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d3500ram's avatar
d3500ram
Explorer III
Oct 20, 2021

Question about gray water...?

Not trying PO the mod, but rather a real question about gray water practices. To folks who choose to reply, don't be a troll. Mod closed two threads on the topic and I was trying to glean information...

Quoted from one of the threads that got closed is my real question on best practices regarding gray water:

ReneeG wrote:
d3500ram wrote:
Don't some campers not have gray tanks such that they MUST drain onto he ground?

Perhaps not the larger RV's but I believe there are some smaller TCs that do not have a gray tank.


Tent Trailers don't have tanks for gray so they use a hose to the outside and into a bucket.

Aha!
But lemme' ask as I am ignorant in this type of set-up... what is one supposed to do when the bucket is full? I cannot imagine a person putting a bucket of gray in their vehicle to pack out?

Perhaps one can carry it to a latrine, but depending on the distance I can envision a person not going that far to dispose. But many camping spots may not have a latrine.

Even with a bucket as a catch, I am guessing it ends up on the ground anyway???

For those types of RV's that do not have a gray tank (and subsequently use a bucket) what ends up with the retained water?
  • As a somewhat experienced boondocker I can offer a few suggestions. First, you have to manage your gray water before it goes into the tank. We catch the shower water while waiting it to get hot to water the dogs. The excess goes to water the landscape since it is not technically gray water. We catch kitchen sink water while waiting for it to get hot to make coffee or fill canteens for hiking or ATVing. We catch the kitchen sink water while waiting on it to get hot. Lots of happy plants. You are not dumping gray water if you follow these suggestions. You can stretch your gray water tank for several day using this method.
  • Capture the water and dispose of it as the campground/ forestry service dictates. Pretty simple. If you need a container, aquatainers, buckets or waste tote. Never had a problem colecting and dumping the tote with my pup. The sink water does get nasty , as stated above, if everyone dumped that on the ground, no one would be able to/ want to camp there.

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