a fee). If not, I will simply buy a night for my peace of mind.

Again, thanks for the advice. Happy holidays and travels to all.

GregOk80 · 12-23-2012, 10:45 AM

When we purchased our 2002 Revolution it had been sitting with full holding tanks for I would guess 4 to 5 months in HOT storage. The smell was bad BAD but took a few weeks to get rid of the smell. The RV dealer was about 5 miles away and their sewer line ran to our home town treatment plant about 3 miles from our house and we could smell it for days. The only thing we used was 20 pounds of ice and the blue toilet stuff and drove thru town and let the ice scrub the tanks clean and flushed with HOT water.

TXiceman · 12-23-2012, 02:14 PM

The ice has questionable value unless you will the tank with near freezing water. The ice will promptly melt when it is put in the water. Next issue is if you manage to keep it cold enough to not melt the ice so fast, how will the tank take the stresses of sloshing when it is so cold. Some plastics are fairly brittle when cold.

Ken

Gary RVRoamer · 12-23-2012, 03:11 PM

Mine is sitting with 3-4 gallons of poopy water in it right now, and will stay that way til spring. I just added a few quarts of RV antifreeze to make sure it doesn't freeze up, since we get the occasional sub-freezng night here in the Ocala, FL, area.

R2Home · 12-23-2012, 03:17 PM

I dump ALL of the holding tanks when ever we come back from a trip, even if it is just a weekend camping tirp. I have heard 'horror' stories of 'stuff' sitting in the black tanks causing lots of issues. That is the last thing I want to do, mess with a black water tank. When we put the MH away for the winter, they not only are flushed but about 1 gallon of RV anit freeze is put in the tank. Where we dump, it only cost us $5.00 so that is not an issue.