campground hookups

[bldrbob]

If you leave both valves open in storage any solids left behind , and there will be some will dry out and petrify.A visit to the camper and a lapse of memory leading to using water of any kind will lead to more work than closing the valves.I always put some water in the tanks after draining.

[pwf16129]

i'm still a newbie but when we went on vacation i hooked up everything left the gray water open to let the shower drain, before we pulled out dumped the black tank no matter how much was in it shut the gray and ran 10 or fifteen gallons into it and then flushed the drain line until ran out of water and the elbow ran clean then removed the sewer hose capped the bayonet end and left the elbow on it installed a cap i made out a collar and a cap so its water tight, then unhooked the water last to rinse off anything needed to be, then put in a small bottle of deodorize/black tank chem and rinsed it into the tank, figured out didn't need to leave gray open on short stays but the wife felt better about on the longer stay. like i said we're newbies still learning

happy rving

[scenic route]

We always leave our dump valves (gray & black) closed until ready to dump as well. In addition, I aways leave the dump manifold valve closed because, well, that's what I've read.

Good thing too...in Texas and in Georgia, I've taken the cap off the CG dumps and found cockroaches big enough to eat a small dog - I think the ones in Texas WERE bigger though.

Another benefit of leaving all the valves closed (especially the main manifold dump valve) is in case of a CG sewer system clog downstream(and your camper is 'low man' on the totem pole. We had this happen to us...we were the last site upstream of the clog. There were five sites involved. The first site with the highest elevation was about five feet higher than we were...needless to say, we would have had two feet of other's sewage in our MH had we made it a practice of leaving all valves open. Thank you iRV2! I NEVER leave our valves open! Bob

[jemma112]

Originally Posted by Melmoses

Agree with others - keep both closed until about 2/3 full. Black emptied first, then grey to wash the hose. Something else I do is to close the black, refill with some water (about 2 minutes worth) and pour in a cup of Pine Power (not Pine Sol or any other pine anything) that I get from Dollar General. We then drive to the next destination and dump when we get there first thing. This has kept our tank clean with no odor. I also add a little Pine Power to the grey water tank when we arrive and that has kept odors from the grey tank from building up (food particles from dishwashing and soap from bathing) go down that drain and man, they can stink too).

Is Pine Power a powder or a generic Pine Sol?

[RVNeophytes2]

Originally Posted by scenic route

Good thing too...in Texas and in Georgia, I've taken the cap off the CG dumps and found cockroaches big enough to eat a small dog - I think the ones in Texas WERE bigger though.

The ones in Texas are 'specially irritating because they'll try to grab whatever you're swatting them with, and use it against you

What a magnificent reason to keep both gray and black valves closed when hooked up via the hose: those lil' 6-legged Seal Team Six guys are compelled by nature to march thru the hose, into your tanks and then track into the MH w/their dirty lil' numerous feet... Yikes.

The "tower of doom" comment passed without comment; I'd like to hear more of how this situation came to pass, whether its magnitude and effect approximated Hollywood's famous rendition. Do tell. And, we're all old people, so we can handle the details!!

[codgerbill]

I leave both black and gray water valves closed until I am ready to dump. I dump black water first and then use the black water flush fitting to flush the black tank. After flushing the black tank I close the valve and then turn on the flush water to put some water in the black tank so as to not have it completly drained. I used to put water in the black tank by holding the toilet flush valve open. I dunno how much water I am putting in the black water tank but I usually count for 10 seconds . I then open the valve on the grey water tank and when all is done I rinse the sewer hose with the water hose, gray in color, that is only used for the flushing and rinsing.

[turn1fan]

Originally Posted by RVNeophytes2

The ones in Texas are 'specially irritating because they'll try to grab whatever you're swatting them with, and use it against you


The "tower of doom" comment passed without comment; I'd like to hear more of how this situation came to pass, whether its magnitude and effect approximated Hollywood's famous rendition. Do tell. And, we're all old people, so we can handle the details!!

Well the back up occured inside the hose. The hose grew bigger and bigger until it was ready to explode. That is about the time someone noticed there was a problem. Now what to do about it....? A CG maintenance worker was called to help. After some head scratching he decided to disconnect the hose from the RV....well that relieved the pressure and the "tower of doom" erupted. The campers paniced, hurriedly pack up the stuff, jumped inside their RV and very red faced sped off.....

I would suspect that everyone that witnessed that has never left the black tank valve open again!

Sorry I didn't respond sooner.

[mythplaced]

I have to leave them closed, most of the places I go don't have sewer hook-ups..(state and national parks) heck, we're lucky if they have electricity on site!

I do carry a "bloop-tank" for overflow if needed...

[Cat320]

Keep the black closed...grey either way. I have a dual tank San-T-Flush system, so I don't need the grey water to flush out the lines after the black tank has emptied.