Water
and Boondocking 101
Fresh and not so
fresh.
revised
05/15/08
There are several options
when handling grey and black water.
The old stand by is
the “blue boy”.
All I can say about
it is that it will work, but that it is messy, has limited capacity, and
has to be drug behind the truck to the dump station. Everyone seems to
have one and they are not cheap. So here is a better way to go if
you want to think outside the "Blue Boy".
We purchased a macerator
pump and have a 50 gal. tank rigged up to dump.
The 50 gal tank was
about $120.
It stores in the center
in front of the hitch length wise. See if this would fit for you in front
of your hitch. W 19 H 20 L 38. This even fits with both our black storage
boxes on each side of it. The pdf link for the tank we got... http://www.norwesco.com/PDF/LST2004.PDF
Norwesco
PCO tank part 40664
Updated links => We got our Tank
and parts from www.sprayers.com
And you will need a 2 inch through the
tank fitting NORWESCO TANK FITTINGS ( part number Norfitt 200) at
http://www.sprayers.com/SprayerCat_2007/191-192.pdf
We called them and they will UPS. And then a 2 to 3 inch reducer
from your RV dealer that goes to the gate valve. Which is the RV slider
shut off valve.
We bought our pump from
ABS
Alaskan as a stand alone unit.
Also see RV
SANI-CON for prices etc. They have units with attachments so you don't
have to build them from scratch.
We added a clear curved
3 in. RV connector on the end of the hose, a short section of HEAVY
duty 3 in hose. The pump has good suction and a weak 3 inch hose may
collapse.
A short clear short
1 inch section on the outlet.
We want to see stuff
going in and out to make sure the pump is working.
A quick connect, release
connector to the longer 1 inch heavy duty hose. Which we got at a farm
and market store. Was intended for a farm sprayer.
We have found we can
go two weeks before having to dump gray and black. It takes about two trips
with the 50 gal tank. There are two of us, your volume may differ. We have
been accused of being full of it though!
The 12 volt pump chops up the waste from
the 3 inch hose and pumps it into the smaller hose.
It pumps uphill to the tank in the
back of the pick up just fine. Feed the 1 inch hose into the tank. (below)
We have a quick disconnect on the 1 inch hose.
We store the pump and short attached 3 in
hose in a cheap plastic tool box. No mess no fuss.
You do need a 1 inch hose, a smaller one
will not handle the pressure or volume. Do not use a 3/4 inch garden
hose.
We first found a 1 inch flat fold up type
one (like a smal cheap fire hose) and when hooked up it blew with many
pinhole leakes. So we went with the strong sprayer hose.
On the left bottom
(above) is the 3 inch drain hose connection as in the pic below.
Has a drain pull handle
just like on the 5ers drain system.
The 50 gal. tank goes
between our two black storage tubs when traveling.
And you will need a 2 inch through the
tank fitting NORWESCO TANK FITTINGS ( part number Norfitt 200) at
http://www.sprayers.com/SprayerCat_2007/191-192.pdf
We called them and they will UPS. And then a 2 to 3 inch reducer
from your RV dealer that goes to the gate valve. Which is the RV slider
shut off valve.
Hook up a 3 inch hose to the tank at the dump
site (pull the value handle).
Remember to close the value handle
as you do not want to remove the drain cap with the value open and no hose!
When this tank drains it drains with a huge
wosh! And the best part is watching the faces of the blue
boy users at the dump site as they watch us dump.
Freash Water
We use three old Doctor
Pepper syrup jugs for potable water, 15 gal each, they were free during
the new year 2000 worries.
Only really only need
two of them to transport water once a week. (We got rid of the third one
as we didn't use it.) They are stored in the basement above the 6 AGM batts
in the front compartment.
We have a small pump
to empty them into our our freash water holding tank in the 5er. We found
the freah pump was not needed as we can just siopn from the tanks in the
bed of the truck in the 5 er tank.
Our holding tanks in
the 5er are 80 gal fresh, 50 gal black, 50 gal gray (shower, bathroom sink)
and 30 gal kitchen gray.
We will added fresh
water every week and dump every two weeks.
To balance our tanks
we will take the dish water and poor it down the stool. We could never
fill a 50 gal black water tank as fast as we could the front kitchen
tank (30 gal). Just to balance things out and to add more liquid in the
black tank the better.
So there you have it
"Water and Boondocking 101" Class dismissed.
Any questions raise
your hand.
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