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DrieStone's avatar
DrieStone
Explorer
May 29, 2018

Adding a gray water bypass?

I'm pretty new at this, but I recently bought a slide-in truck camper that has been around the block a few times (originally built in 1994). This camper doesn't have a gray water tank. I chased the pipe(s) from the kitchen sink and bathroom sink to where they join the toilet right before it hits the black water tank.

90% of the time I shouldn't need to use the black water tank for its intended purpose, but I hate to have to spend the time dumping "black water" that isn't really black. I'd like to just hook up the sink drains so that I can divert from the black water and dispose of it separately (but still have the option to dump to the black water tank). Is it enough to just put a diverter valve in there or do I need to do a check valve between my gray water side and black water side?

In the future I might build a gray water tank that sits in the space between the camper and the bed of the truck as well.
  • I've been to campground where the tenters wash themselves and their dishes in the community sink that dumps directly onto the ground. I've also seen people brushing their teeth at the water spigot and spitting toothpaste onto the ground. I don't think a little shower effluent is going to do more harm that that. Of course, most campgrounds prohibit these activities and an open hose spewing water would probably attract attention.

    However, water is your best friend when it comes to keeping the black tank from plugging up. If you're having capacity problems, I'd consider a waste tote instead.

    Tote
  • wildtoad wrote:
    So what do you plan to do with they grey water? If you plan to just let it run to ground, where do you plan to do this?


    Most all actual campgrounds prohibit running "grey" water out on the ground.

    As long as you can be absolutely positively sure that the toilet won't be used for it's intended purpose......just leave the dump valve open. No need for complicated and expensive modifications.
  • So what do you plan to do with they grey water? If you plan to just let it run to ground, where do you plan to do this?