Boondocking and the Water Issue

[Bob and Julie]

Talking to some of you guys has uncovered the fact that we are "suffering" with a 40 gal fresh water tank. Most boondockers have 80 gal or better. We think we can solve the storage problem at the same time that we deal with the water transfer issue. We have come up with a solution (we think!).

By carrying a 60 gal or better fresh water tank in the back of our pickup, we would then have a 100 gal (40 + 60) capacity. An electric transfer pump would complete the setup.
Next, on the other side of the pickup, we need a 60 gal or so gray water tank. I like the idea of an electric pump and hose for this tank as well. That would be easier and better than a 3 inch gravity hose.

To sum up: The "Tank Buddy " will pump gray water up into the pickup gray water tank. From there it's off to the dump. Electrically pump out the gray water thru a garden hose. Then fill up the fresh water tank. Back home we pump the fresh water into the RV fresh water tank. Easier done than said, I think.

For our use, this would reduce our water runs to about once every ten days. And, we would never have to break camp.

This setup would work fine for this RV as well as our next.

This is what we think.

Has anyone done this before? We have some idea of the parts we need. Can anyone help with suggestions (and part numbers)? Don't want to re-invent the wheel if someone has done this already.

Thanks in advance.
Bob and Julie

[Bob and Julie]

Talking to some of you guys has uncovered the fact that we are "suffering" with a 40 gal fresh water tank. Most boondockers have 80 gal or better. We think we can solve the storage problem at the same time that we deal with the water transfer issue. We have come up with a solution (we think!).

By carrying a 60 gal or better fresh water tank in the back of our pickup, we would then have a 100 gal (40 + 60) capacity. An electric transfer pump would complete the setup.
Next, on the other side of the pickup, we need a 60 gal or so gray water tank. I like the idea of an electric pump and hose for this tank as well. That would be easier and better than a 3 inch gravity hose.

To sum up: The "Tank Buddy " will pump gray water up into the pickup gray water tank. From there it's off to the dump. Electrically pump out the gray water thru a garden hose. Then fill up the fresh water tank. Back home we pump the fresh water into the RV fresh water tank. Easier done than said, I think.

For our use, this would reduce our water runs to about once every ten days. And, we would never have to break camp.

This setup would work fine for this RV as well as our next.

This is what we think.

Has anyone done this before? We have some idea of the parts we need. Can anyone help with suggestions (and part numbers)? Don't want to re-invent the wheel if someone has done this already.

Thanks in advance.
Bob and Julie

[Jeffrey]

We suffered with our 40 gallons capacity in our old Dutchmen. But we had 80 gallons of gray and 40 of black, so we could go a long time between dumps. But back to the fresh water. We carried 2 (15) gallon tanks I bought. I bought a fresh water pump that was identical to the fresh water pump in the rv, figuring it would be double as a spare for the rv. I rigged a plug that would either take power from our tow vehicle or from the house batteries. Couple short pieces of white RV (garden) hose and presto no more suffering. Worked great for years, even got into the habit of pumping through a filter for great tasting water. Happy Travels

[DavidMc]

You might want to check to see how long it will take to empty the gray water out of the truck tank at the dump location. If that dump location is heavily used, that might cause some discomfort in making others wait.

Perhaps a larger drain could be arranged in your truck gray water transfer tank?

[Bob and Julie]

Two great ideas! Thanks,guys. Running the water though a filter is a very good idea even if only for sediment. Some of the water we've used is pretty sandy as it comes out of the ground.
And, having a fast discharge rate is indeed important and not often considered. A 1.1 gallon per miunute sure would cause discomfort to those behind me at the RV dump.
I have learned that impeller pumps can have a very fast discharge rate in the neighborhood of 8 - 10 gallons per minute.
Great suggestions. These will help as we design or "perfect" water system.
Thank you,
Bob and Juie

[Ray,IN]

A few years ago a guy on here posted his solution. He made two tanks to fit his truck and double as running board/steps. One was plumbed for fresh water and the other plumbed for grey/black water. I forget the volumes. A pump is unneeded for the grey/black tank as it was plumbed for the standard 3" dump connections; but he used 3/4" hose fittings and sureflo pump for fresh water. This made confusing the two tanks difficult for anyone.

[450Donn]

By Boon docking are you referring to miles from potable water or just camping in campgrounds with no hookups? We have done a lot of camping in the National Forests where there is water available, sometimes a couple of hundred feet away. Because of this, I learned years ago to carry a lot of water hose. Now, I have about 250 feet on board, so I don't have to carry water around.Oh have you considered the ramifications of carrying another 500 pounds in the bed of the truck? Another solution is to just have a couple of 5 gal jugs that you can fill each morning and dump into the tank.

