Filling and Dumping while on a trip

we can go 4-6 days without hookups. Then we go to a fhu campground and take care of business.

Most of the Loves truck stops have dump and water stations, I used several last summer and paid $5 each time. Many small towns have free dump stations. If you are on the 2 lane roads they are a good resourse. I always look at any rest stop I am at, many do still have them and I use them when available.

Some city wastewater treatment plants allow RVers to dump, also.

Regarding traveling with full water or black/grey tanks: really, it will not affect your fuel mileage. We boondocked almost 90% of our time the past 16 years and we always traveled with full fresh water. We could last 12 days before having to dump the other tanks.

Most IA rest stops have RV Dump stations and fresh water. I wish more states would do that. Otherwise I know most SPs and private CGs will dump and fill for a small fee.

We do our best to not buy campgrounds if we don't need to, so we stop at Cabela's all the time. Most have a dump and potable water, the only problem is the the staff in the boat department don't usually know that they do have potable water to test run the boat engines. They do all have free ONP.

Matt

larry cad wrote:
After fueling, we typically get a free use of the dump stations located in the RV fueling lane.

That's a nice little tidbit. Thanks for that one!

For convenience, our absolute favorite is Flying J truck stops. We drive a diesel motorhome so we first stop at the truck lane pumps and use our Pilot/Flying J frequent fueler card to authorize the pump. After fueling, we typically get a free use of the dump stations located in the RV fueling lane. All Flying J's have free fresh water as well. If we need it, FJ's also have propane filling stations. After all that is done, we usually park in the RV parking area for the night and most times we have dinner or breakfast in the Denny's restaurant where I receive a 10% discount due to being a military vet. All in all, quick, convenient and about as cheap as it can get. We have been doing this for years. It requires a bit of planning to make sure we know where the FJ's are along our route and then take advantage of them.

I don't like to travel with full tanks but dry camping for 2-4 nights isn't a problem with a bit of conservation.

I've found that starting out with 1/2 tank of FW (75 gal) easily lasts for 3 days/nights without dumping. By that time I'm down to ~20 gallons of FW with the bulk of the usage in the grey tank and perhaps 10 gal or so in the Black. Since both gray and black has a capacity of 75 gallon this is not a problem.

We can go for 5-6 days before needing to dump and refill, so we just stop at a campground with FHU when necessary.