Just got back from first trip. Questions.

Similar to Farm Camp, my wife will wash dishes in a large metal bowl and dump that bowl into the toilet.

yep, you need to be WAY more conservative with your water, if you don't have sewer hookups.

you don't need to use that much water for the toilet flush.
there's just two of us and our black and gray tanks are only 25 gallons each.
it takes us 14 days of continuous camping to even come close to filling our black tank.
we can go 4-5 days before we fill our gray tank, with a shower every other day for both of us.

but we had popups for 17 years and never any hookups, so we are very good at water conservation.
don't let the shower water run continuously. take Navy showers by getting wet, turn off the shower wand, soap up and then rinse off.

You froze up the AC by placing it in low cool. Use the high cool position and adjust with the thermostat. Learn to conserve water, but even conserving you will likely use 8 gals per person per day for normal showering and hand washing etc. You may consider a portable waste tank (blue tank)

This past weekend was our first trip out for the year, and, we need some remedial water saving training! Here's a tip that may help you. It may not depending on the size of your tanks... Anyway this helps us (family of four). Our black and grey tanks are each 32 gallon. We never seem to get the black more than about 1/3 full on a two day weekend outing. But, that grey tank fills up to past 2/3 full in about a day, even with reminders to the two little ones, and mom about being easy on the water usage. I just bought a 5 gallon bucket. I also purchased a 3inch to garden hose adapter for my dump pipe. Then I slowly (slowly) open the grey dump and allow the bucket to fill, closing the grey gate valve around half way so the pipe can drain into the bucket without overflowing.

Then I carry the bucket to a designated grey dump in the campground I'm visiting, or, since my camper has separate entrance into the bathroom, I'll just dump it down the toilet ( carefully). Doing this extends my grey tank capacity, and adds mostly clean, soapy water to the black tank... Plus this cost me about $10 total compared to the expensive totes. It works for us. Your results may vary.

Also. Consider getting a shower head with a shut off so you can do as others have suggested and turn the water off whenever you do not absolutely need to be running it. I do as others have said, rinse, turn off water, lather, turn on water, rinse, done. It's not a long luxury shower, but gets the job done and saves a lot of space in the grey tank for the kids.

(On edit I'm not stowing the kids in the grey tank! ). For the kids use! LOL

Best of luck, happy camping!

Our tanks are both 32gal. Family of 4 can go 2 days if we all shower twice and are moderately conservative in the kitchen. The black tank has gone 5 days and still only half way.

We have had trips that we shower only every other day for mom and dad and every third day for the kids. That stretches things, but we found it just wasn't worth it...that feeling of being fresh when you go to bed is worth the hassle of using the blue tote. Now that we have that, we use it!

CarpFishermanAndWife wrote:
Oh ... forgot to also ask - at nearly every empty CG site we saw, there was some kind of residue (powder?) around where the TT or motorhome tires sit. We assume it was some kind of ant deterrent/killer. Being new to camping, we just brought a can of Raid. What is the powder substance? Thanks!

Probably ant poison to keep the ants from climbing up the tires, but comet (or generic) cleanser will work also. If I see ants, I'll put some around the tires, the jacks, the power cord, the water hose, and anything else that contacts the ground.

Fred

1. I'm going to go with leaving the air conditioner on low cool (low air flow) resulted in the evaporator coil frosting up. Putting it on high cool (more air flow) pulled more warm air through the coil, which melted the frost.
2. Lowering the temperature of humid air results in condensation on cold surfaces. Leaving the door open while the air conditioner is running lets humid air in causing condensation.
3. As mentioned already, take Navy showers. Don't leave water running when washing dishes, etc. Collect dish water in a dish pan and use it to flush the toilet. Use minimal water in toilet - none for #1, minimum for #2.

DW and I mostly dry camp and use only our 32 gallon fresh water tank. We can go for 5-6 days before needing water. We run low on fresh water way before either gray or black tanks fill up.

Oh ... forgot to also ask - at nearly every empty CG site we saw, there was some kind of residue (powder?) around where the TT or motorhome tires sit. We assume it was some kind of ant deterrent/killer. Being new to camping, we just brought a can of Raid. What is the powder substance? Thanks!

Our gray is 42. Our black is 32.

1. I cannot answer
2. Yes, even with the lowere humidity levels in the midwest, we get condensation on in the inside of the windows and frames. I usually run the A/C which helps to take moisture out of the TT but others have small dehumidifiers in their TTs.
3. How large is your grey tank? We have a 32 gal grey tank and our family of 4 usually fills it up in 2 full days while the black (also 32 gal) usually is a 1/2-3/4 in the same time. We try to watch the kid's water usage and take Navy showers (get wet, shut off the water, lather up and rinse off). As for the black tank, we just add 2 galls or so then drop in the chemical tablet. We only add water to the bowl if we need to go #2 as it helps from keeping the bowl from getting nasty. You may want to consider a portable tote if any attempts to lower your usage are unsucessful.