Timing tank limits

Seems like it might be a good plan to do a test trip or two beforehand someplace where you can dump tanks at will, even if not a full hookup site. That is a good idea too just from the point of view of getting acquainted with the rig and its systems. A nearby state or corps of engineers park might do the trick very nicely without a huge expenditure of cash--or even camping in your own driveway, especially if your house has a sewer cleanout access within reach of your driveway that you can hook the motorhome up to.

Often the gray water tank tends to fill more rapidly than the black water tank.

You need to download a couple of apps for dumping tanks. Sanidumps and RV Dump Stations.

Flying J has dump and water stations at some of their fuel locations. It's $10 if you drive in off of the street and $3 if you have a Flying J membership.

You should also use Gas Buddy if don't already.

Bill

Sounds like you have pretty much have the whole trip planned out.
One of the above posters mentioned "Navy Showers"? That means wet down, soap up, wash off! This cuts the water useage way down....Remember your hot water only holds 6 gallons, so it goes quick if you keep the water on while showering.
Trying to judge how much your tanks will hold is a tough one to answer as everyone uses water at different speeds.
With four people try checking levels of the tanks every second day while staying in one place for a few days, if you see the levels are filling faster then check every day. It won't take very long to figure when to dump or not!
When moving from one place to another if you use full hookup camp grounds, then be sure to dump your tanks before leaving for the next one.
Relax and don't worry as you are right there to check as often as you want too untill you get it down to a science!
Good Luck and Drive Safe!

Thank you. For the first leg of my trip I will work in 3 day dumps until I get acclimated to real usage. That said what is the best app planning dumps sites? We are going to be hookup free camping in parking lots since we are basically theme park hoping around and playing golf while stopping to Grizzwald a few sites. Is the RV for Dummies worth the read to figure this stuff out or should I take the recommendations of the forum?

Have 30 gallon tanks and we can go about 4 days max, being very conservative
with water. With two children, could vary a lot. Main thing I do is shutting off faucet while doing dishes, brushing teeth, navy showers. IMO
I would try to dump the 3rd day, see if you can stretch another day.. then maybe another day. If toilet burps back at you... oops, time to dump!
Gray water will back up at lowest point, has been shower stall in one of my rv's.

travellandmark wrote:
New guy and am planning a 40 day trip with wife, 10y/o and 6y/o. Either going to buy a used Class A or C around 30 feet so I think the tanks should be about similar. I understand there could be modified and blah blah blah. I am just wondering on average use, with live aboard conditions, but out most of the day. I have my route and destinations, now I just need to start planning logistics. How often should I plan on emptying my tanks and freshening them up? I am sure this is here somewhere. I looked for older posts, but really don't even know what this would be called. The words I was looking up gave me far too broad of a search. And "Phread's poop sheets" didn't go anywhere. I was really looking forward to whatever that was!

What you're asking is an extreme variable, it all depends on how you camp, with/without hookups, if without is there a dump station nearby, have you & your family learned water conservation,(extremely important), also, don't forget, you can always add more water, (by various methods), BUT all that water gets divided between the black & grey tanks. My wife & I can go about 7 days with a little effort.

There's a lot of variables. How often are you going to shower and do dishes? How big are the tanks? Do you take "Navy Showers"? How good are you at conserving water? I camp alone, shower daily and try to keep water usage down and I empty my tanks about once a week. When I camped with my wife, we had to dump the tanks every other day.

we dump about every 7 days on average. We have a large Class A.

we have friends that dump every 4, even though they're huge.