RLS7201
Beautyful Downtown Gladstone, MO
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Joined: 10/26/2002
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Our MH has 2 50 gallon waste tanks, which don't make much design sense.
I installed a pump to transfer gray water into the black tank. That way we can store all the water we use from our 100 gallon fresh water tank.
Richard
95 Bounder 32H F53 460
2013 CRV Toad
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dedmiston
Coast to Coast
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Joined: 01/26/2004
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"Use less water" and "dump more frequently" seem like glib responses, but I agree with them.
The biggest change you can make is using less water when you do dishes. It took me a while to learn this in our first RV, but it was a next-level lesson for me. Turn your faucet on to a trickle to do your dishes. If this doesn't work for you, get a dishpan and use it for the dishes and then dump the dishpan outside someplace.
Also start by wiping the plates with a paper towel into the trash to get most of the grime off the plates. Or better yet, do like Wilma Flintstone did and use a dinosaur (or your family dog) as your garbage disposal to get the chunks off the plate before you head to the sink. This will also eliminate most of the food waste going into your gray tank, which will keep the smell down.
And if all else fails, go with the tote.
2014 RAM 3500 Diesel 4x4 Dually long bed. AISIN trans & 4.10 rear. B&W RVK3600 hitch • 2015 Crossroads Elevation Homestead Toy Hauler ("The Taj Mahauler") • Hooligan #3
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willald
NC
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Joined: 07/15/2002
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Grit dog wrote:Well, I was gonna suggest, if you’re camped in an appropriate spot, dump the gray out. In the woods, in a ditch, in a field, etc. Not thru the neighbors campsite and their outdoor carpet.
If one can have a little common sense, it is easy to dispose of gray water responsibly and unnoticed. Just need enough garden hose to get it where you need it.
Heck we spend 1-2 weeks in the same popular (relatively crowded) private park every year. I’ve disposed of well over 500gallons of gray, unnoticed by anyone. How do I know? Because the next morning I can’t tell, myself.
Sorry if that gets anyone’s feelers all wadded up. But if one has enough IQ to function normally, one also has the ability to lose some gray water without making a mess, harming anything or upsetting anyone.
If not, then drive to the dump station I suppose.
I suspect there are a lot of people that would agree with this and probably do this, but would never state such publicly, and most especially not on a public internet RV forum.
I also agree with a previous post, that plugging the shower is a very bad idea and should be avoided, because you could pressurize plumbing that was not meant to be pressurized, leading to all kinds of problems later on. There must be a better way than that..
Will and Cheryl
2021 Newmar Baystar 3014 on F53 (7.3 V8) Chassis ("Brook")
2018 Jeep Wrangler JK ("Wilbur")
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dedmiston
Coast to Coast
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willald wrote:I suspect there are a lot of people that would agree with this and probably do this, but would never state such publicly, and most especially not on a public internet RV forum.
I also agree with a previous post, that plugging the shower is a very bad idea and should be avoided, because you could pressurize plumbing that was not meant to be pressurized, leading to all kinds of problems later on. There must be a better way than that..
It's kinda like going online and talking about cheating on your taxes. It happens, but...
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TCBear
USA
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Joined: 10/06/2023
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I think it's safe to say that an RV wastewater tank and related plumbing are designed to withstand being fully filled and driven to a very distant RV dump station with no damage whatsoever. Otherwise you'd see failures routinely, and there'd also be a warning in your RV owner's manual. And like home sewage plumbing, RV wastewater tanks are normally (or at least often) vented via pipe to the RV roof for odor minimization, so I don't know that graywater "overpressurization" is even possible.
As for dumping graywater on the ground, I'll defer to "Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean you should."
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TCBear
USA
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And a graywater tank is also essentially vented via the kitchen and bathroom sink drains as well (the sink drain traps stop odor passage). Definitely not a "sealed" system you can pressurize, at least not that I can foresee.
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wildtoad
Blythewood, SC
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Joined: 06/05/2011
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How long is the dump tube? Could put a new dump valve on the end of the tube, then open the gray tank valve which would fill the dump tube. This should perhaps remove enough gray water to avoid back filling into the shower. Otherwise buy a gray tote small enough to easily handle till you get to a dump station.
Tom Wilds
Blythewood, SC
2016 Newmar Baystar Sport 3004
2015 Jeep Wrangler 2dr HT
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MFL
Midwest
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IMO, a bit of difference between galley gray water, and shower gray water. My FW, as I'm sure many others, have at least 3 tanks. Mine are all 40 gal tanks, and I can empty my shower water separately. I have a cap, with a garden hose attachment that could be used for this.
Several rustic CGs that I enjoyed staying at were very limited on sewer use. The owners said shower water could be slowly drained in a private ditch, well behind the camper. I am thinking they did not tell everyone, but likely someone they considered responsible. I can't remember if I ever used that option??
Jerry
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TCBear
USA
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A few others have mentioned transferring graywater to the black tank via diversion valves, a pump, and such. Surprised it wasn't explicitly mentioned (too obvious to mention?), but of course one could tansfer gray to black by old-school dumping a few buckets of drained graywater down the toilet.
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cummins2014
Utah
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Joined: 02/20/2008
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Grit dog wrote:Well, I was gonna suggest, if you’re camped in an appropriate spot, dump the gray out. In the woods, in a ditch, in a field, etc. Not thru the neighbors campsite and their outdoor carpet.
If one can have a little common sense, it is easy to dispose of gray water responsibly and unnoticed. Just need enough garden hose to get it where you need it.
Heck we spend 1-2 weeks in the same popular (relatively crowded) private park every year. I’ve disposed of well over 500gallons of gray, unnoticed by anyone. How do I know? Because the next morning I can’t tell, myself.
Sorry if that gets anyone’s feelers all wadded up. But if one has enough IQ to function normally, one also has the ability to lose some gray water without making a mess, harming anything or upsetting anyone.
If not, then drive to the dump station I suppose.
Yup , key word responsible . That’s why it’s illegal for you , and anyone else to dump ANY RV holding tanks on the ground . Thank goodness there’s only a few like you that do . I also suspect there’s more than just the gray tanks emptied.
Little curious about your black tank , care to say how you handle that on a two week stay .
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