External Gray Water Catcher

[Parker Buckley]

I'm just curious to know how others handle the gray water situation in small campers like our 13' Scamp. We've been carrying both a five gallon bucket and the smallest of the wheeled blue tanks. On our last trip up through southern Ontario, UP, down through lower Michigan, etc, we didn't use the wheeled tank once, and I'm thinking of just taking the bucket from here on. Have any of you run into situations where a simple bucket isn't sufficient, or maybe not even allowed by the campground? We usually stay in places with at least minimal hookups, occasionally in places where it's not possible to use the gray water (essentially from washing dishes with camp suds) to water the nearby plants. Even then, it's no more trouble to carry the bucket to a proper dumping place than it is the small wheeled tank.

Parker

[Doug Mager]

I MAY need some correction here, but I think more n more places are frowning on or NOT allowing the ol open bucket catch system, however useful it may seem. (Oregon comes to mind???)

[Gina D.]

open buckets collect ants, chipmunks and other larger more aggressive animals looking for a fortified drinky. They overflow in the campsite where the next camper has to deal with the mess when the less the conscientious allow it.

We allow blue totes in our campground, and we allow taking them away from the site and watering the trees, but we frown on those that run hoses out thier drains and let it drop in the same spot all weekend (Or however long they will be there)

Tenters generally dump small amounts in different areas and the damage is minimal at the most. Almost everyweekend, I have to tell an rv to put the hose away or to cap the drain and remove the bucket.

I personally have a 5 gallon tote and I periodically dump in different areas. I don't leave it hooked up, I bring it out and empty, dump, rinse and place back in storage.

This won't work for those without holding tanks, but it's good practice if you do.

The last thing I want is a bear or coyote having a drink inches from me and my dogs, and I certainly don't want to see a chip monk floating in the soap when I get around to dumping.

[Doug & Anna-Marie P]

On our way home from the Oregon Gathering we stopped at a marine/RV place near Newport and bought "The Famous Covered Bucket for all Rv's"
It is a collapsible holding tank for sink and bath waste water. 5 gallon capacity. Positive shut off valve,36" non kink hose and no vent required. Self expanding,can't leak or spill. Just close the valve and carry away for easy,sanitary dumping! So it meets the requirements of all known applicable ordinances and regulations....(how can you tell I have it in front of me??)
Folds up to 10 x 10 x 2 inches...and is all fully enclosed, so no drainage on the ground.Cost $19.99
We have not used it yet.... Next year..........

we were using a jerry can with a piece of hose draining into it,but if the hose was in too far then the water didn't drain the best....

[Anne H]

I will NEVER again use an open bucket - many years ago while camping, I awoke to find two little dead critters (kangaroo rat and a little chipmunk) in the bucket. I was in the desert, they thought they had found some water but couldn't get back out - to this day I have visions of them slowly drowning.

I use one of those cheap collapsible plastic containers - still think the opening is a little too wide; so, I'm considering something with an actual hose connector.

[Parker Buckley]

I appreciate all the info. I hadn't thought about critters going for a swim in the bucket or something larger having a drink! I guess for now the blue tote is the best answer. We usually wash our dishes outside, so I'll still probably need the bucket to catch the rinse water. Oh well. I tried searching for the "Famous Covered Bucket" but the only site I found with it seems to have faulty links. Something collapsible would certainly be convenient for connecting to the sink drain.

Thanks all,
Parker

[Doug & Anna-Marie P]

Darn, yeah, I see about the faulty links on the site..
What about phoning around to Marine Type places?? Let the fingers do the walking and not the car with the price of gas....

[Parker Buckley]

Let the fingers do the walking and not the car with the price of gas....

I just checked an RV supply catalog (Brandt Trailer Sales, Dayton Ohio). They have it listed for $21.19. So, one of those for the sink, and the trusty bucket for washing dishes outside (and carrying stuff in while traveling) and we're good to go! I like this covered bucket thing. If we're set up somewhere where we need to take the waste water to a dump station on the other side of the park, it would be easy enough to throw it in the back of the car. I can see myself looking for a new home for the blue tank soon.

Parker

[Donna D.]

Here's my solution. I used it this past weekend. This takes you to a PDF document:
Blue Tote Project

[Tony Nowak]

The sushi joint I drive by has covered 5 gallon buckets from soy sauce that they put out for recycling. There is a hose size knock out for pouring that works perfectly for the garden hose inlet. Worth asking at your local places.
We've never had a problem with this system, but have yet to leave the Midwest.
Tony and Darlene

[james kent]

I picked up a poly 5 gal water jug at a yard sale and painted it silver[might end up white to match trailer]. Don't know how someone else used it so it will never be used for fresh water but it's great to put behind the trailer and catch the grey water which can then be disposed of into a toilet sometime.

