black/grey/fresh water tanks

[Saskstu]

Hello, quick silly question. My Biggar is my first trailer and we are trying to figure out how to drain the grey water tank. There are 3 seperate valves at the back under the trailer. I looked in my owners manual and it says only do one at a time, but a friend says do the black water first, then grey. Any help would be appreciated. Stu

[Carol H]

Your friend is correct - best to do black water first then your grey as that will help wash out the hose after dumping the black water & last the fresh water if it is using the same hose -to dump. Many trailers dont use the same hose for the fresh water system - different size or no hose at all just a small pipe coming out of the bottom of the fresh water tank.

[Saskstu]

Thanks, do you know which valve is for which tank? Our black tank should be mostly empty and I don't want to open it up, our grey is full, I think, of mostly fresh water and I am going to dump it on my drive way (the drive way is 1/2 mile long, acreage life) but I don't want to dump the black stuff...

Thanks Stu

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Saskstu

Thanks, do you know which valve is for which tank? Our black tank should be mostly empty and I don't want to open it up, our grey is full, I think, of mostly fresh water and I am going to dump it on my drive way (the drive way is 1/2 mile long, acreage life) but I don't want to dump the black stuff...

Thanks Stu

Sorry Stu I dont but when asked the same question by a new to them Trillium owner I ran into at a dump station on Sunday I took a look under the trailer to see where the pipes went and made my best guess based on following the piping from the bathroom area. Another clue may be the holding tank size -trailers often have a bigger tank for grey water than black water - in the case of the trillium it had been redone by previous owner so that wasnt the case.

You could just put the hose into a big bucket and open & close them fast in order to confirm which is which.

Edit: Could you please post what you discover. I have a friend with the same trailer and I have a hunch they will be asking the same question when they use the tanks for the first time in a few weeks. :-)

[Saskstu]

Well, so far the grey water tank is right at the back, I can see it behind the coupler and valves. The valve for it was a pain to open, but it was obvious once I knew what I was doing...? I think the fresh water will be the smaller line coming around the bac of the trailer. I will post and let you know for sure.

Stu

[cpaharley2008]

the black tank should have the largest sized pipe and the grey should have the smaller sized piping.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

the black tank should have the largest sized pipe and the grey should have the smaller sized piping.

Not necessarily- same size on both of mine as well as a number of other trailers I have seen.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Saskstu

Well, so far the grey water tank is right at the back, I can see it behind the coupler and valves. The valve for it was a pain to open, but it was obvious once I knew what I was doing...? I think the fresh water will be the smaller line coming around the bac of the trailer. I will post and let you know for sure.

Stu

Thanks Stu for confirming the location now I can surprise my friend with having the answer without crawling under their trailer ;-)))

Over time the valves can get hard to open or close as the slot they slide into is dirty or the washer is gone - they are pretty easy to take apart and clean and replace the seal/washer making them a bit easier to use.

[Saskstu]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

the black tank should have the largest sized pipe and the grey should have the smaller sized piping.

Well, looks like I may have been wrong, bigger pipe for black water makes sense, but the water coming out of there was murky but not horrible. however, the big one was for the black water, the one towards the back is the grey water. I am not sure what the front one is for, nothing came out when I opened it up. I am having trouble with my shower drain, seems to be plugged, I used a plunger and nothing will move. Any ideas? Is there a different valve for the shower or is it just a badly pluged drain?

[Cory Lewis]

Hi

On our Biggar the one on the front is short pipe that runs from the shower drain. On ours we have to drain the shower through that pipe to a container.

[rabbit]

Our Burro has "colorcoded" tanks: the black is black; the grey is grey; the fresh water tank is opaque white. I believe the color of at least the fresh and the black is the color of the plastic; not sure about the grey--might have been painted. One would still have to trace the pipe from the individual gates to the tanks to know which is which because all gate valves and all piping from grey and black tanks is black. Not particularly germaine to the Biggar problem but illustrates that we all have the bigger problem of identifying equipment and working out procedures because so many utilitarian things are unmarked and so many manuals don't stay with their trailer.

jack