Long term camping

If I am in a park where full bathrooms are available, I will use the park facilities instead of my own if it is convenient. But I'm hardly ever in a park, so there's that.

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Wonder if we are the only ones who try to avoid putting solids down the stool? I think that prevents a bunch of worry and stress. Also, just don't like the idea of living right over human waste.

You aren't the only one but there aren't many of you.:R

Black no

You must have small tanks, but we have found with our bigger tanks that we do dump the gray 2 times in between the black, so black is about every 3rd dump along with gray again. That is with normal showers, dish washing etc. You should let you black tank get at least 3/4 full so that you will have enough force to wash solids and paper out when you dump. Draining it too often may also leave stuff behind that you don't want left in there.

eHoefler wrote:
Gray yes, black NO!

I have heard all sorts of stories about what happens when you leave the black tank open (THe dreaded POOP pyramid) and even helped break one up once.. Ok, I provided a flush wand to break it up. And watched.


Ever see an ad in a RV store or magazine that shows the STINKY RV.. One that smells so bad others avoid it?

Well I've seen it only in real life. 2 or 3 times.. Once it was not an RV

First story: Co-workers were bitching about odor in men's room (Sewer odor) I dumped about a quart of water in each of the dried out floor drains re-establishing the water trap and ... odor gone in 1 hour.


The RV stories. Gray valve was open. Closed it and Odor gone within the hour.

Chemical companies want you to spend $$$$$$$$ on useless chemicals that have no benefit.. All you need is to CLOSE THE STINKING VALVES.

IMHO NO for BLACK AND GREY!. Why, with the tanks open there is NO p trap between the sewage system and the trailer. so.... no there is a open path between the sewage and smell.

Seen this happen a few times when someone had the grey open and they and other complained about sewer smell. It was most noticeable of course around one trailer. First question. is your grey dump valve open? Yes.... well close it and yup smell went away.

Sam4msu : Thanks for the advice. Makes perfect sense. It is the grey tank that I have been having to dump every couple of days, I’ve just been dumping the black when I dump the grey for convenience sake.

It's best not to dump the black tank until it's 2/3 full so the contents can flow out fast and freeley

After a couple of bouts fighting sewer flies, I don't leave any waste valves open, don't leave a hose connected. I treat the connection at a full hookup site as a visit to the dump station.

I've noticed that our former RV, a small 5th wheel, the tanks seemed to drain slowly compared to our Class C Itasca. You can hear the contents whoosh out with reassuring speed. That seems important. The floor of the tanks must have much more slope.

Sam4msu wrote:
I’m camping long term, will probably be here several months. I find I am dumping my tanks about every 2-3 Days. Is it okay to just leave my black and grey valves open so they constantly dump or should I continue to dump every couple of days?

No and no on leaving either the black or gray tank valves open.

Are you by your self?
When I am camping with no sewer hook up I can go weeks before having to break camp to dump the black.

Check to see where your bathroom sink dumps into. On many RV's the bathroom sink water dumps into the black which makes it fill up real fast.

Brushing teeth and washing hands in that sink puts more water down the drain into the black tank than you think. Before I knew this I 'too' was dumping every couple of days.

When I found this out I stopped using the bathroom sink which increased my time between dumps by a whole week!!