[Parker Buckley]

Okay, so I got my "Famous Covered Bucket" and after two outings, I have to report that I've had less than stellar success using it. Our sink has one of the common RV type sink traps (someone posted a picture of one here once, but I can't find it). The sink just won't drain into the thing. I think the sink trap is preventing the collapsable container from venting. I've tried leaving it collapsed so that the drain water could expand it without a vent, but that doesn't work either, because the water just won't go down the tube. (Oh for the simple days when I was ignorant and just used a bucket.) So I'm thinking about putting a tee into the drain line beneath the trap and then running a vent line up behind the sink as high as possible under the counter top. I think there is even a commercial version of this for mobile homes. That way, maybe the tank can get a gulp of air between draining events. A vent right at the tank would be a good solution, but would be hard to install in the plastic. The blue rolling tote avoids all this since it can be vented, but I don't really want to carry that thing along anymore in our 13' Scamp. Any other obvious solutions? Any possibility that something is wrong with the trap unit itself? I see a small thumbscrew on the bottom of it but haven't tried to take it apart. Yet.

Thanks,
Parker

[Nancy]

Parker,

We had trouble getting our water to drain into our not sealed container (hose is smaller than the neck). We cut our garden hose shorter and moved the container closer to the outlet. Haven't had trouble since we shortened the hose.

We need to be more legal and should make one like Donna has. If ours tips over it would spill. They didn't arrest us in Oregon though. We picked it up out there at some restaurant. Oil came in it. Donna's is higher than ours and she has a 16. Our 13 sits lower so I'm not sure if we can have one that tall.

Before you give it up try making the hose shorter (when ours didn't work I think the hose was actually on the ground and had to go uphill. I figured with the bottle lower than the sink we would be ok, but we weren't. Now the hose goes right down into the bottle.

Nancy

[Doug & Anna-Marie P]

Oh gee, I still have ours all nicely sealed up.
We didn't use it on our way home from Bandon last year.
Now, I don't have a trailer that I can even go out and try it with!!!!!

It says that "no venting is necessary because there should be no air in the container.. Hose connections must be tight...

SO, I feel bad if I steered you wrong with this thing....cause it sounded like a great solution...
Now, I am anxious to try ours out!!!!! (in May???)

[Parker Buckley]

Oh gee, I still have ours all nicely sealed up.
We didn't use it on our way home from Bandon last year.
Now, I don't have a trailer that I can even go out and try it with!!!!!

It says that "no venting is necessary because there should be no air in the container.. Hose connections must be tight...

SO, I feel bad if I steered you wrong with this thing....cause it sounded like a great solution...
Now, I am anxious to try ours out!!!!! (in May???)

No, I think you steered me to the best solution in the long run. I think the container might open up due to water pressure if it sat further below the sink, but like Nancy mentioned above, the 13' Scamp sits pretty close to the ground, and there is not enough head of water to overcome the stiffness of the container to make it open up. I tried pulling it open in advance, thinking some water might go in before the pressure built up enough to block the water flow, but that didn't work either. I'll probably try a vent on the sink trap next. It would be really easy to make a vented, capped bucket or jerry can to solve the problem, but I really like the idea of this thing being collapsable for transport.

Parker

[Parker Buckley]

Parker,

We had trouble getting our water to drain into our not sealed container (hose is smaller than the neck). We cut our garden hose shorter and moved the container closer to the outlet. Haven't had trouble since we shortened the hose.

We need to be more legal and should make one like Donna has. If ours tips over it would spill. They didn't arrest us in Oregon though. We picked it up out there at some restaurant. Oil came in it. Donna's is higher than ours and she has a 16. Our 13 sits lower so I'm not sure if we can have one that tall.

Before you give it up try making the hose shorter (when ours didn't work I think the hose was actually on the ground and had to go uphill. I figured with the bottle lower than the sink we would be ok, but we weren't. Now the hose goes right down into the bottle.

Nancy

Nancy,

We've used the setup you're describing with a very short hose, and it worked great with our trusty bucket. I'm now trying to use a commercial container that is very similar to a collapsable fresh water container like you often see on campsite picnic tables. It makes a fully closed system that is intended to "inflate" as it fills with drain water. Except the pressure backs up and prevents the water from flowing into it, so it never opens out. As soon as I get this vent situation sorted out, I think it will be the best way to go for us. Thanks for your comments!

Parker

[Donna D.]

Would a plastic lid with a built-in vent work? Plastic Lids

[Parker Buckley]

Would a plastic lid with a built-in vent work? Plastic Lids

Donna,

Yep, that would work fine, and is so simple that I'm trying not to think about it. After buying this collapsible container, I'm going to stick with it a little longer. The basic idea is a good one, and it takes up almost no space when packing up. Of course, the bucket can have dual use and be crammed full of things when we load up, so I may end up there before it's over.

Parker

[Pete Dumbleton]

What I do is drill a hole in the cap of a laundry detergent jug (inside pour spout removed) into which the hose loosely fits (not air-tight, but is bug-tight) and it drains fine. I bungee the jug on the frame near the battery.

However, if it tips over it will spill but the hose keeps it steady.

[Nancy]

Sometime I hope to have a gray water tank under the 13 like Joy has. I never got around to calling Scamp to see if they would install it, and what the cost would be. Bet it would be more than the $5 I have invested so far.

Joy described the installation, Fred doesn't remember the conversation, so a call to Scamp is my only option because I'm not into that stuff.

Nancy