[gearman]

Why in the world do you want to keep and carry your gray water?!?!?! I run a garden hose out into the brush and leave the gray tank opened up so it drains as water is being used.

This also waters the brush around the site, its a win, win situation.

Of course I only use biodegradable soaps and detergents, so the gray water is not hazzardous to the enviro!
This is what makes sence to me! I only carry fresh water, and 50 gallons at that, this will last us 4-5 days.

[Lorna]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by gearman:
Why in the world do you want to keep and carry your gray water?!?!?! I run a garden hose out into the brush and leave the gray tank opened up so it drains as water is being used... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

And in the Southeast, you would get kicked out of the campground and possibly fined. Dumping grey water onto the ground is a serious no-no!

[Vette Racer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">And in the Southeast, you would get kicked out of the campground and possibly fined. Dumping grey water onto the ground is a serious no-no! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Yeah, but I thought we were talking about boondocking, not sitting in a campground. Boondocking is parking out in the middle of nowhere, not in a campground or public parking lot. For there, as long as you're not close to a stream or anything I say, let it run. We do this every year when we primitive camp where water is available but nothing else. Most of the desert areas want all the water they can get. In fact, the rangers encourage it where we camp.

[Lorna]

Okay, then let me clarify a little more...
If you are boondocking on National Forest Land in the Southeast you will be booted out of the Forest if you are caught dumping grey water on the ground. The "Boondocking" sites are referred to as "dispersed camping sites". This also applies to every National Forest, State Forest, COE, State Park, wilderness area, wildlife management area, in fact everywhere that I know of here in the Southeast. ALWAYS check with officals before dumping grey water indiscriminately. There are very different rules for different places. And they really don't give a flying fig if the place you normally boondock at lets you dump grey water on the ground when you are someplace that strictly forbids it.

[Randy the sly old fox]

Heck, here in Oregon you can be fined for dumping fresh water on the ground - even while driving down the highway. You might also consider what else is in your grey water besides soap. You have grease, food particles, and where do you think that blood and other stuff from your raw meat goes. You could have lots of unhealthy bacteria in there.

I also have a question as to how long you boondock - I would think that with some conservation, 40gals would last a long time. My family of 4 only used about 2.5 gal/day. This meant using paper plates. doing dishes as necessary and minimal showers.

[falcon88]

I have a 72 gallon fresh water tank, 72 gallon Grey water tank and 50 gallon black tank on the 5'ver. I put 2 72 gallon square tanks on the back of my truck, forward of the hitch. 1 for waste and 1 for fresh water. Truck fresh water tank is plumped to a 12v pump mounted on the hitch that will pump at 4 gpm. The truck waste tank is plumped with a 1 1/4 hose for dumping. We boondock a lot and like to enjoy ourselves. We have found that using water normally and 1 shower each a day we will fill the 72 truck waste tank in 6 to 7 days. We can go much longer but would rather not do 2 trips to the dump station. So far our system has worked great. The tanks are expensive, but better than a blue boy.
So in reality I have the capability of 144 gallons of fresh water if both tanks are filled. Which makes life a lot easier boondocking. I will probably find a better pump in the future since it does take a while to pump 72 gallons, but I usually pump in fresh water when the 5'ver tanks show 1/3 or 1/2 to reduce the pumping time. We are at Quartzsite, AZ boondocking and you will see a great variety of solutions to dumping and fresh water.

[Bob and Julie]

This has been a refreshing and informative session. A great big thanks to everyone.
It is our first attempt a any "long term" boondocking so the water issue was new one to us. Here are some of our conclusions.
First, we know we will never stay in any one spot longer than a few weeks so we have decided that we will not make black water a factor at all. This sure simplifies things a lot!
Second, we want to electrify everything!
Third, to protect potable water requires a diaphram pump similar to those that come stock in RVs. Grey water can be pumped at much faster rates with an impeller type pump (16 gal per minute as apposed to 5.7 gpm fastest diaphram)
Fourth, the two tanks, two pumps valving, etc. will be mounted on a board that will fit just fine between the hitch and the tailgate.
Fifth the grey water pump can pump "dry" and self prime. Valving will allow the pump to pull the grey water from the RV and then valving will reverse the flow to empty at the dump station.
Sixth, the required hoses will have their own cabinet.
Seventh, if this works then the whole setup can be put inside an aluminum diamond-plate box.
That is as far as we have gotten.
We've sort of beaten this thread to death so I won't post more. When (if) the thing is operational, I may post and let you know the results.
Thanks again.

Bob and Julie