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Old 01-03-2014, 01:05 PM   #1
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New Guy and a question

Hello all,

New guy here and first post. Moving on up from 10 years in a tent, 1 year in a popup to a 2013 264BH that I will be picking up next weekend. I am sure that I will have many questions (as all newbie's do). I am pretty confident that I have a decent handle on everything that I need. (Already have 90% of my gear anyway from the popup).

My question involves my black and gray water capacity. 99% of the time we go out 2 days. With the new unit we plan on many more 3 day outings. We usually just stay at state parks which have water and 30amp service and of course a dump station on the way out. So here are my questions.

1. How much time does it usually take in between showers (I know... wet - turn off shower head - shampoo - turn on and rinse - turn off. wash, etc.) before the next person can get in and have hot water?

2. On average with 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids) how long does your grey and black water tanks last before having to dump?

3. Assuming the grey water will fill up WAY before the black water does, would it serve any purpose to have a xfer pump setup to take some of the gray water out and put it in the black water tank to gain an extra day before having to dump (hope this makes sense).

Thanks to everyone here who has posted and shared so many of your stories, and your help to each other. I run a forum (for Laser engravers) so I understand the importance of members sharing and helping one another.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Old 01-03-2014, 01:25 PM   #2
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Welcome to the forum!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex1961 View Post
Hello all,

New guy here and first post. Moving on up from 10 years in a tent, 1 year in a popup to a 2013 264BH that I will be picking up next weekend. I am sure that I will have many questions (as all newbie's do). I am pretty confident that I have a decent handle on everything that I need. (Already have 90% of my gear anyway from the popup).

My question involves my black and gray water capacity. 99% of the time we go out 2 days. With the new unit we plan on many more 3 day outings. We usually just stay at state parks which have water and 30amp service and of course a dump station on the way out. So here are my questions.

1. How much time does it usually take in between showers (I know... wet - turn off shower head - shampoo - turn on and rinse - turn off. wash, etc.) before the next person can get in and have hot water?

Have not timed it but not very long, especially if you turn on both propane and electric to speed up the process. I can take a "navy shower" which takes very little water but the kids, they use more.


2. On average with 4 people (2 adults and 2 kids) how long does your grey and black water tanks last before having to dump?



Our grey which is 32.5 gls will last a few days with the 5 of us. I`ve never filled the black up yet but our stays are usually 5 days or less.


3. Assuming the grey water will fill up WAY before the black water does, would it serve any purpose to have a xfer pump setup to take some of the gray water out and put it in the black water tank to gain an extra day before having to dump (hope this makes sense).


What most of us do in that situation is drain off the grey tank into a portable tote tank that has wheels and haul it to the dump station using the truck hitch.



Thanks to everyone here who has posted and shared so many of your stories, and your help to each other. I run a forum (for Laser engravers) so I understand the importance of members sharing and helping one another.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Old 01-03-2014, 01:28 PM   #3
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I would suggest a portable tank such as these: http://tweetys.com/portableholdingtanks.aspx. You wouldn't need one as large as the grey water tank, just partially drain the tank and the take the portable to the dump station. A large portable tank can get very heavy when full (about 8 lbs/gallon).
I carry one but never had to use it. Two of us could go 5 days being reasonably careful with a 32 gallon grey water tank. With a 6 gallon water heater we never had an issue with two consecutive showers
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Old 01-03-2014, 01:40 PM   #4
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We have used a portable tank also, which is quite easy to handle.
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Old 01-03-2014, 02:45 PM   #5
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Hey Tex!
We've not had an issue with hot water. The 6 gal propane fired one does a good job. We also have an Oxygenics shower head that I think helps plus, like crabby, we do the navy shower thing.
We get about 3 days on the grey/black tanks (20-ish gal) but we've always stayed at full hook-up sites. If we were sewerless I'd probably lobby pretty hard for using the CG restrooms/showers if they were available. (I don't have a porta-dump)
Not sure about installing a x-fer pump, but think I'd shy away from that.

A thought about the black tank, I always make sure to have some water in the black tank to start with. It was described to me as "building a poop pyramid" to introduce "solids" into an empty tank.

