Black water dumping

[blugene]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

Let's see I put a portable tank in the back of my SUV then pump sewage into that tank, oops overfilled. Drive off to a dump station, not properly capped, leaks raw sewage into the back of my SUV. Hit a bump and tank cracks and starts leaking. ETC. ETC. ETC.

Better idea, no black water tank, use the provided facilities at campgrounds.

Not necessarily picking on you Gene. I just have this thing about hauling around raw sewage.

Well that's why I asked, my theory is just that... though I have seen some examples and pictures from people who did what I proposed (they used pickups, not SUVs - are portable tanks really that fragile and unstable that they crack and leak? If so, how can people tow some of them behind their vehicles on bumpy rural roads? And what do you do with your grey water in CGs that don't have dump sites?
Finally, can you dump black water in an outhouse toilet?
(sorry about my ignorance - I've never owned a trailer before)
-Gene-

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by blugene

Well that's why I asked, my theory is just that... though I have seen some examples and pictures from people who did what I proposed (they used pickups, not SUVs - are portable tanks really that fragile and unstable that they crack and leak? If so, how can people tow some of them behind their vehicles on bumpy rural roads? And what do you do with your grey water in CGs that don't have dump sites?
Finally, can you dump black water in an outhouse toilet?
(sorry about my ignorance - I've never owned a trailer before)
-Gene-

Point one.. Any and all tanks can develop leaks, so the real question is how likely are they to leak and are you willing to take that risk?
Point two.. There are lots of CGs that don't have dump stations. Prior to the trailer what little gray water we created went into the "dish water" drains that are generally scattered around the CG. If none the gray water is scatter in the woods. The key here is to control the amount of gray water you create. You don't need a full sink of water to wash dishes. In our backpacking days we went for at least a week with only needing to wash a pot and a couple spoons a few times. There's ways to be safe and not need to wash a lot of stuff. Now that we have the trailer it has a 26 gallon gray water holding tank. The fresh water tank is 12 gallons and we usually take more than a week to go through that. Much of the 12 gallons goes into us via coffee, and cooking. Even staying 3 weeks in one spot I've never come close to filling the gray water tank.

I've seen and heard too many horror stories about black water tanks to ever want to haul around raw sewage. Murphy says if can happen it will. I would rather not tempt Murphy in this case.

[rabbit]

There are different sorts of "dry" camps according to season. Dry could be no pressurized tap within 40 mi and the only water in the fresh water tank. Dry could be after winterization and the city water is right there out the window but you're supplying the trailer in 2 1/2 gal. collapsible water bags (Reliant was and is the best for 35 yrs. don't let anyone tell you otherwise.), boiling water on the stove and washing and rinsing dishes in two small dish pans. The same auxilliary tote you use for the grey tank with city water is also a great tote for dry or "de-plumbed" situations.

Here's how we do it. First, no poo in the loo. Urine is sterile and if spilled it either percolates or evaporates. Poo sticks. We put a ForceFlex bag as a liner in the old Valterra throne, remove each morning, dump in the tote, and dispose of bag in the trash. (Avoids redundancy of plumbed and portable thrones.) Generally old No.1 is not nearly as nasty or smelly as dishwater which we also dump directly from pan into the tote. No. 2 is delivered by bipedal conveyance to campground latrine. Lacking such an amenity, I have an entrenching tool (sort of like the frequent flier with his club passes). I find even a 15 gallon tote containing only grey and "nite" water pretty easy to deal with aesthetically and safely.

In a camp with hookups and pumps and valves and water lines is use, I use the tote for exactly the same limited list of contents without the "dry sink" approach.

jack

[Francesca Knowles]

Originally Posted by blugene

Finally, can you dump black water in an outhouse toilet?

-Gene-

Certainly. That's what's in a porta-potty and/or cassette toilet. The beauty of these setups is that they can be dumped in any outhouse/restroom...I've also emptied mine directly into RV dumps, to the amazement of the big Rv's in line behind me!

Just make sure that when dumping in a restroom/outhouse you take similar small quantities at a time, and in a similar sealed and preferably spouted container. You'll have to drain your black tank sewage into that container somehow...

Better yet, just get a porta-potty, abandon the rig's built-in blackwater tank, and skip the intervening sewage-transfer step.

Francesca