Hello all,Going camping soon and need to bring a lot of water with us. It'll be used mainly just for showering and flushing, not for drinking or cooking.I was looking at mounting a big tank in the bed of my truck (3/4 ton) and Tractor Supply has a 65 gallon tank for $150. This could work.BUT, if I just use ordinary 5 gallon buckets like you get at Wal-Mart or Home Depot, they run about $5 a piece with lids so I could move 65 gallons with 13 buckets for $65. Much cheaper! So what would you do? Would you just use 5 gal buckets? Or, what do you do now? I'm not exactly sure how much water I'll be taking, probably 100 gallons at the most.Thanks!s10texan

If you buy the big tank, you need a plan for emptying it.H

Why? Most people are capable of getting buy with way less for a weekend or more. How long and how many people are you planning on???

How do you plan to dispose of the waste water?

Just keep in mind that 65 gallons of water will weigh over 550 lbs without factoring in the weight of the container(s).This works big against the payload of your 3/4 ton truck...

The 5 gal buckets work well and they are easily moved around to convenient places and when empty you can stack them inside each other for some space saving.They do take up alot of space unless you can secure them double stacked.

Bringing lots of water? | Good Sam Community

Sport45
Explorer II
Aug 17, 2015
Oops, quoted instead of edited...:o
Sport45
Explorer II
Aug 17, 2015
Sport45 wrote:
s10texan1 wrote:
Black water shouldn't get full... you don't have to use it so long as you bury your waste.

Thanks!

s10texan

You sure about that?

Things to Know Before Visiting...
RV Wastes
Gray and black water must be disposed of only at the dump station at the Malaquite Beach campground. This facility is available free of charge to any park visitor.

Black water has to be dumped. Tent campers might get away with slipping into the dunes and covering up their business. But if you have an RV with a toilet I suspect the expectation is to use it. A group of people slipping into the dunes will mean forgetting about privacy or stepping in each others business.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Aug 17, 2015
Now I have to not only pay attention to dog poop......I have to wonder if it is really dog poop :S
SoundGuy
Explorer
Aug 17, 2015
accsys wrote:
Do you get a good enough seal on the buckets to not lose water during transport? How do you plan to get the water transferred to your RV? Which containers would make that easier and also allow you to run and get more water if necessary? If you are going to use a water pump to get the water into your RV, it would probably be less hassle with the larger tank. If you are manually transferring, it probably doesn't make much difference since you would be filling a smaller container from the large one anyway to pour it in the RV.

Would you ever be in this position of needing added water in the future and which method would be easier for you to store for future use? The large tank would definitely take up more room than 13 nested buckets.

ALL easily solved by using 7 gal Aquatainers - inexpensive, light weight, large screw on main cap and screw on vent cap which both seal completely, cube shaped so they store efficiently, and made of food grade plastic. I've been using a set of 4 for years now, carrying them in the back of my truck where they're readily accessible anytime, sometimes I carry another 4 for grey water disposal but there's no reason at all I couldn't carry 8 or 12 or whatever number I wanted. Normally I just fill them at the campground as needed but early or late in the season when campground facilities may be closed I fill them up at home. At ~ 60 lbs I could lift a full Aquatainer in order to pour water into the trailer's gravity fill but because I transfer water in quantity I instead use a 12 vdc potable water pump to do the job. When not camping the Aquatainers sit on a shelf in my garage whereas I wouldn't have anywhere at all I could store a single large tank.

Fresh Water Transfer - 7 pics
RoyB
Explorer II
Aug 17, 2015
I would most definitely pick up a 12VDC portable water pump if I was going to deal with moving water like that... WALMART or AMAZON has a line of them...

Just drop the hose down into the water and turn the pump ON to transfer water.

I would also pick up a two wheeled folding cart. 5-gallon water totes can get pretty heavy...

Roy Ken
donn0128
Explorer II
Aug 17, 2015
You cant simply drain the gray water on the ground. That is illegal most places. Pooping and peeing on the ground is definitely illegal. So besides potable water you need to figure out how to dispose of waste water.
RoyB
Explorer II
Aug 17, 2015
SOUNDGUY - Thanks for the photos post.. Some great ideas there... I even got a small chuckle out of the GP24 battery boxes being used for the water pump housing. The battery thieves will get a surprise out of that looking for batteries to steal...

Roy Ken
WyoTraveler
Explorer
Aug 17, 2015
RCMAN46 wrote:
How do you plan to dispose of the waste water?

That was what I was thinking. Solve fresh water problem creates a waste water problem.
mikensallyt
Explorer
Aug 17, 2015
Pardon me about the grey water .... Seriously I use mine in our drought stricken yard with no problems. No plants have died and the yard looks great.
amdriven2liv
Explorer
Aug 17, 2015
My father in-law bought a used 5th wheel that a guy had put a big basket/cage on the rear. It was well done when it came to mounting to the frame. Held a lot of weight.

Father in-law found an old 55 gallon drum. Cleaned and sanitized it for water. Mounted it in the basket on the back. Then he spliced into the water line from the trailer tank with a valve. Got some water line and would run it back to the 55Gal drum. Used it first, then used the trailer tank last.

As for the extra grey water issue, he would take 2 5 gal buckets and drain water and pour it down the grey water disposals at the camp ground.

As for extra black water? Rule was, use out house during the day, trailer at night.