Community Forums

swduns · 11-17-2021, 07:17 AM

At the RV park we stay at about 20% of the RVs passing thru have portable black tanks strapped to the rear ladder. I wondered if this is something sold to new Rv'rs that they don't need or is it required for certain types of camping.

We have found our Black tank will last 2 weeks in normal conditions and our grey tank will last about 7 days. Where we have stayed without sewer we rarely exceeded those limits. We do have a macerator pump we have used once or twice.

Were getting ready to retire and hit the road permanently. We have stayed at state parks that don't have sewer but not for more than a week. We expect will be primarily staying at campgrounds with full hook ups.

Is a portable black tank something we are indubitably going to need or is this primarily for boondocking or Harvest hosts.

How do people move the portable black tank ... do they put it in their car and transport it or wheel it around in a park manually.

I know nothing about applications of a portable black tank so your experience with it would be very insightful. I

Podivin · 11-17-2021, 07:24 AM

People who stay at site that doesn't have a sewer hookup longer than their tanks will last will sometimes use one. The other choice is to 'decamp' and take the RV to the dump station. So no, it's not something you MUST have.
If you are mostly at places with full hookups, or at a place without sewer hookup for less than a week (given your usage) then you shouldn't have a need for one.

I've seen them walked to the dump station, pulled behind bikes, golf carts and cars/trucks. But I've never noticed anyone load it into a vehicle, they'll always use the built in wheels to take them where they need to go. Naturally there could be many people that load them up to take them somewhere, I've just never seen it.
Imagine the mess if it slipped out your hands while loading it into a vehicle - yuck!

DavidEM · 11-17-2021, 07:29 AM

I once set in line behind a guy who was dumping his portable waste tank at a state park campground dump site. He had partially emptied his RV into the tank and then hitched it up to his Toad and pulled it to the dump station. He said he preferred this to lowering his jacks and driving his RV to the dump station.

That I don't quite get. I can pull out of my RV spot and back in again with maybe 5 minutes of work which is much less than he spent dumping his RV into the tank and hooking it up to his Toad. Plus I am able to fully dump the RV whereas he only was able to dump maybe 30 gallons.

If you don't have a Toad then you would have to haul the waste tank hundreds of yards to the dump station and back by hand.

Oh and don't call these a black tank. They are mostly for grey water as that fills up 5 times faster than black.

David

twinboat · 11-17-2021, 07:34 AM

I carry a big blue tank but only for gray water.

We stay in Federal CGs most of the time while working our way to our FHU Florida Resort. Sometimes for 2 weeks at a time and many don't have full hook ups.

We can fill our gray tank in 4 days, so rather then break camp to dump, we use the portable tank. We fill it and tow it over with our toad.

If our black tank is near full, we drive over to the dump site. I don't want to handle black water twice.

**hamm2018** · 11-17-2021, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swduns

At the RV park we stay at about 20% of the RVs passing thru have portable black tanks strapped to the rear ladder. I wondered if this is something sold to new Rv'rs that they don't need or is it required for certain types of camping.

We have found our Black tank will last 2 weeks in normal conditions and our grey tank will last about 7 days. Where we have stayed without sewer we rarely exceeded those limits. We do have a macerator pump we have used once or twice.

Were getting ready to retire and hit the road permanently. We have stayed at state parks that don't have sewer but not for more than a week. We expect will be primarily staying at campgrounds with full hook ups.

Is a portable black tank something we are indubitably going to need or is this primarily for boondocking or Harvest hosts.

How do people move the portable black tank ... do they put it in their car and transport it or wheel it around in a park manually.

I know nothing about applications of a portable black tank so your experience with it would be very insightful. I

We use a portable tank, because being full time we can not get a full hook up site (FHU) in every campground. Sometimes the private campgrounds will offer a honey wagon, pump out service, but they may restrict how many times a weeks they run it. So for us the portable tank is a good thing to have in case we can not a FHU site.

twinboat · 11-17-2021, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidEM

That I don't quite get. I can pull out of my RV spot and back in again with maybe 5 minutes of work which is much less than he spent dumping his RV into the tank and hooking it up to his Toad. Plus I am able to fully dump the RV whereas he only was able to dump maybe 30 gallons.

David

Would that be the case if you had a travel trailer or 5th wheel ? Lot of work in 5 minutes.

tmandoug1 · 11-17-2021, 08:53 AM

We have found our Black tank will last 2 weeks in normal conditions

I gotta ask how big your black tank is......mine is 45 gallons and we can go maybe 4 days.

