Community Forums

buckeyes · 07-16-2008, 03:02 PM

My wife and I are going to start using the Corp or Engineer RV sites, as well as some others that do not offer sewer service, but do have water and electric. My question is this: we can go three to four days on the black water tank, but the grey water gets full fairly fast when we both shower in the coach. What do most of you do about this? Do you use the bathhouse which can at times be nasty, or did you invest in one of those blue "things" that you can roll to the dump station? OR do you actually unhook then go to the dump station. Thank you in advance for you advice on this, as it is a subject that I need help on.

Hitchhiker · 07-16-2008, 03:09 PM

You can extend the time between dumps by draining some of the gray water in a 5 gallon pail and pour it into the toilet. We go to COE parks and I've seen a lot of folks using the tote tanks pulling them behind their truck to the dump station. Others just unhook and take the entire trailer to dump about once a week.

If you get a tote tank, get the biggest one you can haul, you'll be glad it holds what it does.

GaryKD · 07-16-2008, 03:51 PM

Our coach has a 65 gallon grey water tank. With 2 adults and 2 kids, we can go 6/7 days on the grey. The trick is:
1. Take a "Navy" shower. Water is on only to wet down and to rinse off.
2. If there is nothing under the faucet the water needs to be off.
3. Wash dishes in a plastic bucket that fits in the sink. The wash water should be good for an entire day's worth of dishes.
4. (Optional) The wife's contribution is to have us eat out as much as possible. This saves water during preparation and cleanup.

Our current style of RVing is to tour or attend rallies. We are never in the same CG for more the 6 days.

There is also a combo dump valve. This works only if your grey and black holding tanks are on the same floor of the coach. The combo valve is installed on the outlet waste pipe. Open both black and grey valves. Since there is more liquid in the grey it will flow into the black until they self level. Now you have the full use of both tank capacities. When ready to dump, close both black and grey valves. Connect the sewer hose to the combo valve. Open the combo valve. Dump as usual. Close all valves and remove the combo valve.

NeilV · 07-16-2008, 05:45 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by buckeyes:
My wife and I are going to start using the Corp or Engineer RV sites, as well as some others that do not offer sewer service, but do have water and electric. My question is this: we can go three to four days on the black water tank, but the grey water gets full fairly fast when we both shower in the coach. What do most of you do about this? Do you use the bathhouse which can at times be nasty, or did you invest in one of those blue "things" that you can roll to the dump station? OR do you actually unhook then go to the dump station. Thank you in advance for you advice on this, as it is a subject that I need help on. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

My family does voulunteer work on construction projects and installing an Oxygenetics shower head and only turning it on when wetting down or rinsing has made it so we can have 4 people shower daily after a full days construction work in the SouthEastern USA and stay 4 or more days without filling the tank.

Lorna · 07-16-2008, 06:55 PM

We tend to stay in public campgrounds (mostly County, State & NFS) for the longest amount of time we possibly can. I have stayed as long as 3 months in a state park off-season (keep a low profile and park rangers will often let you stay longer if the campround is pretty much empty). Usually this means only water/electric hook-ups... no sewer. We have a two-wheeled blue tote (about 30 gal that I had bought for use with our pop-up). My Class C's holding tanks are currently 18 gal each (my new tanks have yet to be installed... the black tank alone is 30 gal). We usually use the campground showers. On busy weekends, I use the RV shower and David waits until after midnight to shower or showers early in the morning. David thinks our tiny bathroom is too small and rarely uses it. It's one of those "all-in-one" types. So I'm the only one who really uses it (I dislike public bathrooms & showers...I get tired of the mothers who let their kids peek under the doors or turn the shower's dressing area into a mudbath). And I don't skimp on a shower. I LIKE lots of water when I shower and I'm the one who usually dumps the tanks. I like my blue tote but would get a 4 wheeler next time. A full tote gets very heavy rather quickly. I would also recommend getting the "bobber" to let you know when the tote is full. I had to drill a tiny hole in the top of the bobber tube to get mine to work correctly (fast dump would either force air or water in too fast & push bobber up too soon or it would hang up and not pop up at all). I have found that it is best to dump the tote on Thursday before the weekend... sometimes you can wait until Friday AM. In a busy park, you won't be able to get to the dump station until Monday afternoon, but usually it clears out shortly after Noon on Sundays. I tend to dump both my tanks approximately every three days... whether they need it or not. I try to dump on Mondays & Thursdays. These are usually the least busy days at the dump station. Three days will not quite fill the tote usually (both grey & black). I would rather dump my tote every three days (one trip) than risk an overflow on dumping into the tote. Besides, it's a pain to partially dump the tanks. It's a job I really dislike doing.

You need to use your shower/toilet "normally" and work out how many days it takes to fill the tote tank you buy. I would recommend that you time it to where you can dump your black tank then dump your grey (to rinse out your hose) in one tank full. And get the 4-wheeled tote. It will save your back! Also they tend to have a side discharge unlike to one I have. Lifting a full tote on end to dump out the top discharge is tough work on some days.