Some of the Arkansas state parks have full hook-up and are nice!
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Old 01-03-2014, 04:03 PM   #6
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Thanks for all your replies. It sounds like we will be ok.. I have thought of the portable tank as well, but figured it would be a pain and it would be easier just to xfer over some of the grey out if we only needed to drain 5 gallons or so.
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Old 01-03-2014, 04:29 PM   #7
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If your black and gray tanks are at the same horizontal height in your leveled trailer and the black tank is emptier than the shower tank and they are all plumbed to the same dump connection, you can fairly easily transfer fluid from your shower tank into your black tank. Attach a twist on valve to the dump outlet. Making sure the twist on valve is closed, open both the black tank valve and the shower valve. Fluid will drain from the shower tank into the black tank until the fluid levels are the same. Obviously when you dump, attach the hose to the twist on valve and then dump. When the dump is finished, remove the twist on valve and rinse it.
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Old 01-03-2014, 04:47 PM   #8
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That sounds like a decent solution. Being inexperienced it may never happen, really just trying to think ahead of the game and prevent any possible issues if we camp for more than a few days.. Thanks again for everyones help...
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Old 01-03-2014, 06:30 PM   #9
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Ladies do a lot of tissue "blotting" after the fact. We have a special bag for such tissue, and throw it away most every day. One would be surprised
the amount of black tank storage that saves.
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Old 01-03-2014, 08:00 PM   #10
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I think I would rather haul the blue boy.
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Old 01-03-2014, 08:21 PM   #11
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I agree I would get a portable tank on wheels, I have one and have only had to use once but glad I had it.
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Old 01-03-2014, 08:55 PM   #12
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We use a thetford tank when we go to State Parks and to me that is one of the best things we bought for camping. It really doesn't take that long to drain and dump. Good investment
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Old 01-03-2014, 09:45 PM   #13
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I have a 24 gallon grey tank and it lasts two days with 2 adults and 2 kids. I have a thetford portable and use it at the state parks anytime longer than two nights. No issues with hot water keeping up with demand.
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Old 01-03-2014, 09:51 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arkhillbilly View Post
Ladies do a lot of tissue "blotting" after the fact. We have a special bag for such tissue, and throw it away most every day. One would be surprised
the amount of black tank storage that saves.
I had 30 gal tanks with my last trailer and could go 3-5 days, with two girls in the house and dumping was clog free! Tissue in the waste basket really works!
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Old 01-03-2014, 11:36 PM   #15
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We use a Barker Tote-a-long to shuttle grey water to the dump station. Super easy, no hassle, takes 10 min max and very worth it to not have to conserve so much. We are family of 5, 32 gal grey last 1.5-2 days. Black last 5+ days easy.
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Old 01-04-2014, 08:17 AM   #16
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I have a 15 gal. Tote that gives me the flexibility to camp most anywhere. If running "blots" appeals, go do it!
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Old 01-04-2014, 08:39 AM   #17
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Tank usage is so variable for everyone. Personally I do not like to use my blue tote. My DW thinks the job looks nasty, so I have her and the kid convinced to be a little conservative with the water usage. We have been out for 5 days and not had any issues with filling our small tanks. But we did us the CG showers on those trips. You use a lot more water than you think doing dishes and washing your hands. It is really easy to turn on the valve and just let the water pour.

In some TTs it is easy to transfer some of the grey water to the black water tank. In our current HTT due to the valve placement I would think it would be a fun job to pull the cap off afterwards as there would be a lot of grey water in the piping. In my parents old Nomad, it was very easy to do as the valves were immediately next to the sewer connection cap and maybe a ½ gallon of water of grey water was captured between the valves.

Personally, I would also recommend not placing toilet tissue down the tank. The tissue breaks down and just hangs on everything. It makes your sensors less reliable; it sticks to the walls of the tank, the piping, and the dreaded flexible sewer hose.

As for blue totes, think about where you will be camping and where they will allow you to dump it. For example we were in Yellowstone last summer. In the NP run CG, only facilities are latrines. What we were told is fill our blue tote, bring it to the latrine and dump it down the toilet. We never needed to do it as we did not fill our tanks to full. But if I had needed to, a large blue tote would have been much harder to man handle into the latrine to dump.
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Old 01-04-2014, 12:05 PM   #18
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Thanks again everyone for your replies. Sounds like we will be okay on everything..
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Old 01-04-2014, 07:55 PM   #19
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Would recommend the portable tank a little expensive but worth it. To save space in our tanks we do a lot of sandwiches that way around not dirtying to many dishes. As far as showers our concerned I am a night time person and the wife is in the morning the kids we do about 10 to 15 minutes apart. Special note the hot water heaters in these campers are set at a 140+ deg. Which is scalding so you need to use a small amount of hot water so please be carfull.
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Old 01-05-2014, 08:31 AM   #20
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We camp with 2 adults and 2 kids (5 and 9 yo). On some trips, we were fine after a 2 night stay, other times we were pretty full but I have yet to buy a transfer tank or go dump early. The kids still have a hard time conserving water and sometimes like to play with the faucets. We also tend to take more showers in the summer when it was really hot.
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