**pasdad1** · 11-17-2021, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmandoug1

We have found our Black tank will last 2 weeks in normal conditions

I gotta ask how big your black tank is......mine is 45 gallons and we can go maybe 4 days.

Still waiting to hear what OP says…..

However, when we are conserving water, we follow the
“If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down…. LOL”

Marine359 · 11-17-2021, 09:25 AM

I carry a 27gal Thetford tote on the TT bumper. Only use it for gray water. It takes 2 weeks to fill up our 27gal black tank but only 4 days to fill up the 27 gal gray. Easy to pull it or tow it to dump station, except when there’s no dump station for miles. So, considering getting a macerator to pump gray into tote in truck bed. Anybody else doing that?

Nwcid · 11-17-2021, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmandoug1

We have found our Black tank will last 2 weeks in normal conditions

I gotta ask how big your black tank is......mine is 45 gallons and we can go maybe 4 days.

You might need to see a Dr unless you have a whole family using the black tanks, especially if it is 45 gallons.

Things I never thought I would have to google, but the average person puts out 1-2 liters of fluid/day which = 0.25-0.5 gallons/person per day. So let's call it 1 gallon/couple per day that is 45 days. Let's account for flushing and cut that in half, that is still over 20 days.

In the beginning I was very worried about overfilling my black tank, mine is only 44 gallons. Typically within a few days the sensor light shows full. Even after spending 2 weeks (2 people) I have yet to fill that tank up. I have had to dump my 88 gallons of grey in that time. I know everyone is different though.

dizcom · 11-17-2021, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nwcid

You might need to see a Dr unless you have a whole family using the black tanks, especially if it is 45 gallons.

Things I never thought I would have to google, but the average person puts out 1-2 liters of fluid/day which = 0.25-0.5 gallons/person per day. So let's call it 1 gallon/couple per day that is 45 days. Let's account for flushing and cut that in half, that is still over 20 days.

In the beginning I was very worried about overfilling my black tank, mine is only 44 gallons. Typically within a few days the sensor light shows full. Even after spending 2 weeks (2 people) I have yet to fill that tank up. I have had to dump my 88 gallons of grey in that time. I know everyone is different though.

I'm a little afraid to ask this question, but what do you do with the stuff that comes out of you that isn't liquid?

Nwcid · 11-17-2021, 09:51 AM

To the OP point, I would say it depends on how you plan on camping. If you go from FHU to FHU or spend less than a week or so in a given location without FHU, you might need it. For us, we typically move once a week so that means, dump/fill/propane/gas for the toys/food and head to the next spot.

As you can see from this thread and others, water use varies greatly. I see people with very small tanks able to go between dump/fill longer than we want to. When we bought our RV I knew I wanted at least 100 gallons of fresh and at least equal holding.

We have 120 fresh and 44g/44g/44b tanks. For us this works out to about 7 days being water mindful, but not conservative. We typically both shower (not quick or "Navy" but also not extremely long) daily, make food, do dishes, etc. Our fresh and grey are the main challenge. It is pretty easy to find access to potable water, many of the places we stay dumping grey water is acceptable. This leaves our black tank.

At our 2 main local destinations the closest dump station is about 15-20 miles each way. I have a 60 gallon waste tank mounted to the side of my tow vehicle that we bought this season. I spent over 100 nights out in our RV this year and I used the waste tank 3 times. 2 of those were to practice the fill/dump procedure using grey water, the 3 was to actually dump black water.

Long story short, it depends on how you plan on camping and moving. Personally I would wait to purchase one until you find that you need it.

Nwcid · 11-17-2021, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizcom

I'm a little afraid to ask this question, but what do you do with the stuff that comes out of you that isn't liquid?

While I could not find a volume conversion the average is 14-17oz per day. I was very generous with the conversion numbers.

With the poster that can only go 4 days that means they are using 10gallons/day of black, or 5 gallons/day each. Now let's assume they are using a lot of water to flush each time we will cut that number in half. That is still 2.5 gallons of waste per person each day.

I hope you are eating and drinking a lot to keep up with that.

The entire volume of your entire body is only 16 gallons......

Marine359 · 11-17-2021, 10:00 AM

C’mon Man.
I put 3 gal of water with deodorizer in the black tank which reduces capacity from 27 to 24 gal. Never have filled the black tank in less than 2 weeks (2 people). Ok, Ok, it helps when guys can go water the bushes. Also helps when you can save some of your toilet presents for visits to restaurants, Starbucks, and rest stations.