**NLOVNIT** · 07-16-2008, 07:02 PM

"Navy" showers, as Gary stated, are what we use to conserve water going into the grey tank. For eating, it's paper plates, cups & plastic silverware. That way, there's little to no dish washing. Also, cooking over the campfire (hot dogs/hamburgers/foil packs) saves having to wash pots 'n pans. If the showerhouse in a CG is clean enough for my standards, I will use it, after I've used up all my other options.

If we do end up with our grey tank full, then we just unhook & DH makes the trip down to the dump station. It's fairly easy to do in a MH, more work for a TT or FW.

L-

paz · 07-17-2008, 05:24 AM

We have a 45 gal black tank and a 54 gal gray tank. We can go 9 or 10 days on them and, thankfully, they both fill about the same time.

We do Navy showers and use paper plates. We also collect the water while waiting for the shower to get hot in a container. This water is clean and can be used for anything, but we typically use it to flush the toilet at night (especially if we don't have water hookup either).

If your black tank takes longer to fill than the gray, another thing you can do to save gray water is to do your dishes in a dish pan and dump the water down the toilet. Just MAKE SURE you get the dish cloth and ALL the silverware out first.

If we have no sewer hookup and we want to do laundry, I use our "blueboy" to make a couple of trips to the dump station. I only use the blueboy for gray water. If we stay long enough to need to dump black water, we just pull in the slides, raise the jacks, unplug, and head to the dump station.

buckeyes · 07-17-2008, 07:04 AM

Thank you for all of the advice. In today's economy where we have found that most private RV parks are charging higher rates and we aren't even using the extra amenities, it only makes sense to cut the corners by staying in less expensive sites that still offer what we really need, ie: water,electric, and perhaps a dump site. So, even though we had pretty much known some of the answers, it is appreciated that as a collective group you gave us reinforcement of our thoughts, and some new ideas that will make it better for our stays. Again, thank you, and that is why we love RV'ing so much, you meet some nice people.

melvonnar · 04-09-2009, 03:18 PM

I have a question that has (ALWAYS bothered me). When parked in a C.O.E. campground (no sewer hookup) next to a tent camper; its ok for the tenter to dump his dishwater (grey water) on the ground. The ranger told me that if I collected my dish water in a pan and then threw it on the ground,. he would give me a citation. could someone please explain to me whats the difference between my dishwater and the tenters?
Tenters have always thrown their grey water on the ground; I have (NEVER, NEVER) seen a tenter collect his grey water and put in in the dump station. and I've been camping for many many years.

Toby · 04-09-2009, 08:37 PM

Robert

If you ck most tent sites, they have a "dump" on their site for gray water. Its a small square with rocks in it.

Our favorite places to stay are the COE parks. We can usually go 5 to 6 days without a problem. Whne we travel, I first find out where the corp parks are, then the state parks and sometimes county parks. The problem with the corp parks are the weekends. Most corp parks fill up on weekends by locals so its hard to find a space over a weekend without rsvs--which we do not like to do. State parks havn't been updated for the most part for the last 20/30 years and they do not like to cut limbs and trees making it hard to park. Some county parks, if you can find them, are great. I.e., the one in Charleston, St Paul Minn to list a few. I also think pvt parks are really getting proud of their rates, so we belong to Passport America. (some of their parks are okay and we can stay at half-price for a a couple of days) s/Toby

Gary RVRoamer · 04-09-2009, 08:39 PM

Most places we go have the same rules for everybody but often seem to turn a blind eye to tenters. Maybe it's just human nature - too little waste water for most rangers to worry about it very much.

Jim Stewart · 04-09-2009, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert h

I have a question that has (ALWAYS bothered me). When parked in a C.O.E. campground (no sewer hookup) next to a tent camper; its ok for the tenter to dump his dishwater (grey water) on the ground. The ranger told me that if I collected my dish water in a pan and then threw it on the ground,. he would give me a citation. could someone please explain to me whats the difference between my dishwater and the tenters?
Tenters have always thrown their grey water on the ground; I have (NEVER, NEVER) seen a tenter collect his grey water and put in in the dump station. and I've been camping for many many years.

Why not just loan your used gray water to your neighbor tenters?

melvonnar · 04-10-2009, 09:17 AM

Quote:
If you ck most tent sites, they have a "dump" on their site for gray water. Its a small square with rocks in it.

The only small square with rocks that I've seen are the ones under the water bib (dump grey water there) not to sanitary I would think.

Quote:
Why not just loan your used gray water to your neighbor tenters?

Great idea hadn't though of that; why not just run my sewer hose on to the tenters space and let her go.

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stryker17 · 04-12-2009, 05:03 PM

we dry camp most of the time, we will only use camp grounds when ever we are forced to......that being said we have an 07 greyhawk 32 ss, we can go an easy 12 days and sometimes more between dumps,,, you just half to get use to concertizing your water, and we do not lack for showers or regular upkeep,,,,,,,