Hello all,I am on the hunt for my first TT or fiver. One thing I have found is the huge variation in holding tank sizes. eg.Cross Roads Sunset Trail LiteFresh 40Gray 26Black 26Cross Roads Sunset Trail ReserveFresh 40Black 40Gray 80Obviously a very large Fresh water holding tank is desirable for no hook-ups camping. Beyond that, can you provide insight into what to look for and why. Are the capacities on the above Lite camper too small?Thanks in advance.

Partly it depends on how you want to use it. If you tend to have full hookups its not that big of a deal. If you want to boondock tanks size is very important. Also depends upon how many people in your camper and how water savvy they are. It's easier to add more fresh water than it is to drain tanks. Some places you can get power and water but you have to move to dump tanks, honey wagon or the stinky blue tote. When all is said and done it's our kitchen gray that always fills up first, then the shower gray and last but not least to 2 blacks. Good luckWe have 48 gal fresh, 2 - 40 gal blacks (80 gal) and 2 - 40 gal grays (80 gal)

We just picked up a trailer for wife last Nov, never thought about the fresh water fill before because never had a problem but on this 2013 the fill spout is on right hand side, just aft of the axles. Which puts it under the awning. What a goof ball place for a fill. Try filling it without spilling any water which will make a mud hole later! Aside from that the location of the tanks should be thought about also. Example: I can fill up our fresh water tank and RV tows just about the same. Tank is located just rear of axles. People with large tanks way up front or rear, can use the water weight to add or subtract tongue weight if they wanted. Of course you still need the weight and towing capacity to haul around the water weight. But all things being equal, bigger tanks need less filling and last longer. On the discharge side of things...When our slide is out the handle for the valve is difficult to reach. Like on my hands and knees to get under slide out to the pull handle. A valve pull "helper stick" in the works. Hope this helps.

It really does depend on your camping style.We like having a large FW tank. Ours is 80 gallons. But I'd sure like a larger GW tank since ours is only 32 gallons. It usually fills up first. It takes quite a while to fill the BW tank. We manage our tanks by washing dishes in a dishpan, and then dumping that in the BW tank. Extra soapy water in the BW tank is usually a good thing to help break up solids.That said, after having the large FW tank, I don't think I could go back to a 40 gallon FW tank again.

For what it is worth: We snow bird and are two weeks at a time at one state parkWe have a 40 gallon black and a 40 gallon gray. The 40 gallon black will be good for two weeks with just my wife using it and me using the parks facility. For one week it is good for both of us.On the gray we both use the parks shower facility and then the last few days use our own shower, and also dump the dish washing into it and it will fill up in just a few days.Lots of time I use the blue boy for carrying the gray so we can take showers in our own bath room.Jack LI would hate to just have a 26 gallon black and gray

path1 wrote:We just picked up a trailer for wife last Nov, never thought about the fresh water fill before because never had a problem but on this 2013 the fill spout is on right hand side, just aft of the axles. Which puts it under the awning. What a goof ball place for a fill. Try filling it without spilling any water which will make a mud hole later! Aside from that the location of the tanks should be thought about also. Example: I can fill up our fresh water tank and RV tows just about the same. Tank is located just rear of axles. People with large tanks way up front or rear, can use the water weight to add or subtract tongue weight if they wanted. Of course you still need the weight and towing capacity to haul around the water weight. But all things being equal, bigger tanks need less filling and last longer. On the discharge side of things...When our slide is out the handle for the valve is difficult to reach. Like on my hands and knees to get under slide out to the pull handle. A valve pull "helper stick" in the works. Hope this helps.If you spill any water filling won't the mud hole be dry by the time you get home from camping?

Holding Tanks Size, what to look for? | Good Sam Community

33 Replies

dewey02
Explorer II
Jan 26, 2015
It really does depend on your camping style.
We like having a large FW tank. Ours is 80 gallons. But I'd sure like a larger GW tank since ours is only 32 gallons. It usually fills up first. It takes quite a while to fill the BW tank. We manage our tanks by washing dishes in a dishpan, and then dumping that in the BW tank. Extra soapy water in the BW tank is usually a good thing to help break up solids.

That said, after having the large FW tank, I don't think I could go back to a 40 gallon FW tank again.
path1
Explorer
Jan 26, 2015
We just picked up a trailer for wife last Nov, never thought about the fresh water fill before because never had a problem but on this 2013 the fill spout is on right hand side, just aft of the axles. Which puts it under the awning. What a goof ball place for a fill. Try filling it without spilling any water which will make a mud hole later!

Aside from that the location of the tanks should be thought about also. Example: I can fill up our fresh water tank and RV tows just about the same. Tank is located just rear of axles. People with large tanks way up front or rear, can use the water weight to add or subtract tongue weight if they wanted. Of course you still need the weight and towing capacity to haul around the water weight.

But all things being equal, bigger tanks need less filling and last longer.

On the discharge side of things...When our slide is out the handle for the valve is difficult to reach. Like on my hands and knees to get under slide out to the pull handle. A valve pull "helper stick" in the works.

Hope this helps.
mdamerell
Explorer
Jan 26, 2015
Partly it depends on how you want to use it. If you tend to have full hookups its not that big of a deal. If you want to boondock tanks size is very important. Also depends upon how many people in your camper and how water savvy they are. It's easier to add more fresh water than it is to drain tanks. Some places you can get power and water but you have to move to dump tanks, honey wagon or the stinky blue tote.

When all is said and done it's our kitchen gray that always fills up first, then the shower gray and last but not least to 2 blacks.

Good luck

We have 48 gal fresh, 2 - 40 gal blacks (80 gal) and 2 - 40 gal grays (80 gal)

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Holding Tanks Size, what to look for?

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